The Titanic sub's disappearance renewed interest in the horror game 'Iron Lung.' Its developer says it's 'surreal' to see his nightmare brought to life.

• The deaths of passengers aboard the Titan sub have drawn attention to the submarine horror game "Iron Lung."
• People are flooding Steam reviews for the game with mentions of the Titan sub.

The search for the Titan submersible, whose five passengers were declared dead Thursday, drew attention to a video game with a similar, deeply horrifying premise: David Szymanski's 2022 game "Iron Lung."

The Titan submersible lost contact with its mothership on Sunday, and on Thursday, the Coast Guard confirmed that it had likely imploded and its five passengers were presumed dead. The bleak situation, which played out over the course of several days, drew eyes worldwide.

"Iron Lung," which will be adapted into a film by the creator and online personality Markiplier, takes place in a extremely small submersible and has a more imaginative premise. Players control a convict who has been sealed within the titular sub, set to explore an ocean of blood for crucial resources needed for humanity's survival. Their chances of survival are slim.

Many of the recent "Iron Lung" reviews on game distribution service Steam reference the Titan sub incident. Some invoke the Logitech F710, the gamepad used for steering the Titan. Others call out the reported $250,000 price tag that passengers paid to board the Titan in an attempt to view the Titanic wreckage.

"Figured I'd see what all the hype was about and get myself trapped in a dinky submarine in the ocean," one review reads. "Only I didn't have $250k to spare so I instead bought Iron Lung."

Szymanski, the developer of "Iron Lung" as well as other titles like the 2018 shooter "Dusk," told Insider that this isn't the first time that the game had suddenly drawn eyes for reasons outside of his control.

"But it's definitely the first time I don't feel particularly happy about it," he said.

Szymanski saw a spike in sales and attention online amid the search for the Titan

Szymanski told Insider that he first noticed "Iron Lung" trending on Twitter on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he said, sales of the game were "up about 200% compared to the previous day" — a significant jump, but not much different than one he would see at the beginning of a Steam sale.

"On the one hand I appreciate the fact that my game is widely known enough to be in peoples' minds when something like this happens, but on the other hand... I mean, like I said on Twitter, this isn't a nightmare I'd ever have wanted to see come to life for anyone," Szymanski told Insider, referencing a previous tweet about the situation.

The premise of "Iron Lung," which Szymanski told Insider was "the most potent submarine-focused nightmare" that he could imagine, is much more fantastical than what's happening to the Titan sub in real life. But to know that it could be rendered when "lots of money mixes with lots of bad decisions" is something that Szymanski said he finds both "surreal and frightening."

The developer told Insider that he thought people were drawn to the Titan's unfortunate plight due to the innate horror of the situation, the haziness of its fate, and the dark comedy of "all the red flags and bad decisions" (plus the $250,000 price tag) that culminated in the disaster. He, too, finds it difficult to navigate the dual horror and humor of the situation, and prior to learning the news that the five passengers were presumed dead, said that he hoped they would be rescued.

"Often the most horrifying things have the same shadows and silhouettes as the most humorous things. So I guess it makes sense when we respond to tragedy with comedy," Szymanski said. "All that being said, I think it's very important to remember that there are real people suffering, not just in this situation but in any dark situation we collectively process with humor."