{"id":1032749,"date":"2026-01-15T07:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you"},"modified":"2026-01-15T07:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:56:14","slug":"the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The anatomy of a scare: how do games frighten you?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>Imagine you&#8217;re standing in a hallway in a game &#8211; what does the scene need in order to make it scary? Should we turn the lights off? Should we have a door where you can&#8217;t see what&#8217;s behind it, but you can <em>hear<\/em> something behind it? Should there be a threat somewhere, lurking nearby? Is music important? And at what point is it okay to spring a noisy surprise on the player? In other words, what are the rules of fear?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine you&#8217;re standing in a hallway in a game &#8211; what does the scene need in order to make it scary? Should we turn the lights off? Should we have a door where you can&#8217;t see what&#8217;s behind it, but you can hear something behind it? Should there be a threat somewhere, lurking nearby? Is music important? And at what point is it okay to spring a noisy surprise on the player? In other words, what are the rules of fear? Read more Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1032750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[259,1083,10264,1821,8712,9404,1708,15211,14719,3591,11143,15212,773,1192,5501,75,957,15209,15210,8711,8673,7842,21,4035,4036,59,4472,1977,44,45,1928,8091,34,10992,8092,877,9329,137,54,12385,9997,10991,6810,516,7046,1362,9113,3987,60,4616],"class_list":["post-1032749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-action-adventure","tag-aspyr","tag-behaviour-digital","tag-behaviour-interactive","tag-bird-view-isometric","tag-black-salt-games","tag-bloober-team","tag-bloodious-games","tag-cronos-the-new-dawn","tag-dead-by-daylight","tag-dredge","tag-faith-the-unholy-trinity","tag-first-person","tag-horror","tag-humble-games","tag-indie","tag-konami","tag-madison","tag-medium","tag-multiplayer-competitive","tag-multiplayer-cooperative","tag-new-blood-interactive","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-observer","tag-observer-system-redux","tag-pc","tag-playism","tag-ps1","tag-ps4","tag-ps5","tag-puzzle","tag-rose-engine","tag-rpg","tag-secret-mode","tag-signalis","tag-silent-hill","tag-silent-hill-2-remake","tag-simulation","tag-single-player","tag-slitterhead","tag-starbreeze-studios","tag-still-wakes-the-deep","tag-story-rich","tag-strategy","tag-survivalcrafting","tag-team17","tag-the-chinese-room","tag-third-person","tag-xbox-one","tag-xbox-series-x-s"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The anatomy of a scare: how do games frighten you? | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Imagine you&#039;re standing in a hallway in a game - what does the scene need in order to make it scary? Should we turn the lights off? Should we have a door\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-anatomy-of-a-scare-how-do-games-frighten-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The anatomy of a scare: how do games frighten you? | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine you&#039;re standing in a hallway in a game - what does the scene need in order to make it scary? Should we turn the lights off? 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