  Crafting Nightmares: Why Amnesia's Dark Descent terrifies
audiences  Mike Bracken's picture  Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Screenshot  When it comes to horror, I'm genuinely jaded. After
spending most of my adult life writing about countless films in
the genre and reading everything from H.P. Lovecraft to Richard
Laymon, I'm largely desensitized to jump scares and gross outs.
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the efforts of those
creating scares, though. In fact, I find the opposite to be
true. I think I appreciate a well done film, book or game even
more now because I have such an intimate understanding of how
fear is created. Much like a good joke, scaring people appears
deceptively simple—the truth is, it's not. What scares us is
arguably as broad and subjective as what makes us laugh. What
one person finds terrifying or hilarious may not faze me at all,
and vice versa. Trying to discover universal fears and keep them
fresh and frightening is a huge challenge.   The brainchild of
Swedish indie developers