Games And Horror, a Psychgeist series, edited by Chrstine Tomlinson.
The allure of horror in media is sometimes difficult to fully understand. It can be uncomfortable, engaging us in discourse, content, and aesthetics that are disturbing, frightening, and sometimes disgusting. This is seemingly at odds with the major typical reasons to engage with media: relaxation and leisure. Despite these elements of horror, however, it can be found across media types and has been reflecting cultural fears and finding audiences since gothic horror literature emerged in the late 1700s, providing those consuming this media with allegories, metaphorical representations of cultural fears, and a potential for catharsis.
Following these traditions, video games also reflect, use, explore, and playfully engage with elements of horror, from their narratives to their aesthetic design. Major titles and franchises offer numerous opportunities to be scared and explore the psychological elements of guilt, fear, and trauma, from Silent Hill to Alan Wake. Beyond the genre of survival horror, wherein players must often run, hide, and keep themselves safe with scarce resources, there are pockets of horror that can be found in popular role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate III, in pseudo-dating-sim games like Doki Doki Literature Club, or even cozy horror that can be more safely explored by players of games like Beacon Pines.
Given the broad landscape of possibility when it comes to video games and horror, the forms it takes in video games, and the reasons that players seek out a multitude of horror-related play opportunities, this collection explores the forms, formats, and allure of horror across a range of video games. Games and Horror illuminates the multifaceted existence of horror in video games, delving into player engagement with horror as a genre or with borrowed elements of horror across genres. This collection seeks to illuminate what makes diverse forms of horror in video games enticing and effective. Why do we seek horror in games? What design elements make horror frightening, gripping, and chilling? How does horror impact the play experience?
Below is a list of possible topics, but those interested can submit ideas that extend beyond these suggestions.
Possible Topics:
- The psychology of fear: What draws us to horror in games?
- The evolution of horror in video games: Changes in technology, society, and impacts of horror game content.
- Metaphors and meaning: Cultural and cross-cultural readings, experiences, and designs of fear.
- The role of environmental design, sound, and aesthetics in horror games.
- Across genre horror: Mashups and other explorations of horror as segments of play.
- New frontiers of horror: Exploring the uncanny, the frightening, and the horrific in new technologies.
- Diversity and representation in horror games.
- Serious horror: Using horror games in education or therapy.
Submissions from first-time authors, graduate students, early career researchers, and authors from non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged!
Please send abstracts (300-500 words) and author bios (up to 250 words) to Christine.Tomlinson@asu.edu by 13 February 2026 if interested.