Shinji Mikami and his peers have been responsible for making me and many others jump out of our skin over the years whilst playing survival horror games on the consoles of yesteryear. But we are all much harder to scare and shock now, so how could you make a genuinely scary game in a world of next generation gaming?
Step forward Erin Reynolds who is the director behind the innovative video game project called Nevermind where gamers are hooked up to heart monitors. The game will become more difficult the more afraid you become, meaning the only way to truly succeed at this game is to learn how to control your fear.
Nevermind is a biofeedback-enhanced horror adventure game that takes you into the dark and twisted world within the subconscious minds of trauma victims.
“The more scared you are, the harder the game becomes,” says Reynolds , who started the project as a USC grad student in interactive media and was heavily inspired by the movie The Cell. “To complete the game, you have to get pretty good at learning how to manage your anxiety on the fly.”
The Nevermind Kickstarter Video! from Erin Reynolds on Vimeo.
Although Nevermind, didn’t reach its target on Kickstarter, there is still hope that we will get to see this game one day after announcing on their site “this project was nonetheless a resounding success in helping to build awareness around Nevermind, biofeedback, and positive games and we foresee a bright future ahead for Nevermind and that wouldn’t have happened without your help.”
It is unclear how the team are planning to secure more funding but they are urging fans to help spread the word via Facebook, Twitter and a Mailing List so this is definitely a project worth keeping an eye on.
With the Kinect 2 being able to detect heart rate, I wonder if this game could ever appear on the Xbox One or if the concept of biofeedback games could ever take off, but I am sure we will be reading more about this over the next few years as technology progresses.
