Game: Dark Pals: The 2nd Floor
Developer: Skunx Games
Genre: Mascot Horror Adventure
Format: DLC sequel to Dark Pals: The 1st Floor
Release: 2027
Platform: PC (Steam)
🦑 Dark Pals: The 2nd Floor is coming in 2027 — a DLC sequel to the mascot horror game whose first chapter has racked up over a billion views across videos, livestreams and social media.
⚖️ A Horror Game Born on YouTube
Dark Pals didn’t come from a traditional studio. It came from YouTube.
Skunx Games founder Winston van Graafeiland is a professional visual artist who started the Horror Skunx channel in 2020, building millions of subscribers with short films and music videos featuring viral 3D-animated characters. Skunx Games is his first studio, and Dark Pals is its first game.
That background makes a lot of sense for mascot horror — a genre that has always lived as much on YouTube and Twitch as on players’ own PCs. Colourful, toy-like characters turned sinister are made to be watched, reacted to, theorised about and clipped.
It also explains the headline number. Over a billion views refers to videos, livestreams and social media content — it’s a measure of how widely people watched Dark Pals, not how many played it. And by that measure, it’s been a phenomenon: the studio says the views came in in just two months.
Take the elevator down
Below the first floor lies a facility abandoned for more than forty years — still full of old Dark Pals equipment, and the remnants of something called “the raid.”
Skunx Games has announced Dark Pals: The 2nd Floor, the next chapter in its mascot horror series, launching as a DLC expansion to Dark Pals: The 1st Floor and aiming for release in 2027.
Going Deeper
After the events of The 1st Floor, you take the elevator down into a destroyed underground facility that’s been abandoned for over forty years. Its halls are littered with old Dark Pals equipment and the remnants of “the raid,” gradually revealing what happened to the facility and the people inside it.
Further in, you’ll meet a mysterious member of D.A.R.K. — and the story starts to reveal more about D.A.R.K., UpWard, and the reason you’ve returned.
🏚️ A Ruined Facility
Forty years abandoned, and full of clues to what happened during “the raid.”
🦑 Inky Returns
Your companion, Inky the squid plush gun, is back for the journey.
👾 New Creatures
Fresh horrors “in typical Dark Pals fashion.”
🍽️ The Devourer
Survive it to find your way toward… the 3rd Floor.
🛗 The Floors Keep Going
Notice where The 2nd Floor points you: toward the 3rd Floor. Skunx is clearly building Dark Pals as a series of chapters, with the bigger mysteries of UpWard and D.A.R.K. still to be unpicked.
That episodic, chapter-by-chapter release model has become a hallmark of mascot horror — it keeps the theories, the videos and the community conversation going between instalments. For a game that’s grown up on YouTube, it’s a natural fit.
“Even More Insane”
“With the popularity of The 1st Floor, over a billion views all over the internet in just two months, we saw a dream come true! We were overwhelmed with hilarious and positive comments. Then we started making The 2nd Floor, and somehow I think we managed to make it even more insane than the first game. We can’t wait to see what people think!”
— Winston van Graafeiland, Founder, Skunx Games
Beyond games, van Graafeiland has extended the brand into Skunx Escape Rooms too — a fitting sideline for a creator whose work is all about being trapped somewhere you’d really rather not be.
When and Where
📅 2027 · DLC for Dark Pals: The 1st Floor · Steam
Dark Pals: The 2nd Floor is in development and aiming for a 2027 release on Steam, as a DLC expansion to Dark Pals: The 1st Floor. No price has been announced. You can wishlist it now, and follow along on the official website and Discord.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
