Tag: Psychological horror
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,…
Research Log
When Buildings Dream: Environmental Storytelling in Horror Game Design
Environmental storytelling in horror game design is vital! I say it over and over in this blog, but even the most unsettling monster pales in comparison to the dread of entering a room that somehow already knows you’re there. An empty room is a truly unsettling thing… particularly a large room, and especially one you’ve…
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
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…