Katlink is just as comfortable on a GDQ couch as she is on the mainstage. A veteran horror player and streamer, she plays everything from Silent Hill 2 to Resident Evil 4 Remake and indie horror. Her run in RE4R last summer was a highlight of GDQ for me; this year, she graced the couches of RE4R, the remake’s Separate Ways expansion, and CarcinogenSDA’s couch during his RE2 Remake no damage run to lend support and commentary. I talked to her about what it means to be on a couch, why she’s somewhat nervous (but mostly optimistic) about the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, and why Mr. X’s twin is the stuff of nightmares.

Craddock: How did you become a fan of horror games?

Katlink: I was introduced to horror games from my dad. Silent Hill 2 was the one game I remember watching him play it. He looked over at me and he's like, “You want to play?” and tossed the controller at me. My eight-year-old self, scared, walked through the apartments, trying to avoid lying things. That game has a lot of sentimental value to me now. But I've always been fascinated with horror, and the elements of horror. At one point, I wanted to be a 3d makeup artist for horror movies. I've just always really loved the genre.

Craddock: What do you think it is about horror games that distinguishes them from movies, books, and TV?

Katlink: Horror games are more immersive in a lot of ways because you're the one playing. Whereas in movies, there are scary elements like the atmosphere or tension, but being put into it, it's a whole different ballpark. You’re like, I could go that way, but I have to go that way, oh, god. Depending on how the developer ties in sounds and story elements and the atmosphere of your surroundings, it could make people way more frightened to keep going. That's why many people watch horror games rather than play them—because they don't have to do it themselves.

Craddock: I’ve seen you speedrun horror games, and you seem about as anxious as you would be playing Mario. Do horror games still scare you?

Katlink: It depends. Loud noises get me no matter what. I don't like loud noises. As soon as something jumps out at me, I’m like, I hate you. Why did you do that? That jump scare was unnecessary. Does it scare me? Not really. It's more like someone's screaming at you. You’re more put off by it. There are some games that make me uneasy. The last game I've been actually scared to go through was PT. Trying to go through those hallways and just hearing the creepiness—there’s something about houses that makes me uncomfortable. You don't know what's going to be around the corner. You don't know what's gonna happen next. And then as soon as a door slowly creaks open and you hear a baby crying, or you see the fridge swinging about, it's terrifying. Nowadays, a lot of developers do a lot of cheap jump scares which, you know, I get it. It works for a majority of people. There are some good ones, but very often, they’re cheap.

Craddock: I know what you mean about houses. The Baker house in Resident Evil VII is one of the scariest locations ever made because it feels like an actual place. It’s grounded in reality.

Katlink: You're not wrong. I appreciate the developers bringing Resident Evil back to that kind of horror element instead of going the more action route. The house feels like a real place, and you have this family that could pop around a corner at any moment. Jack Baker scared me a few times here and there because he just pops up. There are some people who really just thought that RE VII was far too scary. That was surprising to me because I've spent 2500 hours in that game. I can't really fear it anymore; I’ve done speedrunning in that game so much, but sometimes it surprises me.

Craddock: I was at E3 in 2016 when Capcom announced it. Their booth was a facsimile of the Baker house. You went inside this dilapidated building and into a room where you put on a PSVR headset and played the opening moments of the game.

Katlink: That kind of reminds me of the one time I went to a Comic-Con, and Outlast 2 had a booth. They had a whole house setup. You had to like go through these dark hallways, and then you got to play, and kids [attending the show] used to peek in [through cracks in the shack]. That kinda spooked me because I just see a kid’s eyes peeking in from the outside.

Craddock: Kids and houses. That’s scary stuff.

Katlink: Kids are just terrifying. Evelyn from RE VII is a good example. She's got that creepy factor to her.

Craddock: So, I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never played Silent Hill 2.

Katlink: You’ve never played 2?

Craddock: Don’t tell anyone.

Katlink: You really should play it.

Craddock: Now I'm like, well, should I just wait for the wait for the remake? Which actually brings me to my next question. Since you're such a big fan, are you hoping for more of a straight one-to-one remake? Or do you want a Capcom-style remake where they combine what you remember with reimagined areas and mechanics? A little old, a little new.

Katlink: The remake is a touchy subject for a lot of folks these days. Personally, I obviously want it to be what it was, but I also wouldn’t mind if they do a bit of reimagining for certain things. My worry is more so, are they going to rewrite thing? The game leaves a lot to interpretation. I don't want them to rewrite the story; just leave it. But, you know, certain environmental and maybe certain sections of the game could be reworked in ways that aren’t tied to the story.

I just don’t want answers for things. Don't tell me what happens to Angela. Don't tell me where Eddie came from. I just want to keep it very mysterious. With a lot of classic horror games, you kind of make your own story of what happens to some characters. Obviously, many people have researched lore and come to pretty valid conclusion for a lot of scenarios, but I just don't want them to mess with the story. That's it.

David Craddock: Speaking of remakes, I discovered you through your Resident Evil 4 Remake run at GDQ last year. I love that game, but I know that some speedrunners, such as Carci, don’t care for it. What are your thoughts on it?

Katlink: RE4R is interesting. Casually, it’s amazing. Love it. Capcom did an amazing job reimagining that game and all its wonders, and people can still play the original; it’s just as good and still has charm. Speedrun-wise, Carci knows his stuff; for no damage runs, it’s very volatile. No run is the same. The possibilities of what the villagers will do, what the cultists will do, it's just brutal. I like it because it has that randomness to it, and it has some really cool tricks. I love me some glitches and out-of-bounds stuff. Coming from a QA background, I find that stuff fascinating.

So, it has a lot of things I enjoy. Will I continue running it? Probably not. It got very stressful at some points where I was like, okay, I'm trying to get better times, and then a ruin would be ruined near the end and there was nothing I could do about it. That's so unfortunate. I still love the game. It’s just a very brutal speedrun. I don't even run Professional difficulty; I watch people who do, and they lose their damn minds.

Craddock: I’d love to hear more about your QA background. I’ve worked in game development as a narrative designer off and on since 2008. How’d you get started?

Katlink: Many, many, many moons ago, I wanted to move out of my town and I was fascinated with game dev stuff. I wanted to create my own games because I was creative and wanted to make cool stuff. I moved to Montreal. My mom always said, “You could have moved to Toronto.” I was like, “Mom, Montreal is where the game devs are.” That takes me back to the Outlast 2 devs. I had met them at that Comic-Con, and being me and not caring about personal space, I walked up to them and said, “So, how’d you get into this?” I asked them all sorts of questions. One said, “I started in QA.” That seemed like a good idea, although I didn’t immediately get a QA job.

One place I interviewed at had me in a group interview. I was the only woman in a group of 15 people. They weren't going to hire me at first, until one girl sitting in the corner of that room went up to the guy who was interviewing us and said, “I like her. She reminds me of me. Hire her.” I was super-grateful she said that because I might have not gotten the job. I started working with 2K in customer support, and image moderation, which was quite something. I have seen many things. But that was my foot in the door to QA. I said, “I’d love to do QA or anything involved with it. Compatibility, whatever.” Eventually, a spot opened up for compatibility. That entailed building a bunch of PCs, which was cool, and I did some QA on the side as well.

I got to know some devs, and my favorites to interact with were indies. If you presented them with a bug, like, “Hey, something’s going on when I tried to run your game with these specs,” they would immediately say, “Okay! Thank you so much.” They’d write everything down and come back with a new build and ask me to try it. That passion is just so cool to see. Some devs can be up their own butts. But, you know, they don’t like their child being criticized. I get that. It makes sense. But mostly they’re really nice.

Craddock: Did that lead to streaming?

Katlink: I had a friend asked if I’d ever tried it. I was the very vocal game tester in our group. I'd be testing a game and just screaming about stuff, or talking about a character being a dumb little idiot, or whatever. My colleague said I should really try streaming and asked if I knew what it was. I didn’t have a clue. I checked out Twitch and the rest is kind of history.

Craddock: For Shacknews, I was writing a long read about six years ago now for one of Behaviour Interactive’s games. They flew me out to Montreal. When a customs agent asked why I was there, I said, “I’m talking to video game developers,” and they said, “Oh, Ubisoft?”

Katlink: Yeah, Ubisoft is always the first mentioned. The Behaviour devs are very nice. I visited their studio early in Dead By Daylight’s lifecycle, and they were all so lovely.

Craddock: Let’s talk about GDQ. This year, you were on a couple of couches. Carci has told me how one goes about pitching a run to the organizers, but how do you get a spot on a runner’s couch?

Katlink: It often stems a lot from being friends with the runner. They want their support system; they know they mesh well with those people. And it's probably going to be that those people also run the same game, or know a lot about the game, because you talked their ear off about it. I find having good chemistry with your couch is super-important. You don't want some randoms. You’re not going to pull someone off the street and say, “Hey, you wanna be on my couch?” There are instances, such as GDQ’s Frame Fatals, they will offer you couch people because they rarely want you to be alone on this stage. Sometimes there’s nobody I want on my couch and I want to do everything myself because I know I can, but it’s good to have a support system and know you’re not alone. If there’s any dead air, a couch can help with that. You’re trying to make a run as entertaining as possible, and as you can tell, I talk a lot, so it’s not a big deal for me. I will find that dead air and I will smother it.

I’ve had some couches where I’ve gone with the same people because I know I get along with them and can trust they’re not going to say something silly. Something that might make me awkward. I’ve had some couches where people invited themselves. There was one for a smaller event, and my couch were good people, but I was using this run to submit a pitch to GDQ. My couch was swearing up a storm, and I was like, oh, no, we can’t be having that. I had to maneuver around it because I was trying my best to avoid swearing. GDQ doesn't like it when you swear.

Craddock: Yeah, a good couch sounds very important. I also learned from Carci that there were multiple couches this year, and multiple stages. How did that help the event run smoothly?

Katlink: There were two stages and the hosts in the middle. You had A and B stages. While stage A was presenting and running, stage B would be getting set up and ready to go. That really helps with tech checks and getting things prepared. Make sure the game audio is good, and that you can hear the audio and your headsets are good. Can I hear the host? Can I hear the runner? Can the runner hear commentary? Can the runner hear the game properly? There are all sorts of sound checks and a lot to making sure your game works properly. Two stages meant runners didn’t have to stress as much. Obviously, it meant you had to show up to your run a little bit earlier, but it cuts down on downtime for viewers. I think the setup was a really good idea.

Craddock: What can you tell me about the experience of being part of a couch team?

Katlink: Being a speedrunner myself, it's nice to be on the couch so I don't have to stress about doing the run. For this year’s RE4R run at AGDQ, I wasn’t the one who had to worry about things going wrong. I enjoy being there for my friends and making sure they feel comfortable. If they need me to take over for an explanation, it's like, yeah, no problem. I got you. It’s about being a wonderful support system, and I enjoy being a support system. Obviously, I would love my time on the stage, but being on the couch is just as nice.

Craddock: What were you thinking during Carci’s no damage run in RE2R? He’s great at commentating while he plays, so what do you do in a situation like that where a runner doesn’t need that type of support as much?

Katlink: I know Carci and I know Spicee [who ran RE4R at AGDQ 2024]. Spicee is generally a very quiet person. Even on his stream, he will spend a lot of time being quiet. He can talk a lot, but sometimes he needs to focus and I know that, so that's why a lot of the commentary was taking over for him, because RE4 Remake is just a very stressful run. That’s why it’s important to have good communication and a strong bond before a run. It’s just being a friend and understanding what kind of person the runner is and what they need. With Carci, I know he's very good at narrating and commentating. Sometimes I would jump in, and if he said, “I need quiet time,” I would immediately stop. Also, that’s their time. Their run is their moment; if they want to talk, they can talk all they want.

Craddock: There’s an assumption in RE2 Remake runs with Claire where once you defeat G3, the run is pretty much over. Do you think people underestimate her G4 final boss?

Katlink: In a speedrun you can absolutely screw it up. But you're going for speed in that case, right? There’s more on the line if you mess up G4 during a no damage run. As long as you keep your distance and you play a little safely, it's generally a free fight. G3 is more terrifying, and G2, to me, is actually more terrifying. He’s a little bit of a bully and he can be a little random, but when you’re doing these challenge runs, you’ve got strats, and that includes backup plans in case something doesn’t go the way you expect. But I would say G4 is the easiest of the bunch.

Craddock: Let’s talk about Mr. X. When you’re doing a run, are you trying to manipulate him, or is routing more important? As in, if you route correctly, he’ll rarely be a problem because you can avoid him.

Katlink: It's a little bit of both. There are general routes you can take to get around him, but there are certain rooms where you can’t avoid him and have to dodge. When you first interact with him, there's a specific dodge that allows you to just run past him. You just have to bait him, and that’s what he takes sometimes: Bait the hit and then run past him. He's not too scary, but sometimes he has his moments. There are two of him that can show up. Apparently, that’s a thing that can happen.

Craddock: That… that is terrifying.

Katlink: A friend has an anecdote where he was doing a casual playthrough, a Hardcore difficulty run on Claire’s B campaign. He was running down a hallway and went into the main [hall], and then went back to the hallway. All the sudden, Mr. X came through a door, and then another Mr. X came through another door. He was like, “What do I do?” You don’t really prepare for that. It’s something that’s random and that shouldn’t happen, but it did.

Craddock: As we wind down, what can you tell me about what you’re working on and what you’ve got planned for your channel?

Katlink: My channel is mainly focused on the horror genre. I play a lot of the classics. I also play a lot of indie horror; that’s probably my most popular stuff. I like to give input to a lot of indie developers. Some took my ideas and their game did really well, which was a proud moment for me. I have a lot of indie developers reach out to me to check out their game because depending on the type of horror it is, I’ll play it. I don’t play any kind of horror. If it’s a side scroller or asymmetrical, those aren’t really my jam, but I might try it just to give input.

I was working on Silent Hill 2’s hard mode, plank only, on a dance pad.

Craddock: Wow.

Katlink: I'm an idiot. I got hard-stopped [author’s note: A point where one cannot progress] on a certain boss because fighting them with a plank is not great. I might revisit that run, but with weapons. Maybe I’ll add the option to use the shotgun or pistol because my goodness, using just a plank is like bashing your head against a wall. That’s a project I’m looking forward to getting back to. I also love speedrunning. I took a pretty long break because I haven't been able to find anything that I like. I was doing a lot of indie horror speedruns, but those can be hit or miss. Since RE VII, I haven't been able to find one I can grind for many hours. But I’m still playing Silent Hill 2, especially with the hype around the remake. It’s been nice to get back into doing chill runs.

I also like playing silly games like Jazzpunk. I ran it for GDQ one year; I did the 100 percent speedrun category for it. I love slapstick comedy and weird games that do the unexpected. It’s good for streams where you’re entertaining folks because chat is like, “What is even happening,” and you try to explain the silliness they’re witnessing.