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You may have noticed a growing trend in recent years for horror games that focus more on implied danger and suspense than hyper-graphic monsters, gore, and complexly drawn antagonists. This trend is not limited to games, of course – the monumentally popular release of horror titles like Obsession, Exit 8 and Backrooms in movie theatres is a testament to the current direction of popular horror.
But video games are an entirely different breed for most of us. That immersiveness means most of us found the Backrooms game scarier than the much-anticipated movie, despite it receiving (mostly) rave reviews.
Stuck in the Present is yet another upcoming release that promises to speak to our current preoccupation with ‘everyday’ horror. Set below ground in the familiar yet liminal world of the Toronto subway system, the game is a complex allegory that will see players navigate deeper into the city’s underbelly. Like Backrooms, it represents another title where the setting itself blurs the line between ‘backdrop’ and ‘character’, proving that the most threatening element in a story doesn’t need to be a conscious one – or, at least, not in the traditional sense. Ever there, ever watching, and ever adapting to the characters’ movements, fear, and decision-making, it poses the same insidious threat as a human antagonist while remaining omnipresent and inescapable.
The project is fronted by Mars Balisacan, who previously worked at Dusk Wave Arts and has past experience in Triple-A development, for Embersail, an indie development studio based in Canada. The decision to draw inspiration from familiar ground and set a horror game in what is, to most of us, one of the most mundane environments imaginable is a fascinating departure from haunted houses and abandoned towns. Given the success of Backrooms, which plants players in what is, for all intents and purposes, simply a sprawling, anonymous corporate-themed labyrinth, whose power largely stems from its threatening familiarity, Embersail could find that this is the ideal time for the game’s release.
Canada has spent much of the past few years demonstrating its authority in the global video games market. Despite not being one of the ‘heavy hitters’ of the tech industry in comparison to California, Japan, or the UK , cities like Vancouver and Toronto are positioning themselves at the head of the charge forward into new, unchartered territories.
Toronto is no stranger to Triple-A studios, having welcomed Ubisoft Toronto more than fifteen years ago. The still-growing popularity of online casino in Canada also represents another major enterprise that is drawing creative talent from all over the world, while indie game development is also growing in response to player demands for new projects, novel IP, and the kind of risk-taking that the titan studios are more averse to.
It’s only fitting that Toronto’s backdrop for all this innovation and creativity would go on to become a central character of its own. While Canada has long served as the backdrop for innovation in this industry, it’s exciting to see it as a literal backdrop in a brand-new title.
lead photo Empty subway platform at Sheppard West.
photo by Anil Baki Durmus
