with Chelsea Russell (Host), Jeremy Andriano, and Patrick R. Dolan

Broadcast Date: 28 October, 2024

Writer: Chelsea Russell

Producer: Patrick R. Dolan

A perfect game for a podcast episode during the spooky season, Supermassive Games’ 2022 addition to their Dark Pictures Anthology, The Devil in Me blends historical intrigue with an interactive, choice-based narrative and classic adventure game mechanics that let the player shape the outcome in unsettling ways. The Devil in Me is an emerging style of videogame that focuses on choice-based narratives and builds on traditions that can be traced to the LaserDisc games of the 1980s, like Dragon’s Lair (Cinematronics, 1983), and the point-and-click adventure genre popularized by games such as The Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts, 1990). Starting with rudimentary inputs to move from one cutscene to the next, this meta-genre’s gameplay has grown to use several aspects of modern controls like dual joystick inputs, gyroscopic motion, and haptic feedback. This episode discusses how The Devil in Me uses horror as a vehicle to explore broader, more philosophical themes like trust, manipulation, and morality. It goes beyond simple scares and taps into the psychology of human behaviour—how we react when pushed to our limits, and how our decisions can shape not just our fate, but the fate of those around us. It discusses how the game’s narrative addresses issues of player choice and consequence, its use of history (based on serial killer H. H. Holmes and his so-called ‘Murder Castle’), the portrayals of the game’s characters, and the ways in which The Devil in Me reflects the evolution of the interactive horror game.

All audio clips in the podcast quoted from The Devil in Me.

Sources and Resources:

• Bandai Namco. The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me Overview. 2022.
• Crecente, Brian. “How Supermassive Games redefined itself and birthed The Dark Pictures Anthology.” Unreal Engine, October 20, 2021.
• Donnelly, Joe. “The Devil in Me could be the best of The Dark Pictures Anthology yet.” GamesRadar+, October 24, 2022.
• Fillari, Alessandro. “Evolving a horror aesthetic with The Dark Pictures Anthology.” Game Developer, March 23, 2023.
• Idle Game Chat: The Video Game Podcast. “The Devil In Me [podcast].” Dimp Digital, June 16, 2024.
• Jasmin. “The challenges in game writing.” Digitales, June 19, 2020.
• KindaFunny Gamescast. “Gary Whitta rants about video games .” Reddit, August 6, 2024.
• Marshall, Cass. “The Devil in Me tackles the true-crime craze, and it’s scary as hell.” Polygon, November 22, 2022.
• Ogilvie, Tristan. “The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me Review.” IGN, November 17, 2022.
• Sousa, Isis. “The art of making horror games .” IAMAG Master Classes, n.d.
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: Community Discussion [r/thedarkpictures]. Reddit.
• Supermassive Games: https://www.supermassivegames.com/.