Category: Horror Game Design
Research Log
The Power of Absence: What an Empty Room Teaches Us About Environmental Storytelling
This week I am thinking about Environmental storytelling in game design and I’m going to start with a seemingly silly question, can a room still feel occupied even when no one is in it? It is, I think, quite normal for game designers to fall into the trap of obsessing over character arcs and scripted…
Research Log
Digital Hauntology: The Forensics of the Digital Ghost
Recently I have been thinking about the concept of Digital Hauntology. Much of my work starts in the same place: a scan of a handmade artefact brought into a digital environment. This is a wonderful way to work; it allows me to create characters by hand that I can give some form of ‘life’ to…
Research Log
The Uncanny Pull of Staircases in Folklore and Fiction
The Uncanny Pull of Staircases in Folklore and Fiction: Have you ever hesitated at the foot of a dark staircase, feeling both drawn in and dread? Staircases hold a strange power in our imagination; they are everyday architecture yet brimming with supernatural lore and uncanny tension. Folklore from around the world acknowledges this with ghostly…
Research Log
The Art and Power of Horror Game Design
Horror game design, I shouldn’t need to tell you, is a craft that takes our everyday reality and transforms it into a landscape of fear. The essence of a great supernatural horror game, I repeat again, isn’t only about jump scares or monsters; it’s about the uncanny, the familiar made unfamiliar, and the echoes of…
Research Log
Handmade Horror Game Aesthetics: 7 Powerful Ways Imperfection Elevates Indie Horror
Discover how handmade horror game aesthetics embrace wabi-sabi to evoke eerie atmospheres and emotional storytelling in indie games. Handmade Horror Game Aesthetics While AAA video games often strive for photorealism, there is a notable aesthetic within some indie horror games that seems to embrace the imperfect, the tactile, and the uncanny. This aesthetic divergence may…
Research Log
Drawn Into Dread: Technical Drawing Techniques That Sharpen Horror Game Level Design
Monsters are great right. I mean, I love a good monster as much as the next guy but even the most terrifying monster can’t match the subtle dread of a hallway drawn slightly too long, or a room that feels just *off*. Over and over again in this blog, I come back to the question,…