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Fear the Spotlight

Asthmatic low-fi horror on a spirit board - Fear the Spotlight Interview

Crista and Brian from Cozy Game Pals talk about low-poly horror, the occult, marrying old-school nostalgia with modern gaming, or the multiple meanings behind the "Fear the Spotlight" title in this interview we filmed in LA right after the game was announced by Blumhouse at SGF Live.

Audio transcription

"Okay, we're in LA for the Summer Game Fest and you know the other day I played Fear the Spotlight.
I do fear the spotlight now and it's very lucky for us to have you guys because we couldn't talk the other day and now I wanted to learn more about it."

"And the first thing I would like to ask is, I'm asthmatic myself.
So I've been all my whole life holding an inhaler with me.
So this is going to have a special impact on me.
Is it something personal of yours that you wanted to convey?
Like this sort of anxiety that gets you when you really can't breathe properly?
Yeah, it's very inspired by like friends and family."

"Like my sisters both have asthma and had to have inhalers growing up as well.
And it was just more like an interesting twist on like, it's like a real thing.
Like you know usually in games it's like bandages or health juice.
But I feel like yeah, asthma is also like another fun way to twist that like health item."

"It was a staple of the movies from the 90s too.
I think it was in the Goonies where we could see someone like need an inhaler, right?
I feel like it's been in like Stephen King books and things like that.
Yeah, for sure."

"It's all about the 90s too.
It's low-fi, low-poly, PCX-like, you know wobbling polygons and I love that.
It's also trendy.
It's also trendy."

"We were discussing this but you guys didn't do this because it was trendy already.
It was something that you guys wanted to try on your own.
Yeah, for sure.
I think this game, like it started off as a passion project."

"Really just all the things that we know and all the things that we like.
So horror, we love horror movies and games.
And that love really started with like the PlayStation era of games.
And even with the asthma thing."

"It's like we include the things that we know and the people that we know.
That's why it takes place in like a high school, an American high school with American teenagers.
And yeah, kids with asthma.
So it's really just a mix of all the things that we love and know for sure."

"Why does the protagonist fear the spotlight?
I mean, we were like crouching down the table and then the light come over and she was like, yeah, very nervous.
I think it's just she was nervous.
It's not that the light has a magic effect on her."

"It's just that like she got the lungs.
You can see the lungs in the menu.
So is that how it works?
Or is it some magic into it like making her feel really worse?
I think it's like it's a very explicit character choice because it's very relatable to me."

"Like I'm a very nervous person.
Like I'm not a very brave person, even though I like horror.
So I feel like her fears like a lot of this game is about like this protagonist conquering her fears.
So I think her as a nervous person, you see the layers of that and like what that means for her to overcome her fears."

"And then, you know, sorry. Yeah.
And I'll add that like the title Fear the Spotlight has multiple meanings that become more apparent as you play through the game.
So by the time you're done playing the game, hopefully you can dissect the title even more and understand more meaning behind it.
That was the other half of the answer."

"Yeah. Nice. Nice.
I I like how, you know, this low file, low poly games can actually it gave me the chills.
It can actually really be horrifying or at least, you know, scary in a way.
So the way you guys it starts like building the tension and then all falls apart."

"And then this friend of the protagonist, she's she's very confident in herself.
She's not the nervous one, but then all goes very creepy.
So how do you guys try to try to make that happen?
You know, with this sort of non-realistic graphics, like, you know, to be really scary."

"Yeah, I always think like when you have limitations or you don't show things, it's always scarier because the view in your brain will paint anything.
You'll imagine something scary than I can show you.
So I think something to the limitations of not showing too much, but also being more simplified in this low poly, like you kind of fill in the blanks of what's there."

"And it's very it gets to me and it works for me.
So, yeah, that's a big inspiration.
Yeah, and I think it's also marrying sort of old school games and aesthetics with more modern touches.
So like the pacing and the sound is definitely a lot more modern so that we can marry like sort of our nostalgia with all the things developers have learned about making games over 20 years or 30 years now."

"And we can kind of marry those to hopefully make the atmosphere and the tension build up.
And the way the world transforms is really modern.
You wouldn't see that in, you know, Resident Evil for the PSX or Silent Hill, right?
Another very 90s thing is the spirit board."

"So without getting into a spoiler territory, what can you say about, you know, this whole, you know, dealing with the occult and the whole spirit board thing?
Yeah, I feel like the premise is just very inspired by the horror movies that we like.
I feel like it's just a very classic like, yeah, like, you know, exorcist kind of start to the whole thing."

"But also like if you know horror, you're like already dreading like, oh, no, not this.
You're really going to mess with that stuff, man.
Like you already are talking to the screen that something bad is going to happen and it goes wrong.
But we also just love ghosts like like a reason for ghosts to start coming out."

"So it's just like a perfect way to like get the game started.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, and the other thing that you guys use is that the way it's very difficult to move."

"And I guess that's on purpose.
That's also classical that you are you have these difficulties, no matter if you have asthma or not.
The controls are supposedly like difficult to move in a way.
Right."

"Yeah, for sure.
I think there's a lot of directions you can go, like a lot of classic survival horror includes combat.
Like you get a big stick and you smack monsters with it.
We wanted to not have that because we felt like it felt our characters and our setting better to have your teenage girl with asthma."

"So you're not going to go around attacking big monsters.
So we want to make sure you do feel scared and weak.
And instead of fighting, there's monsters in the game or mainly one big monster.
Instead of fighting it, you're hiding and sneaking and trying to make your way past it."

"So hopefully the controls stay simple so a lot of people can play the game.
But we also make sure the way it plays is in character is like slow and scared.
Yeah.
And you have to press a button to run."

"You move the camera slowly on purpose.
OK.
Yeah.
Looking great.
What's the status of the project?
You guys just announced it here at Summer Game Fest."

"So when are you guys releasing and on which platform can we expect it to release?
Yeah.
This year.
It'll be this year.
We're almost done."

"Just the home stretch.
And we're going to be on all consoles and PC.
Yeah.
You can wish list it now on Steam and all the other store pages are coming soon."

"But yeah, all consoles this year.
And you can have graphics rendered at 480p and 360p, which is a really nice touch.
So thank you so much for your time.
And let's fear the spotlight later this year."

"Thank you.
You're so welcome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you."

"Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you."

"Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you."

"Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you."

"Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you."

"Thank you.
Thank you."

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