My horror game is 14 days away from launch, and I am feeling quite anxious about that day, but there's no going back now! :)

GRAVE SHIFT is Resident Evil meets hades. I wanted a game with the tension of Survival Horror and the replayability of a Roguelike, but couldn't find anything on the market.

A year and a half later, I'm releasing GRAVE SHIFT for FREE on Steam on October 27.

Wishlist it now: graveshift.cc/list

This was supposed to be a 3 month project. Somehow, it's been 18 months.

Bad Trip is about a guy who can't deal with his grief, takes mushrooms, and gets thrown into a world that starts confusing, gets terrifying, and eventually finds out it was just a joke.

Along the way, you get to explore some pretty unreal environments and meet a few cuties.

I've been working on this thing for way too long, so I figured I'd share a bit of it here.

On my free time i do some concepts and dev work for my personal IP! this what i've made so far, do you think it looks promising? i'm already working on the gameplay mechanics

https://youtu.be/XMI8LuI5BLY

Hey r/HorrorGames,

For the last 10 years I’ve worked in film as a cinematographer, writer and director. My whole career has been about crafting dread with framing, pacing, sound and silence — controlling exactly what the audience sees, when they see it, and how long they have to sit with the quiet before something breaks.

Last year I stepped away from film to go solo as an indie game dev. Taught myself coding, spent months wrapping my head around engine work, and started building Buried Apparition — a first-person psychological horror game set in an abandoned mountain inn in rural China.

My core goal from day one wasn’t just to make a “scary game”. It was to translate the cinematic horror language I’d spent a decade working with, into an interactive medium. Not just cutscenes — the whole experience.

I’ve been approaching it from three directions:

1. Pacing as tension, not just jump scares In film you control every second of the audience’s attention. You hold a quiet shot just long enough that the audience starts leaning forward, then you either release it or pull the rug out. In a game, the player controls how fast they walk, where they look, how long they linger in a hallway. So I’ve been building pacing into the level design itself — long empty corridors that force slow progression, moments of complete silence where even the ambient sound drops out, and small environmental cues that pull the player forward at the right speed. Jump scares aren’t the point. They’re just punctuation — a rare, earned release after long stretches of building pressure. I use them sparingly, and only when they serve the rhythm of the scene, not just to startle.

2. Framing that guides without forcing In cinematography you use doorways, hallways, light and shadow to naturally draw the eye where you want it. You don’t yell “LOOK HERE”. You compose the shot so the audience looks there on their own. I’ve carried that into level and environment design. Framing shots through door frames, using shadow to obscure half the room, using light to pull the player toward a key detail — all without breaking the first-person perspective or shoving a cutscene in their face. Even the core vlogging mechanic, where you raise a camera to film, is built around letting the player compose their own shots — while the environment itself is laid out to reward cinematic framing.

3. Visual storytelling over exposition In film you never have a character say what you can show them with a prop, a shadow, or a reaction shot. I’ve carried that rule straight into the game. Most of the backstory and lore isn’t told through dialogue or notes. It’s in how a room is left, what’s missing from a frame, what appears in your recorded footage that wasn’t there when you filmed it. The player puts the story together themselves, and that makes the dread feel personal.

The biggest challenge so far? In film you have total control. In a game you give half that control to the player. Finding that balance — guiding the experience without making the player feel railroaded — is what I’ve spent the most time iterating on.

The free demo is live on Steam right now, and it’s basically a full test of all these ideas. If anyone has time to check it out, I’d genuinely love to hear what lands and what doesn’t.
🎮 Play the free demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4991870/_/

I also wanted to open this up for discussion: What horror game do you think actually nails “cinematic” design without feeling like a walking movie? What’s a moment in a horror game that felt like perfectly directed filmmaking, but still felt like you were in control?

As a solo dev still learning this medium, every takeaway is gold. Thanks everyone.

#BuriedApparition #IndieHorror #PsychologicalHorror #SoloDev #AtmosphericHorror #GameDesign

This is gameplay preview of Buried Apparition, a first-person psychological folk horror game.

I’m a filmmaker with 10 years of experience as cinematographer, writer and director. I switched to indie game development and taught myself coding to build this project.

My goal is to bring cinematic language — shot framing, tension pacing, subtle environmental storytelling — into an interactive horror experience. You play as a paranormal vlogger; your camera captures things invisible to your naked eye.

Free demo available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4991870/_/

Curious what you think about how cinematic pacing lands inside a horror game.

#BuriedApparition #IndieHorror #PsychologicalHorror #AtmosphericHorror

No idea why this works on me every single time.
Saw Trainwatch recently and a lonely railway crossing + fog + rain + night shift is basically enough to make me uncomfortable already.

We’re finally announcing our first game!

THE USUAL, PLEASE 🍔

A short horror cooking game set on a foggy 1970s harbour pier.

Cook burgers, spot the drowned among your customers, and uncover the truth behind your uncle’s mysterious death.

Wishlist THE USUAL, PLEASE on Steam! 👇🏻
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5394070/The_Usual_Please/

This movie is a gold mine for a game dev looking out for making a new survival horror game.

Everything is read to make the game, the story, the aesthetics, even a lot of the game mechanics.

So, the story is, aliens invade London and the boys and the girls of London try to protect it. Somehow, most adults are dead because the aliens find and kill them first.

The kids use anything as weapons, guns, pans, swords, and fireworks, just like in the movies.

The movie has parkour, bile riding, etc, JUST LIKE DYING LIGHT!!!

Then, you have Hi-hatz for weapon upgrades, the nurse, Sam, for health upgrades, Brewis, the scientist, for learning about aliens and gears. What else do you want?

Obviously, the two easy choices for making the game are Naughty Dog or the devs that made Dying Light.

Just do it bruv, believe. It’s gonna be a hit, trust.

Free demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3680170/Mortuus/

It's called Mortuus. 1 to 4 players, a new map every run, and a boss hidden behind an Easter egg. It's more action than scary, I'll be honest. What do you think?

Who excited for this game i think i been follow this game long time ago i am so excited hoping they release next year

It’s been 7 years since I released this game in 2019 (even won an epic games grant at the time!).

Since then I’ve had a child, got married and now going on my 5th year in AAA. I went back, updated it entirely to fit the vision I had back then but had no idea how to make.

It’s $4.99 on the PS Store but would love to toss around some codes to yall.

Let me know what you think!

I'm making a 1v5 asymmetrical horror game and I want to know what's the scariest way to play. Such as camera angles, graphics?

I was thinking of making it a body cam style but I don't feel like that will add to the horror

If you're interested, feel free to check out my Steam page!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4519510/Keysaster/

I’ve been working on THREE LAMBS for a while and recently put together a demo. If anyone’s interested in checking it out, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts or feedback.

It’s available on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5126690/Three_Lambs_Demo/

Hey r/HorrorGames!

My co-dev and I have been building Click Clock. It is an experimental 1st-person horror game built around an unsettling premise: you are trapped inside an isolated mysterious room and forced to generate time and blood using a central clock while a shadowy entity watches you from the dark.

We wanted to see what happens when the repetitive loop of an idle game is turned into a claustrophobic, psychological trap.

We just released our free playable demo on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5296820/Click_Clock_Demo/

Your thoughts on the sound design, lighting, and overall sense of dread are very welcome!