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Notes from the tape.
Essays, build notes, and the story behind the footage we recover.
Essays
Recent posts
Essay
Dread, not jump scares: the horror that makes you look
Jump scares borrow a second of your heartbeat and give it back. Dread keeps it. Here is why the slow, scanning kind of fear lasts longer — and why we built a whole game around it.
Essay
Hidden-object games grew up: from seek-and-find to seek-and-fear
For years the hidden-object game was a cosy, comforting thing — a cluttered desk, a list of items, a relaxing afternoon. Then someone realised the same loop, lit differently, is one of the most frightening structures in games. On the quiet horror hiding in seek-and-find.
Essay
Short horror, big dread: why a 30-second scare can stay all night
You do not need two hours to be frightened. The most durable fear often comes in the smallest dose — a single image, a few seconds of searching, one figure you find too late. On the strange power of very short horror.
Essay
The art of hiding the evil: designing horror you have to find
Make the evil too obvious and there is no game. Make it too hidden and there is no fairness. The whole craft of Spot Evil lives in the narrow band between, where a thing can be in plain sight and still go unseen. A note on how we hide it.
Essay
Liminal spaces: why an empty room can feel like a threat
An empty corridor at 3 a.m. An office after everyone has gone. A swimming pool with the lights on and no water. These places are not haunted, and that is exactly the problem. Here is why the almost-familiar frightens us.
Essay
Why 360° changes horror: the fear of what is behind you
A flat screen has edges, and edges are safe — the threat can only come from inside the frame. Take the edges away and put the player inside a full sphere, and a new fear appears: the part of the room you are not looking at.
Essay
Horror games to play with friends, and why fear is better shared
Fear shrinks when you are alone and grows when you are in a group all feeling it at once. Here is why horror is one of the best things to do with friends — and how a six-digit code turns a quiet, dreadful game into a loud room.
Essay
How to play Spot Evil: a guide to hunting the evil in 360°
A scene loads in the dark. Something in it is wrong. Here is exactly how Spot Evil works — the controls, the modes, the scoring — and a few honest tips for finding the evil before the tape runs out.
Essay
How your brain hunts for the evil in a dark frame
Your eyes are built to find faces, motion, and threats in the dark — and to invent them when they are not there. That ancient machinery is exactly what a good hidden-horror scene plays with. Here is what is happening behind your eyes when you scan.