@inproceedings{85b2005cf3e548738fe20a2d899b0052,
title = "Subtractive Design Practices and 2010's New Wave of Indie Horror Games",
abstract = "Horror games underwent a design revitalization around the year 2010, coinciding with the emergence of the walking simulator. These parallel developments occurred in independent games. Notable early games of both this 'new wave' of horror games and of the new genre of walking simulators subtract game design elements from established genres, suggesting that design revitalizations in game genres can happen through subtractive design practices. This article explores parallels between type-cases of the 'new wave of indie horror' in the 2010s and the originator of walking simulators, Dear Esther, to reflect on these design practices. The article first discusses how The Dark Descent's design results from subtractive design practices similar to those attributed to Dear Esther. Then, the article compares the design traits of the influential, solo-developed, indie horror titles Slender and SCP-087 to a list of walking simulators' most common traits, reflecting on how these similarities help the games scare players and how they might have originated from subtractive design practices - possibly associated with the nature of independent game development. Lastly, the article reflects on how different motivations for such experiments can be hypothesised from the examined titles. By exploring this element of 'design rhyming' at the genesis of walking simulators and the 'new wave' horror games of 2010, the article aims to describe one way of revitalizing game genres through design approaches.",
keywords = "design trends, horror games, indie games, subtractive design, walking simulators",
author = "Fernandes, {Pedro M.A.} and Pedro Neves and Phil Lopes",
note = "DBLP License: DBLP's bibliographic metadata records provided through http://dblp.org/ are distributed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Although the bibliographic metadata records are provided consistent with CC0 1.0 Dedication, the content described by the metadata records is not. Content may be subject to copyright, rights of privacy, rights of publicity and other restrictions.; 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2024 ; Conference date: 21-05-2024 Through 24-05-2024",
year = "2024",
month = may,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1145/3649921.3650019",
language = "English",
series = "Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
pages = "29",
editor = "Gillian Smith and Jim Whitehead and Ben Samuel and Katta Spiel and {van Rozen}, Riemer",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2024",
address = "United States",
}