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Tymon Smektala, who spent 13 years at Techland as a franchise director closely associated with Dying Light, has joined Bloober Team’s Broken Mirror Games publishing label. His brief is to help turn the label into a destination for distinctive horror made with outside development partners.
The “next Kojima” wording in the headline describes the scale of the ambition, not a quoted job description or a claim that Smektala is pursuing Hideo Kojima specifically. Smektala’s stated goal is to make Bloober the first company audiences think of when they think about horror games.
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Dying Light 2 Stay Human - PlayStation 5 | $25.51 | Buy on Amazon |
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Dying Light - Xbox One (Renewed) | $15.93 | Buy on Amazon |
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Dying Light - PlayStation 4 (Renewed) | $31.98 | Buy on Amazon |
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Dying Light: The Following - Enhanced Edition - PlayStation 4 | $24.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Dying Light - Xbox One | $25.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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What Smektala is doing at Broken Mirror Games
The Game Business reported on October 1, 2026, that Smektala joined Broken Mirror Games, Bloober Team’s label for working with external developers on unusual horror projects. His previous role at Techland centered primarily on the Dying Light series, giving him long experience guiding a major horror-action franchise from the publisher and franchise-owner side.
Smektala said he wants to “build this platform” so that Bloober Team becomes the first company people associate with horror games. That makes the appointment broader than a single production role: he is helping shape which projects the label selects, how it presents them and what audiences should expect when they see its logo.
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Why the “next Kojima” comparison needs context
The supplied headline’s reference to “the next Kojima” is shorthand for an ambition to discover a standout creative voice. Smektala did not say that phrase in the reported comments, and there is no announced plan involving Kojima. His documented comparison was to surprise successes in independent film, including Backrooms and Obsession: projects that attract attention because their ideas feel distinctive rather than because they follow the safest established formula.
He wants players to see the Broken Mirror logo at an event and anticipate a scary, entertaining and unusual game. That positioning leaves room for different horror subgenres and production scales, provided the concept is strong enough to justify backing.
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- At night, the world undergoes a deadly transformation: the hunter becomes the hunted as the infected grow more aggressive and numerous, and something far more sinister awakens to stalk its prey
- Free Running Movement – Whether tracking prey or escaping predators, Dying Light lets players swiftly navigate the world by seamlessly leaping between buildings, grappling up walls and pouncing on unsuspecting enemies
- Dying Light is set in a vast open world, delivering expansive and varied environments, a wide variety of enemy classes and a hopeless tale of survival where resources are scarce and the infected are not the only threat
- Get up-close using a variety of light and heavy weapons including knives, bats, axes, sledgehammers and more exotic weaponry or utilize guns and other firepower to take down enemies from a distance
- Why use a wrench when you can use a wrench wrapped in electrified barb wire Dying Light's sizeable crafting system enables players to create a slew of new, more potent weapons and equipment, as well as specialized ammunition
What is in Bloober Team’s pipeline?
Bloober Team has seven projects in development across the company. Two are being made by the main studio, while five sit under Broken Mirror Games. The label’s publicly named projects include the licensed title Saw: Genesis and Onyx: The Dark Grip.
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Onyx: The Dark Grip has been announced as a Switch 2 exclusive. The reported reason for that platform focus is its touchscreen requirement: the game is designed to be played in handheld mode, so its interaction model depends on the console’s built-in touch display. No release date, price or additional platform has been established in the available announcement.
Rank #3
- At night, the world undergoes a deadly transformation: the hunter becomes the hunted as the infected grow more aggressive and numerous, and something far more sinister awakens to stalk its prey
- Free Running Movement – Whether tracking prey or escaping predators, Dying Light lets players swiftly navigate the world by seamlessly leaping between buildings, grappling up walls and pouncing on unsuspecting enemies
- Dying Light is set in a vast open world, delivering expansive and varied environments, a wide variety of enemy classes and a hopeless tale of survival where resources are scarce and the infected are not the only threat
- Get up-close using a variety of light and heavy weapons including knives, bats, axes, sledgehammers and more exotic weaponry or utilize guns and other firepower to take down enemies from a distance
- Why use a wrench when you can use a wrench wrapped in electrified barb wire Dying Light's sizeable crafting system enables players to create a slew of new, more potent weapons and equipment, as well as specialized ammunition
Saw: Genesis
Saw: Genesis is a licensed project in the Broken Mirror slate. The available information identifies the game and label but does not establish a launch window, price or complete platform list.
How Broken Mirror differs from Bloober’s main studio
| Area | Bloober Team main studio | Broken Mirror Games |
|---|---|---|
| Development ownership | Projects made by Bloober’s internal teams. | Projects developed with external partner studios selected by the label. |
| Current project count | Two of Bloober’s seven projects in development. | Five of the seven projects in development. |
| Budget model | Not stated in the reported material. | Budgets may be smaller than main-studio games, but there is no fixed maximum. |
| Creative focus | Bloober’s internally developed horror work. | Distinctive, surprising horror concepts from outside teams, including licensed and experimental projects. |
| Scale and platforms | Not specified for the full slate. | Flexible: projects can be smaller or reach AAA scale when the business case supports it; Onyx: The Dark Grip is announced for Switch 2 only. |
This is not a separate low-budget tier by definition. CEO Piotr Babieno said Broken Mirror projects may cost less than the main studio’s games, but the label has no fixed top budget. A project can therefore start from a compact concept while still receiving AAA-level investment if its audience, design and production plan warrant it.
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How Broken Mirror chooses projects
Smektala described an idea-first process rather than a preset budget or genre checklist. The label looks for a compelling concept, then seeks a trusted developer with a clear creative vision. Only after those pieces are in place does the team build the business case.
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- Find the idea: identify a horror concept that is immediately distinctive and capable of surprising players.
- Match the developer: work with an external studio that has the skills and a clearly defined vision for executing it.
- Build the business case: determine the appropriate budget, production plan and commercial scope around that specific project.
- Set the scale: keep the project compact when that is right for the idea, or support AAA production when the circumstances justify it.
This model also explains why the label’s final slate may not share one visual style or one narrow horror subgenre. The common thread is the strength and originality of each proposal, not a predetermined production size.
Best Value
- At night, the world undergoes a deadly transformation: the hunter becomes the hunted as the infected grow more aggressive and numerous, and something far more sinister awakens to stalk its prey
- Free Running Movement – Whether tracking prey or escaping predators, Dying Light lets players swiftly navigate the world by seamlessly leaping between buildings, grappling up walls and pouncing on unsuspecting enemies
- Dying Light is set in a vast open world, delivering expansive and varied environments, a wide variety of enemy classes and a hopeless tale of survival where resources are scarce and the infected are not the only threat
- Get up-close using a variety of light and heavy weapons including knives, bats, axes, sledgehammers and more exotic weaponry or utilize guns and other firepower to take down enemies from a distance
- Why use a wrench when you can use a wrench wrapped in electrified barb wire Dying Light's sizeable crafting system enables players to create a slew of new, more potent weapons and equipment, as well as specialized ammunition
What this means for players
- Broken Mirror is intended to be a recognizable publishing identity, not simply a one-off imprint for a single game.
- Five projects are currently associated with the label, but only Saw: Genesis and Onyx: The Dark Grip have been named publicly in the available report.
- The label’s external-developer structure could bring ideas from teams that would not otherwise receive Bloober’s backing.
- There is no announced release schedule for the slate, so players should not infer launch dates from the project count.
- Onyx: The Dark Grip’s Switch 2 exclusivity is tied to its touchscreen-based handheld design, according to the report.
The broader significance of Smektala’s move
Smektala leaves behind a long association with one of the industry’s best-known parkour-zombie series to build a portfolio rather than direct one established franchise. For Bloober, the appointment adds a publishing executive with experience in large-scale franchise development while preserving the label’s willingness to back unfamiliar concepts.
If the strategy works, Broken Mirror’s logo could become a signal that a game is intended to be recognizably different, whether it is a licensed horror property such as Saw: Genesis, a touch-focused Switch 2 experiment such as Onyx: The Dark Grip or a yet-unannounced project from an outside studio. The immediate test is not whether the label finds a literal successor to Kojima, but whether its first wave produces the kind of surprising horror games Smektala says he wants audiences to seek out.
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