Visage Devs Speak About P.T. Influence, Game Length, and More

"It won't be easy."

By Ryan McCaffrey and Chloi Rad

Visage has become an out-of-nowhere hit with horror fans. The upcoming first-person scare-fest from SadSquare Studio in Quebec has millions of views on YouTube and, thanks to surpassing its crowdfunding goals, will also be getting a PS4 and Xbox One release as well as its originally planned PC version. We chatted with the SadSquare team about their imminent debut project.

How would you describe Visage for someone who’s never heard of it?

SadSquare: Visage is a surreal psychological horror game taking place in an old, gigantic house where unfathomable horror hides behind the banalities of a normal but ever-changing house. You play Dwayne, a mysterious man haunted by malign entities of the past. As you venture in the surreal world, you learn of the stories that tie you to this horrific place. Your goal is to uncover the truth behind it all, via thorough exploration and meticulous examination of the environment around you. It won't be easy.

Does the game take place in a single house? If yes, how do you keep a single setting scary for a whole game?

This is a tricky question. In a sense yes, the whole game takes place in a single house, but the player will be thrown in a multitude of very surreal settings seemingly spawned from nightmares. Although a great fraction of the game is indeed in the main house. As a player, you'll soon realize how unrealistically big it is, and what secrets hide in each and every corner. Not only that, the house will change based on many different things, like your character's stress level, what chapter you're in, or what path you'll walk.

Are you going for a lot of jump scares, building a mood, or both? What's the tone of Visage?

SadSquare: With Visage, we are trying to create a lasting sense of dread and fear, using the uncanny as our main tool. It pretty much means we're going for the moody type of scare, building tense atmosphere around the duality of the mundane and abnormality. A good example of this type of fear would be to go in your kitchen only to find that everything is upside-down. There's no monster or machete-wielding psychopath, but it's freakily scary nonetheless. That's what we're mainly going for, but don't you worry – no horror-inducing tricks will be left behind. Jump-scares, chase scenes, gore, it's all there. We just like to pave the way for the climaxes with unpredictability, deafening silences, tense atmosphere and confusion, slowly getting into the player's head before anything even happens. That's what psychological horror is all about.

There are no weapons in Visage and the player has no way of defending themselves. What does that bring to the experience of Visage?

SadSquare: From the very start of the project, we really put forth the idea to make the game as scary as we possibly can. We don't pretend that Visage will be one of the scariest game you'll ever get to play, but that's definitely what we're aiming for. Being defenseless adds a tension that can't be present in a more action-oriented game like Resident Evil. When you have the option to fight back, it gives you some reassurance that you can possibly end up on top of things. We want none of that. We want the player to feel like he is at the mercy of his enemies, which he literally is. (There might be some exceptions to that rule in the game, though. ;-))

It’s been hinted that Visage has a sort of insanity meter, and that players must “avoid terror” to keep it low. How does that work?

SadSquare: Many things will affect your character's stress in Visage, some obvious such as the presence of light, some more obscure, like looking at a unsettling picture or hearing loud noises. The player is given tools to manage the stress to avoid unfortunate situations, but that, the player will need to find on his own. Visage is an exploration-driven game, but boy oh boy, it doesn't mean it's an easy game.

What have been some of your greatest inspirations while working on Visage? Anything that people wouldn’t expect?

SadSquare: Let's start with the obvious: Silent Hills' Playable Teaser was the first thing that inspired us. The extremely realistic setting and absolutely mind-blowingly terrifying atmosphere really got to us, and we wanted more like many, many people did. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled, so we decided to create our own game with the goal to satisfy our own and all horror fans' thirst for terror.

Visage's horror was inspired by many games and movies, ranging from American horror movies such as The Conjuring, Insidious or Sinister with their more guttural fright to Japanese's tension masterpieces Ju-on (The Grudge), Ringu (The Ring) or Kairo (Pulse), but it has become something entirely of its own through development built around a tight crossing of the mundane and the surreal to create a confusing and frightening experience.

Gameplay-wise, players who have played Amnesia: The Dark Descent will feel somewhat at home, but with the addition of quite a bunch of new unfamiliar gimmicks.

If there's anything you haven’t spoken about yet that you want players to know, please do!

SadSquare: Much has been said about Visage already, but I guess we've never mentioned how much time it will take to complete the game. The game features multiple endings and the time it takes to reach each ending differs greatly from one another. You can expect to finish the game in generally 8 to 10 hours, but you can also obtain an ending in just one hour, while completionists will be playing for 15 to 20 hours.

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