Tag: Unsettling environments
Research Log
Disorienting the Player: The Power of Non-Euclidean Horror Spaces
Introduction Horror games thrive on subverting expectations, unsettling players by disrupting their sense of control and security. However, when the environment itself becomes the antagonist, fear reaches an entirely new level. Non-Euclidean horror spaces—environments that defy conventional geometry—are a powerful tool for crafting immersive, mind-bending terror (Osudin, Denisova, & Child, 2024). By manipulating space in…
Research Log
Transforming Everyday Objects into Horror
In horror game design, the familiar can become the unexpected, as everyday when items are subtly twisted or used out of context to provoke unease. This unsettling effect is grounded, again, in the psychological concept of the uncanny, where the familiar become hauntingly strange (Virno & Ricciardi, 2005; Freud, 1919). By altering an object’s placement,…