Little Nightmares III’s producer loves fan “theories about the game”

Little Nightmares III is one of my most anticipated games for 2025, with the series long holding a place in my heart. Little Nightmares stands apart from other horror franchises, such as Resident Evil, because it embraces puzzles, platforming, and horror. It’s a unique blend that swirls together nicely, and that goes for its sequel, too.

Recently, I went hands-on with the third entry, and, if you read my Little Nightmares III preview, you’ll know that Supermassive Games appears to have done a fabulous job of taking over from Tarsier Studios. At the same event where I played the horror game, I had the pleasure of interviewing Little Nightmares III global producer Coralie Feniello.

I took great advantage of having a moment to speak with Feniello, as we got into why now is the time to turn Little Nightmares into a multiplayer game, along with how the team chooses a theme and a look at the characters. She even sheds some light on the rumor of LN3 featuring voice work following the appearance of bad language labels for the upcoming Switch game online.

Of course, I felt that the most obvious place to start was with the co-operative play, especially after I just spent the last two hours completing the Carnival chapter with a partner. If you’re not familiar with the series, multiplayer is new to Little Nightmares III, with the first game being a solo adventure and the second being co-operative through an AI partner only. It turns out that you, the players, are why we now have this exciting feature, as Feniello explains that the team “has been doing surveys with our fans and community, and it showed that the most requested feature was co-op.”

It turns out that this idea was on the cards for some time, with the development team feeling that it “was kind of natural to go that way” after the use of an AI partner in Little Nightmares II. However, the inclusion of multiplayer isn’t here to replace the single-player experience. In fact, the team was very much against removing the feature, allowing you to “play online, co-op, or single-player.”

If you’re keeping up with the latest news and trailers for LN3, you know all about Low and Alone, the two new characters. Many franchises like to return to previous protagonists, but Six isn’t in play here, so I just had to ask about that, with Feniello telling me that “we wanted to tell a new story with new characters and explore a new dynamic between the characters.” However, that’s not to say that you aren’t going to see anything familiar, as Feniello goes on to say that “if you’ve played Little Nightmares I and II, you still see nods and elements that will remind you of the previous games, which will lead you into theories and things.”

Speculation and theories are at the heart of the Little Nightmares universe, and the team behind the series knows that, as keeping this spirit alive is vital to Feniello. “We love the way everyone is doing theories about the game, so that’s something we wanted to keep.” However, she emphasizes that “it was really important for us to focus on new characters and show a bit more about it, because it’s a large universe.” There’s even a podcast going on at the moment, “which is another part of the world,” so the Little Nightmares series really is spreading its wings.

In case you’re not aware, Feniello has a long history with the LN series, working on Little Nightmares II and now serving as the global producer for Little Nightmares III, so I couldn’t help but wonder what it’s like for her to watch the games grow and change. “It was super interesting for me,” Feniello explains. “When I started at Bandai, I think I was a super fan of Little Nightmares, and when they told me it’d be for that, I was thrilled, and being able to be pro on III is just great for me.” Specifically, it seems that the narrative is what Feniello holds most dear in this game, introducing new things to “the story we are telling here.” She assures me that “you haven’t seen everything yet at all” and “I’m really looking forward to everyone seeing the whole story.”
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Not only are there new elements to the story along with the multiplayer aspect, but Little Nightmares III has a new developer, too, with Supermassive Games taking over from Tarsier Studios, the team behind the first two entries. I wanted to know if Supermassive Games was always the studio Bandai envisioned for LN3, but Feniello couldn’t share much beyond it being “a good pick at the end.” If you’re a fan of horror games like Man of Medan and Little Hope, you’ll know that Supermassive has experience in co-operative play, and, as you may or may not be aware of, Bandai Namco is the publisher for the Dark Pictures Anthology, so the company knows of the studio’s multiplayer prowess.

“It was super, super good to be working with them when we decided to do that (multiplayer).” However, as Feniello tells me, there’s more to Supermassive than familiarity with co-operative gameplay, as “they are super passionate about the games. Basically, they’d been taking everything about Little Nightmares I and II and making sure that we do keep consistency, DNA, and things like that.” Bandai and Supermassive have been working closely together on the project, with it being important to Feniello that everyone with prior experience on the series could talk to the newcomers “to help them and see what would fit or not in the universe.”

Unfortunately, if you plan to pick the new Switch game up on your favorite hybrid console, you shouldn’t expect to see anything unique via the Joy-Cons, as the team “didn’t really want it (Little Nightmares III) to change the way to play for any platforms, so we kept the same controls on this one as well.” I say unfortunately, but it’s not disappointing at all, really, as you still get to play a great game, and everyone gets to enjoy the same experience regardless of their console preference.

Another thing I wanted to ask about is themes and how the team determines what to center a Little Nightmares game around. There are some theories online that pollution and waste are pivotal to LN3, but Feniello can’t confirm or deny those, explaining that “we don’t want to tell you too much because I want to let the fans just do theories, and I think it’s super interesting the way we’re working with that.” However, she does divulge that “it’s always a word at the beginning of development” that determines the theme, and that “it can be integrated in several ways.” While I may have asked the question of whether fans are on the right track, I appreciate that we need to wait and experience the whole game for ourselves, rather than having the answer now.

Another thing that’s pretty cool about LN3 is that if you pre-order the game, you get access to Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition, which essentially serves as a remaster. You might wonder if LN2 is in line for the same treatment, especially with the recent release of the Switch 2, but Feniello tells me that she “can’t say too much about that,” though she points out that it’s already out on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Finally, I wanted to see if I could get to the bottom of those ‘bad language’ tags numerous fans report seeing online, and the answer is this: “That’s an error from people, and we’ve been removing it.” So, it turns out that those theories about the game featuring voice work amount to nothing after all, and honestly, I’m pleased to hear that, as part of what makes the LN series so special is the lack of voices.

I can’t thank Feniello enough for her time and for giving me a bit of insight into what goes into creating a Little Nightmares game. Don’t forget, the Little Nightmares III release date lands on October 10, so make sure you check out some puzzle games to keep your brain sharp for then.