The Blair Witch Project is arguably a renown cult classic of the 90s, a supernatural horror movie from a series of three feature films that follows the mysterious disappearances of people – far too curious for their own good – who wander into the Black Hills of Burkittsville, Maryland. Now a game studio is currently developing a video game based on the series titled Blair Witch, which is slated to release by the end of next month. This time, however, you’ll follow the footsteps of former police officer Ellis.

To dive deeper into the features of Blair Witch, developer Bloober Team sat down to talk about in-game mechanics and gameplay style. After the completion and success of Layers of Fear 2, they wanted to take on another horror-filled challenge. Despite the trend of time loop mechanics within games, the studio included it in Blair Witch anyway. With that said, it’s not the “Groundhog-Day style” gimmick you may expect. Bloober Team’s Barbara Kciuk elaborates:

As the reveal trailer suggested, Bloober Team’s Blair Witch will also feature time loops. However, without spoiling anything, let me just say that they are not the  Groundhog Day-style loops. They are not there to help you make your situation better in the end. Blair Witch uses them for much more sinister reasons.”

In addition to time loops, Blair Witch will feature combat, giving players a chance to defend themselves as they wander the Black Hills.

“We are convinced that to create a truly horrifying horror experience in a video game you have to make the players feel vulnerable,” Bloober Team’s Maciej Głomb tells Bloody Disgusting. “When introducing new encounter mechanics we don’t really want to change that. What we want to do is to diversify gameplay mechanics. We already experimented with chase and stealth sequences and with Blair Witch we want to try yet another type of combat in which you will be finally able to defend yourself. Having said that we try to design it in such a way that it still feels as you’re a prey not a hunter.”

That sounds simultaneously terrifying and thrilling! With a little more than a month away from its planned release in August, it’s the perfect time to bring lovers of Fall into “spooky” season. What do you think about the inclusion of time loops and combat in the Blair Witch video game? Or does it sound promising? Let us know what you think in the comments section below or start a conversation on Don’t Feed the Gamers Facebook page. To stay up to date on gaming and entertainment news as it happens, follow us on Twitter! Here are some of our latest:

• Gears 5 To Remove All Smoking-Related References
• PlayStation Store Reveals Massive “Retro” Game Sale
• Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Would Love To Add Meryl Streep To The Game

Blair Witch plans a launch date on August 30 for Xbox One and PC.