It’s not all in your head
Imagine a horror game that knows when you’re afraid, and makes the experience more stressful the faster your heart beats. Then imagine that game being set in the mind of a victim of intense trauma. Good, now if you could just tell us what you see in this inkblot? Is it Nathan Drake eating an icecream or Master Chief on a unicycle? Hmm, let’s move on.
Stepping into the subconscious of strangers, Nevermind is filled with bizarre and disturbing imagery. Twitching bodies and gingerbread houses surround puzzles with living nightmares. “From the very beginning, I wanted Nevermind to be very atmospheric – dark and surreal, but also alluring and beautiful,” explains creative director Erin Reynolds. “The aesthetic is intended to be very psychological and evocative – to ‘get under your skin’ in a subtle but impactful way. After all, the intent is to elicit a physiological response, so it’s important that the atmosphere creates moments of tension and terror.”
Heart attack
Flying Mollusk wants you to deal with your own fears too, not just other people’s. “Because most of the game takes place within the subconscious mind of an individual who has repressed memories of a traumatic event, we have a lot of flexibility to really bend the rules of reality, and to create environments and scenarios that are deeply disturbing and yet also very human,” says Reynolds. “Essentially, we aim to create an atmosphere in which players can’t wait to see what’s next, and have to face their own anxieties and fears.”
And if you want to crank up the terror even more, all you need to do is plug in face and heart sensors. You’ve got a set of those to hand, right? “The biofeedback that we use for Nevermind essentially is a measurement of ‘psychological arousal’ – or how scared, stressed or anxious the player is at any given moment,” Reynolds confirms. “This is where things start to get really fun, because the more scared you get, the harder the game becomes! How it becomes more difficult is different depending on where you are at any given moment – rooms might flood with milk, spikes might jet out of the floor, lights might go out. You’ll need to learn how to calm down in the face of ever-growing anxiety.”
Given that the team is working on VR for a future update, this “stress-management tool wrapped up into a horror adventure game” is incredibly exciting, not to mention disturbing. Visit it on Early Access, if you dare.