Sam Barlow, known for Immortality and Her Story, is developing a new sci-fi horror game titled Precognition with his studio Half Mermaid. The game was officially revealed in August 2026 during the Kinetic Publishing Showcase, accompanied by a detailed Q&A session [1, 2, 3].

Precognition centers on Diana, a former child prodigy with a photographic memory. She receives an experimental brain implant that unexpectedly grants her visions of the future. "The thing that's really neat here is Diana... she has a photographic memory," Barlow said. "They discover a side effect of this device is that people start receiving memories of the future" [1].

Players watch and selectively "commit to memory" moments from these future visions, which triggers butterfly effects altering Diana's fate and the game's outcome [1, 2, 3]. The gameplay style continues Barlow's established approach of investigating video clips and footage, emphasizing mystery and player agency similar to his previous FMV titles Immortality and Her Story [1, 2, 3].

The story and game's development involve horror filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg. He co-developed and co-wrote Precognition with Barlow. Cronenberg explained, "The films I make tend to be subjective and experiential... The games that Sam and the team have made are subjective experiences by their very nature — no two people will have the same experience with them. So it’s the perfect place to explore these themes further" [3].

Barlow said the game explores "really terrible things that are just around the corner," continuing a horror theme from Immortality but now focused on "five minutes in the future" sci-fi horror. "Once we had floated the idea for Precognition, we knew we wanted to tell this story," he added [2].

Precognition will be published by a new label launched by Kinetic, the studio behind the hit Phasmophobia [1, 2, 3]. The release is planned for spring 2028 [1, 3].

Barlow initially teased the project in 2024 under the codename Project C, before the full reveal this month [3].