Horror-themed submarine video game, Iron Lung, saw sales spike amid Titan search, developer says

As interest about the missing Titan submersible grew this week, one horror-themed submarine videogame has seen an increase in sales, according to its developer.

Iron Lung game developer, David Szymanski, tweeted a screenshot of a text file showing an increase in the amount of units sold between Monday and Tuesday, with an apparent sharp incline in sales Tuesday.

The post was captioned with “This feels so wrong.”

The source of Szymanski's information was not immediately clear, nor was there any comparison to prior days.

“I definitely see the dark humor in this whole Titanic sub thing, it's just... like, I made Iron Lung the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knowing real people are in that situation right now is pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions … Like all the jokes I've been seeing are hilarious but also good lord nobody should have to die like that,,” he tweeted 25 minutes later.

After USA TODAY reached out for comment on Thursday, Szymanski later tweeted a meme of a man dabbing his eyes with dollar bills, saying the image flooded his replies during media coverage of Szymanski being "uncomfortable" with the sales spike.

The Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that debris located near Titanic wreck site came from missing submersible Titan, making it clear that the five passengers on board died from “ catastrophic implosion,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District said.

The debris was found at the bottom of the sea floor about 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage, he said, adding that the victims' families have been notified.

What to know about the Iron Lung game

The short horror game, initially released in March 2022, gives users a chance to “pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon,” according to STEAM, a video game digital distribution service.

“You're the unlucky sap who gets to investigate a mysterious anomaly in an aging submarine cobbled together from rusty space station parts known as a Blood Ocean discovered on an otherwise barren moon. Initial scans show a collection of potentially useful anomalous locations in a deep undersea trench that require further investigation.”

The immersive experience set in a “one-man submarine” has players take photographs of key locations as they navigate an ocean of blood with an incomplete map, proximity sensors, sound and a primitive external camera to take pictures of key locations before the sub collapses or is discovered by creatures lurking in the deep, according to the STEAM website.

Resourcefulness and patience is needed to be successful in the game, but is intended to be played in under an hour.  The game can be purchased for as little as $7 online.

Out of the 5,968 reviews posted about Iron Lung, more than a dozen users who have played the game recently have drawn insensitive comparisons to the OceanGate submersible.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iron Lung video game sales spiked with TItan search: David Szymanski