As of this writing, Black State’s reveal trailer has 551,722 views. Combined with other videos on the platform, the view count for the game goes over a million.
Black State has also caught the attention of the creator of the one and only, Hideo Kojima, who reposted the reveal trailer on Twitter.
However, this attention and excitement for the game were met with skepticism, as the game looked too good to be real, and many people said, “It’s just a tech demo.”
I have researched everything I can about Black State, and I’m here to answer your questions about whether the game is, in fact, real, playable, and worth the hype.
Who is making the Black State?
Black State is being developed by the Turkish game company Motion Blur Studio. If you check out their site, you will realize that Black State is their current and only product, which is a fact that can fuel the skepticism around the game.
In a world where a scam game like “The Day Before” exists, it’s understandable that players are cautious against video games that look incredible but may not play as they seem.
The good news is that Motion Blur Studio’s General Manager, Kadir Demirden, has 20 years of experience in the game industry. As an early adopter of Unreal Engine 5 for Black State, he and his team have been working on the game for 3+ years, polishing and refining everything the game engine has to offer.
But what are the other games that the team has worked on?
Kabus 22 (“Kabus” means “Nightmare in Turkish”), the first-ever Turkish game published globally, was actually made by Motion Blur Studios. When the game was released, the studio was called “Son Işık” (The Last Light).
Kadir Demirden, along with his two brothers, Yakup and Yasin Demirden, are three individuals who are obsessed with video game development. In the early 2000s, the three brothers started their game development journey with an advertising game for a pharmaceutical company to promote a drug.
The game was called SR-Man, an FPS game inside human veins where players had to shoot down different enemies and clear their path.
After SR-Man, the three brothers wanted to make a real game inspired by the Resident Evil series. Hence, they started prototyping and putting up scenes in a game engine called 3D GameStudio, which was pretty much the only choice for the team back in 2002.
Kabus 22’s development story deserves its own time, so much so that a book about it can be published. Long story short, the team behind Kabus 22 finished their game after 4 years of development, and the game was released in 2006.
Although the game has barely made any money for the team, they have achieved great critical success, as Kabus 22 is regarded as one of the best Turkish games ever.
I have to point out that the Turkish game development scene was nonexistent in the early 2000s, and even in 2024, other than a couple of studios, Turkiye is still very new to PC and Console game development.
Luckily, the country thrives in mobile game development, and many developers have started jumping into the PC and Console scene.
If you want to know more about Kabus 22 and its development story, a YouTuber named eurothug4000 made an excellent video about it, and I highly recommend you to watch it.
After Kabus 22, Yasin and Yakup Demirden left the company, and Kadir Demirden took over the studio’s ownership. Kabus 22 came out in European countries between 2007 and 2008.
Motion Blur Studios stopped developing games for a time, and Kadir Demirden focused on improving himself with different game engines, thinking about what he could do in the future. From 2008 to 2013, Motion Blur Studio did not release any official titles.
The studio published a mobile game called “Space Cake” in 2014, but it is currently not available on any platforms.
On July 15, 2019, Kadir Demirden appeared on a Turkish YouTube channel called Lorem Ipsum. Over time, he and his team have shared the development history of Kabus 22, his experiences in game development for aspiring game developers, and, lately, the latest updates for the Black State on this channel.
It is both concerning and unheard of for a video game studio to be around for 20 years but only to release two video games within that period.
The good news is, for the last 6 years, Ömer Faruk Güngör, Studio Director of Motion Blur Studio, has been recording background footage about what’s been happening behind closed doors. In an interview with Dream Warrior, another Turkish YouTube channel from Turkiye, Ömer has said the footage he has now surpassed 10 terabytes.
Once Black State is released, they have plans about the history of the development of Black State and everything else.
Development History of Black State
Black State initially began its development in Unreal Engine 4. However, 2 years ago (2022), the team made the decision to transition to Unreal Engine 5.
This transition was prompted by Epic’s announcement that they would soon discontinue support for Unreal Engine 4. The team opted to transition to the latest engine version to avoid potential compatibility issues and ensure the project could continue smoothly.
Development stage in 2022
Switching to Unreal Engine 5 brought some immediate technical challenges. One of the significant changes was the update to the physics engine. Unreal Engine 5 replaced Nvidia PhysX with the Chaos Physics Engine, requiring the Black State team to rebuild their physics interactions from scratch.
Another issue arose from Unreal Engine 5’s removal of tessellation support for terrains, a change aimed at encouraging developers to utilize Nanite, Unreal Engine’s new virtualized geometry technology.
Nanite also requires the use of the Lumen lighting system, a fully dynamic global illumination and reflection system.
Adopting these new technologies demanded a rework of the project’s visual pipeline, as the team had to adapt their approach to meet the capabilities of both Nanite and Lumen.
Despite these and many more setbacks and problems, Kadir Demirden says there are a lot of positives to switching to UE5. Switching to the new version of the engine allows the team to make a true “next-gen” game, which is evident in the footage we have seen so far.
Demirden also highlights how UE5 is light years ahead of the current systems (back when he said these words, the most common graphics cards were GTX 1050 and GTX 1660), and they realize the importance of optimization.
As of September 2024, the most common graphics cards for PC users are RTX 3060 and RTX 4060, according to Steam.
The Adoption of Xsens Full Body Motion Capture Technology
Among gamers, Motion Capture is a well-known technology used in movies and video games in the industry.
However, in Turkiye, no one had any experience with using the actual technology. Motion Blur Studio found itself in a similar position, with no local experts to consult on how it all worked.
After thoroughly researching various motion capture solutions, the team chose Xsens. As Demirden describes, Xsens is considered the best choice on the market for a price-performance ratio, making it ideal for an indie-sized team aiming for AAA quality.
The suit is simple to operate: just put it on, perform the required actions, and capture the final recording, ready to import directly into the game. This technology gave the team a new level of freedom, allowing them to record scenes without needing a large studio space or extensive camera equipment.
Once they secured the technology, the team faced another challenge — there were no professional motion capture artists in Turkiye.
Initially, various team members tried their hand at using the MoCap suit, but the recordings fell short of the required quality.
As a solution, Motion Blur Studio tried to work with a former Turkish army soldier. However, they quickly discovered that performing as a soldier in real life differs greatly from acting like one.
For instance, during a “taking cover” sequence, he moved too quickly and exposed only the top of his head — a realistic tactic but visually awkward and out of place for video game aesthetics.
Creating effective motion capture demands a blend of technical animation knowledge and an understanding of how to portray a soldier’s movements believably and dramatically.
Kadir Demirden gives an excellent example:
It’s like comparing a choreographed movie fight to a real brawl; a raw street fight may look chaotic and unpleasant on screen, whereas a staged fight is crafted for visual impact and flow. The same principle applies to motion capture: movements need to be stylized and full of character.
Finally, the team found their solution in Murat Kazgan, a professional MMA fighter from Turkiye. His unique experience allowed him to capture the dynamic, visually engaging movements that the game needed. Kazgan brought the necessary blend of realism and artistry to the MoCap scenes.
Black State Announcement Trailer and Aftermath
As the development of Black State becoming more real and challenging each day, Motion Blur Studios has had to reduce the frequency of updates on their YouTube channel. The team attended GDC 2023 and 2024, stating the importance of doing business meetings with industry professionals. Of course, back then nobody knew Black State existed.
On July 7, 2024, Motion Blur Studio announced the date for Black State’s global reveal trailer, which premiered on IGN’s channels worldwide on July 10, 2024.
The VLOG mentioned that the Game Design Document (GDD), is nearly 500 pages long — a testament to the team’s years of work.
Rather than sharing early, unfinished glimpses, the team chose to wait until they had a playable version of the game. This decision reflects not only their dedication to quality but also their broader ambition: to make a meaningful impact on the Turkish gaming industry.
Beyond the popular Mount & Blade series, no other game from Turkiye has reached even “Double-A” production standards. Motion Blur Studios aims to shift this perception and set a new benchmark for the Turkish gaming scene with Black State, aspiring to elevate industry standards and inspire future development within Turkiye.
Trailer reception
The reveal trailer, along with an interview on IGN, revealed new details about the game’s story, inspirations, and how an indie sized team (36 to be exact) could produce a game of AAA quality.
4 days after the trailer, the team made a new VLOG, thanking fans for the feedback.
Kadir Demirden said, “This is just the tip of the iceberg” for the trailer, and players have a ton of new things to see in the future. The overall reception for the trailer was better than the team expected.
IGN’s headline for the game, “Metal Gear meets Portal?”, sparked a huge interest for the game. However, Demirden noted that this comparison led some Metal Gear fans to anticipate a similar experience, which isn’t entirely accurate. While Black State draws inspiration from various sources, the team aims to offer a unique experience, details of which remain under wraps for now.
Gamescom Press Demo and the RTX Trailer
During Gamescom 2024, Motion Blur Studio has released a new trailer for the game, featuring the capabilities of Ray Tracing and other visual improvements they have made to the engine.
This trailer / B-roll footage was actually prepared as an RTX Tech Showcase, open only to the press. However, because the IGN and other press channels were so impressed, they wanted to share it too.
After these channels shared the trailer, the players once again called the game a “tech demo” and not “a real game”. In this case, it was true because the build was made specifically to showcase the technological advances the team has made.
That was the main reason why the player walked through in a completely empty ship, and the overall trailer felt weird from a players perspective. The level was altered and created for to showcase the game’s tech side.
Unreal Engine held a technical interview with Demirden, shining light on how the team used UE5 to it’s limit.
Gameplay Impressions
Despite the alteration, the level was playable, and many outlets had chance to experience the game.
IGN and Digital Foundry both shared their opinions on their platforms.
The IGN review states:
Even with ray tracing turned on the framerate rarely dips below 60, and the demo hits a steady 140 fps during non-combat situations on the RTX 4080-based rig I played on.
This isn’t the brand of tactical espionage action its opening cargo ship section initially conjured memories of. In fact, Black State plays much closer to Remedy’s brand of high-octane action than any of Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid entries.
What is Black State’s story about?
The concept of Black Sate has been evolving in Demirden’s mind for over a decade.
Due to technical and somewhat financial limitations, Demirden didn’t think about making Black State after Kabus 22.
The turning point came when Unreal Engine 4 became free, allowing developers like Demirden to pursue ambitious projects with greater realism. Determined to bring Black State to life, he dedicated himself to mastering Unreal Engine, refining his vision along the way.
In 2017, Demirden met Ömer Faruk Güngor, a filmmaker captivated by Demirden’s journey and resilience. Initially interested in documenting Demirden’s life, Güngor was shown the early outline of the Black State — just three pages of the concept’s current version.
This introduction sparked Güngor’s involvement, and he soon joined as the main writer, helping to flesh out the story with his narrative skills and cinematic insight.
The project was initially titled The Door, named after the “door mechanic” that forms a key gameplay feature.
However, after refining the story with Ömer’s input, they changed the title to Black State, a name that better reflects the core themes and depths of the story.
Güngor has revealed that many elements he saw in the early stages back in 2017 have made it into the final game, indicating the project’s strong foundation from the start.
The interview doesn’t go to any more details about the story, but here is the Steam page explanation for the story.
“A former military legend is summoned for a mysterious mission: to rescue a captive scientist and uncover the truth behind a cataclysmic event. The mission, assigned by enigmatic Architects, is shrouded in uncertainty as some doors within the unknown territory lead to unpredictable and perilous destinations. Each door reveals new secrets and challenges, and he must navigate this treacherous landscape, discovering what awaits him behind each threshold, to complete his mission and unveil the hidden truths.”
IGN had a chance to speak with the game’s writer Ömer Faruk Güngör at Gamescom 2024.
Here is another quote from their interview:
Gungor reveals little of Black State’s story but hints at a sci-fi adventure that may deliberately confuse at first, before coming together and bringing its disparate, portal-gated worlds together through a linear storyline.
He cites Inception as a key inspiration and the more I play, the more that rings true. It’s not just the dream-heist masterpiece I’m reminded of, though, but the sci-fi thriller movies of Christopher Nolan in general.
There are hints of Tenet in there, not only through the aesthetic but in the gameplay too — a mix of shooting and close-quarters combat against black-clad commando units.
Black State Release Date
The game doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet.
Is Black State coming to consoles?
Black State is confirmed for Steam, Epic Games, and Geforce Now.
But what about the PS5 and Xbox? Kadir Demirden has openly said they are planning for the consoles, but nothing has been confirmed and put to paper as of now. Different companies came to them for platform exclusivity, but again, nothing is certain as of this writing.
How long is Black State?
Demirden said in an interview that the game will feature a decent amount of playtime that will satisfy players. Considering this statement and the team’s inspirations, my guess is between 8 and 12 hours, but that is pure speculation on my part.
Black State System Requirements
As of this writing, the system requirements for the game have not been announced.