•A new trailer for Hell Is Other People, a psychological horror game described as being about social anxiety, has been unveiled by indie developer Miss Self Destruct during the inaugural Cozy After Escuro Showcase.
The showcase arrived alongside the teaser at “just the right time” for those who have missed the Tim Burton-style horror games of the early 2010s, such as Fran Bow and Alice: Madness Returns.
The developer describes Hell Is Other People—named after the famous Jean-Paul Sartre quote about being trapped in other people’s perceptions of you—as “a psychological horror about social anxiety.”
The game follows a young girl protagonist with onyx eyes and hair that reaches nearly down to her fingertips. She appears otherwise normal, curling up each night on a thin mattress like any lonely child. But this is not how her mother sees her.
“See what I have to deal with?” the mother says as the little girl stares politely at a party tray of frosted cupcakes.
The game’s Steam description explains that players won’t collect items in an inventory, but rather social skills. The girl responds to her mother’s snide comment with Guilt—a feeling that isn’t particularly impactful. She becomes paranoid, making lines of dialogue appear to jumble and melt together as she explains: “When I feel bad, people become so hard to read.”
Players must manage these shifting emotions by consulting a notebook for how “normal” people behave.
The game features a Gothic caricature aesthetic, complete with black cats sporting sharp syringe teeth and patterned arsenic wallpaper. It positions itself as what one might call a social survival game.
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