The Problems With Indie Horror

<p>For Halloween month, I’ve been looking forward to playing more horror games that I haven’t had a chance to look at it, especially after <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Game-Design-Deep-Dive-Horror/Bycer/p/book/9780367721749" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">writing my book on horror design</a>. While there are some clear winners from the indie space that I’ll be reviewing the second they are released, there are quite a lot that isn’t working for me, no matter how many of them have Youtuber “shocked” face compilations. I want to talk about where indie devs are trying to take shortcuts into scares, and why this doesn’t work when we compare it to some of the greats from now over 20 years old.</p> <h1>Getting Rid of “You”</h1> <p>One of the major aspects I see from a lot of indie horror is the removal of the protagonist in favor of “you” as the main character. Sometimes you are literally playing yourself, or you’re playing as a named character, but that character has no agency, personality, and maybe no voice lines outside of a few cutscenes.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@GWBycer/the-problems-with-indie-horror-25d601cfa6d8"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>