Strange Scaffold founder and narrative designer extraordinaire, Xalavier Nelson Jr, has joined NME staff for a special Halloween game of phasmophobiawhere the trio discuss why horror games work so well.
Jake Tucker, publisher of NME Gaming, along with writer Andy Brown, joined Nelson to play phasmophobiathe paranormal investigation game from independent developer Kinetic Games.
Using a plethora of tools to help identify the type of ghost lurking in a spooky mansion, the trio soon collect photos of the items the ghost had moved as Nelson identified the room the spooky spirit inhabited after a close call. which made his heart rate skyrocket.
“You said we need to talk about how horror games work, that’s how they work,” Nelson yelled, after being spooked by a horde of hooded figures whispering to each other around a summoning circle.
Later, after losing two members of the group in the ghost hunt, Nelson delves deeper into why horror games work as well as they do.
“I also love how this game fits into the dynamic of one of my favorite games, blood borneNelson said,blood borne it’s a game that’s explicitly about confronting you with horrible things and you have to go toe-to-toe with it. The easiest way to die is to go backwards. It is necessary, before infinity, to face said infinity and move forward”.
Bringing the comparisons back to phasmophobia in particular, he said: “With that in mind, phasmophobia blue-collar language of the trade says, ‘You have to go back there because you haven’t really tried anything.’
“What makes a good horror game is that horror is not a formula, it’s a spice, you can apply it to any genre and transform it into something new, it’s almost everything,” Nelson concluded.
In other news, Black Adam will be joining the MultiVersus today’s list (October 31).