It’s not just what we hear and see that scares us, according to those behind many of video gaming’s modern horror classics
T
he sound came first. In a San Francisco Bart train tunnel, Don Veca took his recorder and captured a train’s metallic roar – “like demons in agony, beautifully ugly,” he remembers. That recording became one of the most chilling sounds in 2008’s Dead Space.
“We dropped that screeching, industrial noise at full volume right after the vacuum silence – creating one of the game’s most jarring sonic contrasts,” Veca, who made horror history as the audio director for the Dead Space games, recalls. “Our game designer hated it – but the boss loved it. Over time, it’s become iconic.”
Now, almost two decades after Dead Space first terrified players into clutching their controllers, horror game designers around the world still chase that same feeling. So, how do they keep on finding new ways to scare gamers – and what makes us keep pushing start on the horror?
