Category: Psychology
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
Horror Game Design Through Silence and Emptiness: When the Walls Do Nothing
Have you ever experienced a hallway that seems to stretch for too long, a silence that seems to last for one second more than it should? the magically haunting thing about these moments in Horror Game Design is that they don’t scream… they wait. And in the waiting, something inside us begins to unravel, it…
Research Log
Designing Fear Without Ghosts: How Hauntology and Potentiality Shape Supernatural Horror
I’ve long been interested in the potential of designing fear without ghosts. We all know that the most terrifying ghosts are not the ones we see, they are the ones that might be there, somewhere, in the darkness. In this blog, we have spoken, many time about t fear not being in the jump scare;…
Research Log
Why the Scariest Moments in Horror Games Are the Ones You Don’t See
The Terrifying Power of Implied Horror A creaking floorboard or a mysteriously flickering light, these moments, where nothing is seen but something, not quite right, is felt, have the power to unnerve players more than the most bloodthirsty monster encounter. So, why does absence of horror sometimes feel more terrifying than its presence? What is…