The Language of Blood
There is little overlap: There are those privileged to speak the language of blood, and those who are too weak to learn it. This is, we learn, the way the story must be told, the way of the world.
Tag Horror
Silent Hill: The Bad Place
“In my restless dreams, I see that town.” I miss Silent Hill. The games are still around, of course, and perhaps I ought to replay them – but you can’t really go back, and any replay is going to be…
Lowering the Stakes
The vampire, as a storytelling trope, makes for stories that alternately fascinate and frustrate me. As something which is both human and not, alive and also dead, eternal and fragile, they can be a powerful lens through which to view…
Undeaths and Double-Lives
Halloween – now duly extended to include the entire month of October – is, after New Years, the most introspective time of year. At the dawning of each new year we take a moment to take stock of our future…
Scary Funny
Horror and comedy can be particularly tricky genres to create in. Both rely to some degree on shocking and surprising audiences, and seeking to create shock and surprise tends to lead towards uncomfortable and loaded topics. This can be difficult…
Join the Madness DevBlog – April 2021
At the end of last month’s update, I mentioned that my entire work schedule was being taken over by starting a game jam project called “Join the Madness”, and that this project’s scope threatened to balloon way out of control.…
Living in Fear
A week or two ago I was watching someone play through the first Silent Hill game, and I was thinking about the role that combat plays in horror games. In many cases, the entire idea of combat has been phased…
The Last Lie You Ever Tell Yourself
This is a horror story. I missed my chance. It was Halloween a couple of weeks ago. But, you know, this isn’t the right kind of horror story for Halloween. Halloween is a time for the not-quite-scary, the weird and…
Tragedy Minus Time
There’s a smarmy and not particularly accurate saying: “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” This is only true for some very specific forms of comedy, and those mostly not the funniest sort, but there’s still an element of truth there. Old…
Lone Survivor
I didn’t finish it. I guess that’s a good place to start. I dunno, I generally feel like I should finish these games if I’m going to write about them, but if I’m not that into playing it it can…