In August this year we were introduced to My Friend, the Wickhorn, a new horror game from Dragon Key Studio from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s a tense psychological adventure that takes us to a lonely mountain cabin in the middle of a forest in the dead of night. Together with Vincent the cat, we’ll have to face a mysterious curse, escape with our lives and make our way back to civilization. You can now experience this night of terror first-hand, as the Steam demo for My Friend, the Wickhorn has officially arrived!

Shortly after the first announcement, we got in touch with creative director Edin Mustafić of Dragon Key Studio, who told us more about the place of the horror genre in indie waters, the inspirations and gameplay behind My Friend, the Wickhorn, and the state of the game dev scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Edin has been making games for four years, working on titles for PC and mobile. After Dragon Key Studio was founded, he joined the team as lead developer, game designer and creative director.

In your opinion, what are the key elements that make a game scary? How did you implement them in My Friend, the Wickhorn?

Edin: For me, it’s an eerie setting, immersive sound design, well-timed jumpscares and a balance between situations that seem normal and ones where the player is clearly in danger. All of these make the player feel vulnerable in an unfamiliar environment, and that’s when their imagination starts working in the game’s favor. The way we implemented these elements in My Friend, the Wickhorn was by placing the player in an isolated setting and circumstances that should feel perfectly normal, creating a false sense of security before the real horror starts to unfold.

Horror is one of the most widespread and popular genres today, and it has been thriving in indie waters for years. With that in mind, how hard is it to scare players in 2026?

Edin: There are definitely more and more horror games coming out, but in conversations with the streamers who voiced characters in the game, I found that there’s always demand for short indie horror games. I think the key is to pull players deep enough into the story that they start to feel like they’re really in the protagonist’s shoes. If a game manages that, scaring them becomes a fairly easy and fun job.

You mentioned the game was heavily inspired by a true event. Can you tell us what happened?

Edin: Yes! The game was inspired by my birthday party, which we held at my parents’ weekend cabin. Around midnight all my friends left, and I stayed behind to clean up and spend the night there. At around 4 a.m. nature called, and on my way to the bathroom I snapped an interesting photo. At that point I was finishing our first game, Don’t Blink, and when I saw that snowy path leading into the darkness, I immediately knew I had to bring it into our next game!

The cat is a very interesting and unique companion for this type of game. Tell us how it fits into the overall gameplay.

Edin: At first, the cat is just a cute element you can feed and pet. Later on, however, it becomes very important to the gameplay, as it guides the player through the dark forest to places that are key to the final escape from the mountain.

You’ve been working and creating in the video game industry for four years. How would you rate the game dev scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the start of your career, and today?

Edin: The game dev scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina is full of creative people with really good ideas. However, they’re mostly solo developers or micro studios of 2-5 people who are very poorly connected with each other. Unfortunately, we still don’t have an official community like Serbia does. That’s definitely something we want to work on, and following the example of the SGA, build a community where we all stick together and help each other.

Support Dragon Key Studio and add My Friend, the Wickhorn to your Steam wishlist. The game is planned for Q1 2027 and will be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store. You can try it right now via the Steam demo.

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