Remedy's creative director explains the horror design behind Backrooms and liminal spaces

Summary

The creative director of Control Resonant (a Remedy Entertainment project) discusses the design philosophy behind liminal spaces and Backrooms in video games. The article explores how Remedy crafts unsettling, empty environments that evoke a sense of dread and unease, drawing parallels between the Backrooms internet phenomenon and the studio's approach to environmental storytelling. The creative director explains the psychological principles that make liminal spaces terrifying, including the uncanny valley effect applied to architecture, the disruption of familiar spatial expectations, and how emptiness can be more frightening than explicit horror elements.