Published , by Lexi Luddy
Published , by Lexi Luddy
There is something following you. Through the streets. Through the crowds. No matter how far you run, how many times you think they couldn’t possibly know where you are… it follows you.
That is the basic set-up of the upcoming horror indie game, CROWDED. FOLLOWED. a claustrophobic and tense experience that takes huge inspiration from the 2014 horror classic It Follows. Shane Ferry, Creative Director at developer Night Dial told me, “It’s one of my favourite horror films and [CROWDED. FOLLOWED.] is kind of a love letter to the film, really… We’re trying to capture the same feeling that you get watching that film in a game.”
If you have seen David Robert Mitchell’s cult classic, you’ll know that the horror of that film is quite unlike any of its contemporaries. It’s a film that is purposefully out of place and time - somehow retro and slightly futuristic at the same time, filmed in the starkly have-and-have-nots outskirts of Detroit - all designed to make the viewer feel off-kilter and out of place. The horror of that movie is also much more pervasive than others, from the moment of its inciting incident the evermore distraught and paranoid Mika Monore plays a character that is never safe, as an otherworldly, yet distinctly human, entity makes its way towards her.
Ferry explains that while enemies, like Mr. X or the Alien in Alien Isolation, that track you throughout an experience are common in games, much of the tension and gameplay comes from how you subvert them. “Mr. X is an example in Resident Evil [2]. You can shoot him [until he takes a knee], you can run away until he disappears for a while”, said Ferry. In CROWDED. FOLLOWED., this isn’t the case. You can’t hide from the entity, you can’t damage it, and it always knows exactly where you are. Instead, you have to manage your stamina (and an inhaler) as you deal with “People as an obstacle”, be it getting into a club or making your way through a bustling pedestrian tunnel.
These minimalistic mechanics might make you think this game would be easier to make, but for Ferry, it caused a problem as very few other games could be used as reference points. He explains, “It was quite difficult to find examples… Nemesis and Mr. X or the Tyrant are good examples, but again they have combat and [Resident Evil and other games] keep the gameplay interesting by [making you deal with] zombies or shooting mechanics or hiding or stealth.” Ferry wanted to create a horror game where you felt truly powerless to defend yourself and only capable of continuing to survive.
While games couldn’t be used to draw a lot of inspiration, reality could be and that is reflected in the game’s vague Northern Irish setting. Characters speak with heavy Belfast accents, and while Ferry says he designed levels around what would be stressful environments to be in - like subways, nightclubs, and busy streets - first and foremost, he explained that “a lot of Northern Irish art assets came into it [through development].” The result is something strikingly akin to It Follows’ out of place-ness, especially if you have visited the northern parts of Ireland before. There, streets and clubs might sound and look a bit like Belfast, but the infrastructure and vibe are off in a deeply disconcerting way.
These local influences go further than just the setting, as with Ferry being based out of Belfast, it opened the door to local collaborators. This included chiptune artist and proud Strabane woman, Niamh “Chipzel” Houston. Houston is no stranger to the game dev scene, having composed the music for Terry Cavanagh’s indie hits Super Hexagon and Dicey Dungeons, and has contributed work to River City Girls and Frog Fractions: Game of The Decade Edtion. Ferry explains that this collaboration was a matter of circumstance and good fortune, “I was showcasing the game at an event in Belfast called Render,” a local game dev meet-up where devs could get feedback on their work. Ferry was there showcasing his game and with his day job at Bellular Studios, his coworkers at Bellular introduced him to Houston and “she came over towards the end of the night [and] tried it and, I don’t know if it was a joke at first, but she was like ‘Oh, I’d love to do music for this, like I love to do horror music.’” While little materialized from that conversation at the time, Ferry was later granted additional funding by Northern Ireland Screen, the film and entertainment promotional agency in the region. They quickly started working together on a soundtrack that Ferry describes as pulling from the likes of John Carpenter and horror films in the 80s, with some higher tempo tracks mixed in.
Ferry explains that the evergrowing grassroots horror game scene on websites like Itch.io and Twitch has been a huge boon for the industry, telling me that he first decided to make an Itch.io demo after playing some other short experiences. “I was looking at this being like, ‘This is really fun, it's really cool, but I feel like I do this,” said Ferry. “There’s not that many crazy mechanics behind horror games. It’s mostly focused on the audio side of things and [creating] the atmosphere and tension.” And while storefronts like Steam are only getting harder and harder to get traction on Ferry believes that thanks to its unique inspiration and style it has been able to catch content creators' and players’ attention.
While the game is already doing quite well on Steam in terms of Wishlist numbers, Ferry explains that the game being financially successful is only a bonus. “It’s not a money thing for me at all. I just make cool horror games because I feel that’s how good games are made,” he explains. “If you come at a game design document where you’re thinking ‘Oh, this needs to make a shitload of money.’ Then it’s probably going to be shite. I came at it with [a] love for horror films and love for the film It Follows. I wanted to scare people and recreate that feeling that you get from watching It Follows.”
FOLLOWED. CROWDED. releases on Steam on October 24, 2024.