The Making of DARE SEED

Dark Seed is a game as infamous for its difficulty as it is famous for its licensed use of the art of HR Giger. At the same time as stumbling over just about every pitfall of Nineties adventure game design, it’s memorable for its dark story, atmosphere and that intro which shows the protagonist having his forehead pulled open before an alien embryo gets planted inside.

Founded in 1990, game developer Cyberdreams would become renowned for attracting big-name talent, but often struggling to coagulate it into cohesive final products. Its games were deeply flawed but always fascinating, and nowhere is that tension more palpable than in its first game, Dark Seed.

Designer Michael Cranford, the creator of the first two games, was a big name in the fledgling PC games industry at the turn of the Nineties, but was taking some time off to focus on his PhD in social ethics. He was brought on as a designer for before it had any kind of structure. “All I knew was that it was going to revolve around Giger’s artwork and star this guy Mike Dawson [the game’s co-designer who would