Iron Lung

About

Iron Lung is a 2022 indie horror video game developed and published by David Szymanski. The player assumes the role of a convict sentenced to explore an ocean of human blood in a midget submarine called the Iron Lung. In April 2022, a short film adaptation of the game starring Markiplier was announced.

History

Video Game

On March 10th, 2022, indie horror video game Iron Lung, developed by David "DuskDev" Szymanski was released on PC (release trailer shown below).^[1]

Gameplay and Features

Iron Lung is set in a postapocalyptic world in which last surviving humans are traversing space in search of a new home for humanity. After the ship discovers a moon with an ocean of human blood on it, the player, a convict, is sent to investigate inside a welded shut submarine equipped with sensors and a camera.

The game has the player explore the ocean of blood inside a claustrophobic submarine, travelling between points of interest on the ocean's floor while avoiding collision.

Reception

Iron Lung was met with positive reviews from players and critics. As of April 2023, the game holds a 93% score on Steam^[2] with over 5,000 submitted reviews.

The game drew interest from popular streamers and YouTubers such as jacksepticeye, Markiplier, Pyrocynical and Jerma985, who posted their playthroughs of the game on YouTube (shown below).

Impact

Film Adaptation

On April 21st, 2021, Deadline^[3] reported that the game will be receiving a horror film adaptation written and directed by YouTuber Markiplier and starring him as the protagonist. On that day, Twitter^[4] account @DiscussingFilm shared the news, with the tweet gaining over 17,400 retweets and 161,800 likes in ten hours. Within several minutes, Markiplier tweeted^[5] the teaser trailer for the film which gained over 748,000 views, 13,300 retweets and 82,700 likes in ten hours (shown below).

The development of the film was previously hinted at by David Szymanski, who on February 15th, 2023, shared full details about it, presenting it as a joke (shown below).^[6]

OceanGate Titanic Submarine Incident

In June 2023, a submersible vehicle Titan carrying five people to the wreck of RMS Titanic was lost and was later discovered destroyed as a result of an implosion. During the period of the search and rescue operation, multiple memes about the incident referencing Iron Lung went viral online (examples shown below).

The incident resulted in Iron Lung trending on Twitter, and a subsequent spike in the game's sales on Steam. On June 21st, 2023, David Szymanski tweeted^[7] a screenshot of Iron Lung sales chart, commenting "This feels so wrong."

Fandom

Online, Iron Lung has been a subject of memes and fan art, primarily on Twitter (examples shown below).

The announcement of the film adaptation in April 2023 was followed with an influx of memes about the development.

Search Interest

External References