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Zombie Studios, the developer behind the series of games based on the Saw films have announced their next project and it is a horror game. Is it just me or are a lot of developers working on horror games right now, and new IPs at that. Until Dawn, Outlast, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Rebellion’s mystery game, and possibly even something from Square Enix. Now we can add Daylight to the list, and from what studio head Jared Gerritzen told IGN, it sounds incredibly ambitious. More after the jump.
Daylight, seen above, is a game that features a procedurally-generated environment, so every player gets a unique experience. Apparently, it’s also really dark, and your only source of light is a cell phone you’ll have to use to guide you through its randomized environments.
It follows a woman who wakes up in an abandoned building with no idea of where she is or how she got there. (sounds a lot like Homesick) You’ll have to explore its labyrinthine hallways for clues that will reveal more of the story.
“We don’t give any backstory on the player. She literally just wakes up and you need to find your way through, but there’s a lot of story elements. The way the story unfolds is we have all these elements where you can pick up documents and case files, but also your phone gets possessed and it plays recordings from the past.” Gerritzen told IGN.
Your only hope is your phone, and even it’s against you. That’s just cruel.
“There’s a lot of different types of horror. There’s hack-and-slash. It’s not like that. It’s all very subtle. It’s all very implied and it kind of leaves the player to their own devices.” he added. The game will also be a shorter experience, taking roughly 25-30 minutes, but it will require multiple playthroughs to find everything it has to offer.
I like games like these. Developers have been spending too much time holding our hands and guiding us through the games they make and forgetting that most gamers are very capable of figuring things out for themselves. I think we could be at the very beginning of a movement away from this style of game design, as more games like this, Dear Esther, Amnesia, and the previously mentioned Homesick, as well as many others, put more faith in their players.
What do you think? Or do you need me to hold your hand so you can comment, you big baby.
