I’ve never done well with scary stories.
When I was five, I was with other kids that my mom was babysitting. One of them told me the “Bloody Mary” mirror myth, and I reacted severely enough that my mom told the other kids “you can’t tell her that that kind of story.”
At slumber parties, when a scary movie was rented, I would go and sit in the kitchen, covering my ears, while the other girls shrieked in terror in front of the tv.
I got nightmares from movie trailers, random bar stories, a creepy picture at the end of a dark hallway…
The ones that get to me the most are the ghost stories. Even though I’ve actively avoided ghost movies, I’m really into the stories: I just don’t like being terrified. It’s a conflict which I’ve resolved by using Wikipedia to find out the ending of almost every popular scary movie.
This contradictory behavior touches on just why ghost stories are so compelling: because every ghost story is a mystery. The existence of the ghost means the story has an interesting beginning, but we’re just in the middle of the story…what happened ?!? How does it end?!?
Given my long history of general cowardice when it comes to this genre, I recognize that it is not without irony that I made this game.
However, this is one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on, not the least because the story writers have the genre bonafides and the voice actors were so talented. Given that this was a tiny team, I produced, directed, and wrote supplemental script. And, in a departure from previous jobs, this one was audio only, no visuals.
If I thought that somehow that work make it less scary, well… I ended up doing most of the “scary parts” work during daylight as much as possible. I’d neglected the horror adage that what is unseen is actually more frightening.
In any case if you’re not a big ol’ coward like myself, have an hour or so, and would like a free Halloween treat, check out the game!
Boo!
secretlyfrivolous 