Fran Bow is a still-new entry in a subgenre I sometimes refer to as sad horror. I’ll admit that’s not a terribly catchy label for these uniquely personal stories of genuine psychological terror, but it feels appropriate as these games often revolve around well-meaning protagonists with debilitating mental illnesses.

Killmonday recently posted an hour-long making of video for their darkly quirky adventure game that covers three years of its development, from 2013-2016. If you’re a fan, I highly recommend you check it out.

In Fran Bow, the young girl who serves as its main character is described as struggling with “a mental disorder and an unfair destiny.” I’m sure many of us can sympathize.

Neverending Nightmares is a similarly themed game designed by Matt Gilgenbach, who’s been open about his own war against mental illness and how the game doubled as both a creative outlet and a sort of therapy. A more recent example would be The Town of Light, a non-traditional horror game set in 1938 Italy that released back in February. It’s about a 16 year-old Renée who’s forcefully committed to a mental institution because “she didn’t know what her place in the world was.”

Krillbite Studio’s indie hit Among the Sleep touches on similar themes with its portrayal of a deeply troubled family that’s been torn apart by addiction, and specifically the impact that can have on children. Their next project, Mosaic, isn’t a horror game, but it too covers a topic we can all relate to: the mundaneness of adulthood.

Seeing as the oppressive tedium and impossible expectations of fame, fortune, and physical perfection that come with modern adult life are often cited as significant contributors to the mental illness epidemic of anxiety, depression and low self-worth that continues to quietly devastate millions of people, I believe it fits.

I might even include Erin Reynolds’ experimental, biofeedback-driven horror game Nevermind in that group, though it’s less interested in telling a story, and more about helping those who currently struggle with stress and anxiety develop an awareness of these issues, as well as help develop the tools to combat them.

We desperately need more games like these. Zombies, aliens, vampires, ghosts, demons, serial killers and animatronic abominations will always have a place in our favorite genre, but it’s so important that games developers don’t rely exclusively on these familiar foes when there are so many alternatives to choose from.

Mental illness is a different kind of scary. You might not understand it as intimately as someone who’s endured the slow death it brings, but you probably know someone who has. It’s still somewhat stigmatized in our society, and I think video games and the brilliant people who create them can help change that in a way that movies, books and television cannot.

Because if you haven’t felt the profound impact that depression or its myriad cousins can have on the mind, then it’s games like these that are in a unique position to help. And they’re scary, too. The psychological terror here is based in a reality that far too many of us know exceedingly well, and they’re not so easily vanquished.

Mental illness claims too many lives, and not just literally, but also in the passion for life it often drains from its unsuspecting host like an insatiable parasite. So please, you exceptionally gifted builders of the virtual worlds we love to explore, keep being brave. We need courageous storytellers like the devs I listed above, because this industry is broken in a way that keeps these stories from being told by more mainstream games.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you like to see more games like Fran Bow, Neverending Nightmares and The Town of Light, or not so much?

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In an effort to help people cope with these negative feelings in an easier way, Reynolds has developed a psychological horror game that uses biofeedback to monitor a player’s stress level. The more overwhelmed they gets, the more difficult the game becomes.

Eventually, progress is only possible until after the player has calmed down. This is the concept that Nevermind was built on, and if it works, it could be the first in a new wave of horror games that aim to help people in real ways.

I’m glad this game hasn’t gotten lost in dreaded development limbo. Its first crowdfunding effort raised $130k. An impressive achievement, but it didn’t quite reach the $250k Reynolds needed. Its second campaign was successful, raising just over its more modest $75k goal.

For more info on Nevermind, I recommend you take a look at its official website.

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As great as this year has been for fans of the horror genre, I have the feeling it will pale in comparison to what’s in store for us in 2015. We’ve already covered the AAA releases that are on the way, and today we’re going to dive into the indies.

Ashen Rift (PC)

After a brief hiatus, Ashen Rift has returned to Kickstarter in the hopes of raising enough money to finish what looks like an incredibly promising horror game. Set in a post-apocalyptic world that’s been overrun by monsters, the game follows a man and his dog as they struggle to survive.

Asylum (PC)

I can’t wait until Asylum finally arrives and I’m able to take it off all of these “upcoming games” lists. Its been in development for a long time, but recent looks at the current state of the game lead me to believe it isn’t that far off. It’s an ambitious title and one of the few adventure games we have to look forward to right now. I have the feeling the wait will be well worth it.

Caffeine (PC, PS4)

As intrigued as I am by the game’s plot, which follows a child who finds himself trapped on a synthetic caffeine mining vessel with some sort of dark presence, I’m not convinced Caffeine will see the light of day. Its developer has tried and failed to crowdfund it three separate times now, leaving its fate in the air for now. It’s too bad, because this game is gorgeous.

The Flock (PC)

Asymmetrical multiplayer has become an increasingly prevalent feature, especially in horror games. Evolve, Damned, Last Year and The Flock may be signs that this kind of multiplayer has a future in horror, where classic competitive modes have failed (Dead Space 2, Condemned 2: Bloodshot). The Flock revolves around a war between Carriers of light and the Flock, which hunt them. The world already has me hooked, it’s up to the developer to make sure the game is balanced and, even more importantly, fun.

Fran Bow (PC)

Fran Bow is another horror point-and-click adventure game, like Asylum, though that’s where the similarities end. It has a quirky charm about it that I find really enticing, especially when the game reveals its darker side through the pills young Fran takes. Doing so gives her a temporary look at a gruesome version of the world around her. Switching between the two worlds is fun, but it’ll also be necessary if you’re going to solve its puzzles.

Grave (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Grave, a surreal horror game that, unless I’m mistaken, could be the first of its kind. This is a very strange horror game that’s still very much an enigma to me even after playing both of its demos. Light and dark play an important role in the gameplay, as light is your only weapon against the creatures who inhabit its eerie world.

The Hum (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Aliens freak a lot of people out, yet for some reason, horror game developers haven’t exploited that universal fear that all humans have of being abducted in the middle of the night for a quick probing session. The Hum is the first game to try and make aliens scary, and judging by the footage we’ve seen of it so far, they’re on the right track.

Kholat (PC)

Based on the mysterious disappearances of nine hikers at the base of the base of Siberia’s “Death Mountain” in 1959, Kholat wants to turn a story that’s baffled scientists and unnerved the rest of us into a horror game. It’s a tragic story, but it also happens to be perfect for a video game inspired by it. The circumstanced in which those hikers were found were admittedly horrific, and since their recovery more than half a century ago folks far smarter than I have tried really hard to come up with answers. Perhaps Kholat will provide them.

Last Year (PC)

The latest addition to the burgeoning sect of asymmetrical multiplayer games is something called Last Year. It pits a group of teens against a masked murderer. The teens must work together to survive, but that won’t be easy when the killer can come from anywhere. I’ve already decided I’m going to be Nick, the nerd, when I play this game. Then I’ll get ridiculously good at the game, impressing all of nerd kind enough that they crown me the Nerd King. But before I can realize that dream, the game needs to raise some money first.

Lethe (PC)

Lethe is a physics puzzle-heavy first person horror game that follows Robert Dawn, a journalist on a mission to find the truth. His search takes him to an isolated island, and before he can use his journalist powers to uncover its dark secrets, he gets infected by a substance that gifts his hand with psychokinetic powers. It’s an attractive game, and one I’d very much like to get my hands on.

Monstrum (PC)

Like Grave, I’ve already spent a fair amount of time with Monstrum and I’m happy to say I’m nothing but impressed. Massive ships with labyrinthine interiors ruin what little sense of direction I possess, and because the locations of precious items are different every time you play, there’s a decent replay factor here as well as a healthy amount of scares.

Narcosis (PC)

From a ship lost at sea, we plunge to the murky depths of the ocean below. I still don’t have a clue as to what it is that poses a threat to the diver in Narcosis, you know, other than the definite possibility that Jaws will eat you. That’s assuming asphyxiation doesn’t claim you first when your limited supply of oxygen runs out. I’m sure there’s a more spine-tingling horror waiting for us in this game, but for now, I’ll worry about Jaws.

Outlast 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

So the talented folks at Red Barrels are working on a sequel to Outlast. I’m not sure what else I can say about it, other than maybe we should all consider saving up for a Depends run once we know when to expect it.

Paranormal: The Town (PC)

Paranormal: The Town has been awfully quiet lately, but I imagine that’s because the developer behind it is busy working on remaking the original. If you haven’t played Paranormal yet, it’s basically Paranormal Activity: The Game, only it takes way less time for things to get interesting. The Town will take the randomized haunts that made the first to memorable out of the confined quarters of an artist’s apartment and bring them to a small town.

Quadrant (PC)

In Quadrant, we get to step into the boots of a member of a bio-hazardous waste removal crew that’s been sent into a NASA lab that’s been quarantined when a mysterious substance — possibly alien! — leaks out. Because it’s a horror game, your coworkers get murdered, likely in excruciating ways, by what looks like a giant spider. I say kill it with fire and demand your hazard pay.

ROAM (PC)

I love me some State of Decay, but it never gave me all of the tools I wanted in a game like that. I want to build bases, fortify them, gather resources to survive, and kick heaps of rotten zombie ass in the process. ROAM is a surprisingly ambitious survival game that offers exactly that, with an emphasis on building kickass anti-zombie fortresses. I’m all in.

Routine (PC)

I’m never been big into roguelike games, mostly because I’m terrible at them, but I’ll be making an exception for Routine. Ever since we were given our first glimpse of it two years ago, I’ve been practically foaming at the mouth to get my hands on it. It looks terrifying, and it’s also the type of game that doesn’t waste time holding your hand. It won’t be easy surviving against whatever horrors are lurking on that abandoned lunar base, but if Dark Souls has taught me anything, it’s that a difficult game only makes the experience more rewarding.

Scorn (PC)

Like so many before it, Scorn is a horror game that’s currently looking to find success on Kickstarter. It’s a horror adventure game that takes place in a “nightmarish universe” with a narrative that’s been made to give players the freedom to “give their own interpretation of the events, themes and their role in this universe through exploration and interaction with the game world.”

Stasis (PC)

If Dead Space experimented with a 2D style, it’d look something like Stasis. This game doesn’t just want to deliver an exciting story, it also has the lofty goal of blending AAA graphics with classic, point and click gameplay. It’s also worth noting that Stasis is being scored by Fallout series composer Mark Morgan, so you can be sure it’ll sound great.

Summer Camp (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

It took awhile to happen, but the slasher genre that so many of us have enjoyed in movies is finally gaining traction in video games. This year has seen the reveals of four slasher games — Last Year, Until Dawn, Summer Camp and Splatter Camp — and there’s a good chance we’ll see most, or possibly even all, of these games release in 2015. We don’t know much about this game yet, but the title alone should offer enough of a hint as to what Summer Camp will be about. Horny teens, a masked killer, fun in the sun cut tragically short by murder and mayhem, etc.

Splatter Camp (PC)

From the maker of Babysitter Bloodbath (formerly Halloween) comes another Friday the 13th inspired horror game about teens meeting an early end at the hands of a bad, bad man. If it’s anything like the developer’s past work, expect an awesome old school VHS aesthetic.

U55 – End of the Line (PC)

Subways are inherently creepy places, and I’m not just saying that because of the rat people who call those tunnels their home. U55 – End of the Line wants to remind us of this fact by cranking up the scare factor to 11 as it follows some poor soul who somehow managed to find themselves lost, alone and hunted in the underground.

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The game’s Kickstarter campaign wasn’t a success, raising a little over half of its ambitious $250,000 goal. This time around, Reynolds is only looking for $75,000 to fund her project. As I write this, the campaign has raised just under $43,000 with about 34 hours to go.

If Nevermind sounds like something you’d like to support, you can do so here. I also recommend you check out our interview with Reynolds.

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Dying Light, The Evil Within and Doom 4 are all on my radar, but the following games aren’t afraid to push the envelope and be daring with their concepts, mechanics, and stories.

Read on for my list of 30 Upcoming Indie Horror Games You Should Be Excited About!

If you’d prefer a more in-depth look at five of the following thirty horror games that I, personally, am most excited about, you can get all that and more in the video below.

What makes it exciting: From Krillbite Studio, Among the Sleep follows a two year-old boy who wakes up alone in his home during a thunderstorm. A familiar setting is warped by the child’s imagination until it resembles a waking nightmare. Not many games place you in the footie pajamas of a toddler — that unique idea alone makes this worth checking out.

When you can expect it: Spring 2014

In the horror FPS game Ashen Rift, it’s you and your pitbull against a crumbling, post-apocalyptic wasteland that’s brimming with monsters. Your goal is to close something called the “Rift,” which is supposedly the cause of the Earth’s falling apart. If it was me, I’d be too busy teaching my dog how to go for the nuts on command to close any rifts. That’s probably why I’ll never be a video game hero.

Unfortunately, hordes of monsters known as Feeders stand in your way, but it’s okay, because you have man’s best friend. See this game in action after the jump.

When you can expect it: TBA

What makes it exciting: Agustín Cordes is a game designer who’s perhaps best known for his creepy horror game Scratches. His next project, the psychological horror game Asylum, takes the terror to a much larger scale, as it’s set in a massive, decaying mental institute. On top of that, it’s story is inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

When you can expect it: TBA

What makes it exciting: This one caught my attention only recently, but a series of unsettling teasers have only managed to grow my excitement for this unusual game. Like Among the Sleep, Caffeine follows a young boy who finds himself alone in an eerie environment, only this time the locale is a caffeine mining station in outer space and the horrors that hunt him are most definitely real.

When you can expect it: TBA 2014

What makes it exciting: The idea behind Claire is simple: it’s like Silent Hill, if that series was in 2D and had a gorgeous pixelated art style. If you need to be sold after that elevator pitch, I’m afraid I can’t help you.

When you can expect it: TBA 2014

What makes it exciting: From the makers of the Saw video games, the next horror game from Zombie Studios is the procedurally generated Slender-esque horror game Daylight. It follows a young woman who upon being trapped in a long-abandoned hospital realizes she might not be alone. It’s a horror game of the supernatural variety and it actually finds a novel use for the PS4’s Twitch.tv integration by allowing players to trigger in-game scares through the live-stream chat.

When you can expect it: April 8, 2014

What makes it exciting: Like Daylight, Darkwood uses procedural generation to ensure each playthrough is different from the next. Every time you dive into its creepy, desaturated world, it will be unfamiliar. It also brings with it some of the unforgiving elements of roguelikes, including permanent death.

When you can expect it: TBA 2014

What makes it exciting: What makes DreadOut exciting? If you’ve been waiting patiently for a new Fatal Frame, it’s mere existence is exciting. More than that, it looks terrifying and comes with a distinct Indonesian flavor.

When you can expect it: TBA 2014

What makes it exciting: This will be the only Slender Man game on this list, but even if you’ve grown tired of the myriad Slender clones we’ve been inundated with over the last two years, Faceless is intriguing because it introduces four-player co-op into the mix. Now you have a friend (or three) to *accidentally* trip as you run from everyone’s favorite Internet-born Cryptid.

When you can expect it: TBA

What makes it exciting: As I said in the video above, The Forest may very well be my most anticipated horror game of 2014. That’s because it looks horrifying, blends two of my favorite movies — Cannibal Holocaust and The Descent — and mixes in an element of Minecraft through base building and resource gathering. Did I mention it looks horrifying?

When you can expect it: May 22, 2014 (Alpha), Full release TBA

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Because some people are awful human beings, things quickly go south in the developer’s recent interview in a Fox Business segment. In it, Reynolds tries her best to explain the idea behind the game and how its biofeedback mechanic works. She does a wonderful job of it, too — impressive seeing as this ridiculously unprofessional anchor mocks her the entire time.

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Actually, only one developer has said they want to achieve that, but you’ll have to read on to see which one it is. I’ve spent a fair amount of time scrounging up some of the more promising horror games that are on the way — you can find the rest here and here — and today, I’d like to share a few more.

Read on for my list of 6 MORE Upcoming Horror Games That Look Absolutely Terrifying! (Part 3)

The makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, considered by many to be one of the scariest games of all time, revealed their next project last October through a clever (and thoroughly unsettling) viral marketing campaign. The game is called SOMA, and their goal is that it chills you to your core.

It’s slated to release in 2015, but I’m willing to wait — mostly because I have faith in Frictional, but also because the following games, most of which should arrive much sooner.

Continuing the theme of sci-fi horror is the indie horror game Routine. It’s a roguelike that’s set on a seemingly abandoned lunar outpost where some thing is hunting you down. The problem is, you have no real way of defending yourself, and when you die, it’s game over. Such is the unforgiving nature of the roguelike genre.

If you’re beginning to notice a trend here (i.e. sci-fi games where you’re unarmed and being chased) that’s only because there are a lot of upcoming horror games that are taking that familiar formula and running with it. Literally. I mean, there’s so much running in most of them. I get winded watching some of their trailers.

Whereas Routine takes place on the Moon, Quadrant is set in a NASA lab in the 1970s. It’s being a period piece certainly helps to set it apart from the growing number of games that are doing something similar, though in it — you guessed it — you’re being chased by something. You’re also unarmed, so when given the choice between fight or flight, the latter is always the best option.

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When Erin Reynolds talks about Nevermind, it is apparent her aspirations go well beyond making players cower in the glow of their night lights.

As the creative director of the adventure horror game, she speaks with enthusiasm about developing an experience that has the potential to be both scary and transformative, one that will first terrify players utterly but will also offer them a real-life takeaway.

“With Nevermind, it was really important that we create an experience that people want to play and yearn for but that they also come away feeling a little more confident, brave, able to manage the day-to-day stresses more effectively,” she said.

The Kickstarter for Nevermind launched earlier this week, and the plot is almost Cronenbergian in its construction. Players assume the role of a Neuroprober, a sort of psychiatrist who can travel into the minds of patients who have endured intense psychological trauma. The Neuroprobers ease the patients’ emotional burdens through traversing these disturbing subconscious events and solving the “puzzles” at the center of them.

Though in some ways it is a horror game in line with recent, moody offerings like Amnesia and Outlast, one thing separates it completely: Nevermind knows when you’re scared.

An optional (but seemingly essential) peripheral for the game is a monitor that records the player’s heart rate variability and then modifies the gameplay accordingly. The more terrified the participant, the harder the game. “The environment impedes the player’s progress,” Reynolds said. “The world around you becomes more punishing and menacing as you get more stressed and scared.”

Players are not required to don any special equipment to play the game – and the development team is looking to make the game as compatible with as many sensor types as possible – but therein lies the truly innovative aspect of Nevermind’s premise: being “strapped in” is kind of like riding a roller coaster that knows you don’t like a twelve story freefall.

Because the game’s action occurs entirely within the human mind, environments are not constricted by any sort of real-world logic, which opens up the game for innumerable possibilities for scares. For example, becoming frightened in a room full puzzle pieces illuminated by a spotlight will result in the spotlight slowly going out, leaving the player in a completely dark room. Most of them are slightly surreal, and Reynolds notes David Lynch as a particular inspiration for the visual aesthetic.

Despite the menacing exterior, there is no traditional combat. Nevermind is not a survival horror game, nor is it aggressively horrific – it is exploration-based, like Myst. The philosophy is to create a game that almost anyone can play. “There are senses of danger in the game and things that are threatening, but we just want to create a world that pushes the buttons of the players,” she said.

They are also actively working on finding a nice balance in how to have the game’s mechanics overlap with the dynamic nature of the heart monitor. To be effective, it has to find the Goldilocks Zone of being not too scary and not too tame.

And although some playtesters endured the current version without losing their nerve, she said “some people would play it, get about a third of the way through and stand up, put the headphones down, take the sensor off and say, ‘Look, this is awesome, but I can’t deal with this. This is too intense.’”

For Reynolds, however, the game is not entirely about being able to integrate a cool new peripheral into the game’s systems to make it more dynamic. The through-line in both the development and execution of Nevermind relates to the perception that games can be more than kick-ass experiences. More specifically, she aims to help people deal with anxiety in a real and substantial way.

It is an ambitious project – the Kickstarter seeks a substantial goal of $250,000, with stretch goals in upwards of $1 million – and she doesn’t shy away from that, because she sees games maturing into motivational and educational tools that integrate far-reaching fields to improve players’ lives through more than just entertainment.

“People are starting to realize the potential games have to really inspire and motivate and teach,” Reynolds said, adding, “you are given challenges you don’t normally face, so using that as an opportunity to let players grow and improve from that is something I know I personally find extremely exciting, and I think both game developers and game players are starting to really get excited about it as well.”

Nevermind is scheduled to be released on PC and Mac – it has been pre-approved to run on Steam – and there are also talks to include it on the Oculus Rift, as well. The Kickstarter will run through the month of February and can be found here.

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Eventually, the only way you can proceed is by learning to manage your stress. Once you’ve accomplished that, you’ve learned a valuable tool for the real world.

If you’d like to support Nevermind, you can show it some love on its Kickstarter campaign.

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It’s a neat idea and one that fits well in the occasionally very stressful horror genre, where I’m pretty sure games like Amnesia and Outlast have taken years off my life. Reynolds is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign tomorrow to raise the funds needed to bring this intriguing idea to fruition — I’ll have more details as soon as it’s live.

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