<br><strong>Horror game Iron Lung sales rise amid Titanic submersible search</strong>

The game developers have said 'it feels so wrong'

The OceanGate-owned vessel, Titan, with five people on board, lost communication with tour operators less than two hours into its dive on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman are onboard the vessel.

But since the news of the story first broke, the indie game has seen a dramatic rise in the number of sales - presumably due to the similarities between the game and real-life.

In the game, the player enters a quickly built together submarine - called the Iron Lung - which is shut from the outside.

They are then dropped into the depths of the ocean and are tasked with photographing certain parts of the ocean floor with the caveat being that there are no windows. The only way to see the outside is the still images that flash up on the screen.

Popular streamers Pyrocynical and Markiplier recently played the game, causing the number of sales to rise.

Iron Lung game creator David Szymanski shared the latest sales numbers on Twitter, saying: "I definitely see the dark humour in this whole Titanic sub thing, it's just... like, I made Iron Lung the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knowing real people are in that situation right now is pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions."

He added: "It feels so wrong."

Related links:

• Doctor describes hell Titanic submarine passengers are going through
• News channel slammed for starting Titanic submersible oxygen countdown
• Gaming controller used to pilot lost Titanic submarine has received hundreds of negative reviews online