Based on Their Hometown: Bloober Team Turns Nowa Huta Into a Brutal Christmas‑Eve Horror in Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn is Bloober Team’s new sci-fi survival horror set in a fictional Polish city called New Dawn, and the studio drew heavy inspiration from the real industrial district of Nowa Huta. The game is available on consoles and Windows PC, and lead writer Grzegorz Like says the setting, visuals and a strange suited protagonist drove the team’s creative choices.

• Bloober Team based New Dawn on the Polish district Nowa Huta (“New Steelworks”).
• The game places a suit‑wearing Traveler in a quarantined city on Christmas Eve, 1981.
• Developers aimed for a cassette futurism look and intentionally used blocky, concrete architecture.
• Combat is intentionally difficult; the designers describe fights as tactical puzzles.

Setting rooted in Nowa Huta

Bloober Team used Nowa Huta as the reference point for New Dawn because many team members grew up there, and the district’s steelworks culture shaped the game’s central locations. In Polish, Nowa Huta translates to “New Steelworks”, and the city’s history informed both environment and story.

Like recalled the emotional connection to the place. “At Bloober Team, at some point, we became experts of putting Poland into everything,” he said, and he pushed for a fictionalized version of his hometown to appear in the game.

Visual direction and the suited Traveler

The project began with a visual: a strange, collar‑less Dive Suit that looks like a cross between an astronaut and a diver. Like explained, “It started with the vision of this weird suited astronaut, a diver even, in an environment that is absolutely awkward for being in a spacesuit.”

Consequently, the team leaned into cassette futurism and concrete block housing. As Like put it, “To see a suited astronaut in a blockhouse, that felt weird, and we don’t only like weird, but weird is good for inspiration, and we like our games to be appealing in an aesthetical way. Also, it really fuels the writing. So, we figured that if we put our characters into real places, why not use Nowa Huta?”

Gameplay and difficulty

Bloober Team describes Cronos’ survival mechanics as brutal, and the studio intentionally made combat demanding so players must prepare and plan. Like said his initial reaction to the difficulty was shock: “Shit, how challenging, exactly?” And they said, “I don’t know, do you play Dark Souls?”

He added that the game rewards preparation. “The fight starts before the fight. So if you’re prepared, if you know your environment, if you have everything crafted and your guns reloaded, every kind of fight you have later on, it’s more of a puzzle [than a combat encounter], but it’s an action puzzle.”

For players worried about the challenge, Like suggested a roleplay approach. “My advice, if you think that the challenge is too big for you, well, roleplay,” he said. “Because the Travelers are awesome, and they wouldn’t falter. So if I roleplay, it’s all fine. It’s cool. I’m a Polish Mandalorian, and it works.”

Historical touchstones and the Christmas Eve setting

The game takes place on Christmas Eve, 1981, and Bloober Team connected that date to both isolation and real Polish history. Like said the holiday angle was chosen partly because of the emotional weight of wanting to gather with family while gatherings are restricted. “We always wanted to write a Christmas story.”

Moreover, the game draws on the period’s political climate. In 1981, Poland experienced martial law and restrictions on gatherings. Like framed the game’s premise around an alternate question: “What if martial law wasn’t imposed because people were getting together to fight the regime, [what if] it was actually imposed because there was a true danger?” He added that the team wanted to show moments of kindness amid the darkness.

Release and availability

Cronos: The New Dawn is available now on consoles and Windows PC. The game features translated graffiti and environmental storytelling to convey the city’s mood with few living NPCs.

Nowa Huta today

Like noted that the real Nowa Huta has changed since the 1980s. “Now, Nowa Huta is thriving, and they’re even making games about it!” he said, reflecting the studio’s connection to the place they used as inspiration.