Read how Halloween aims to elevate immersion to offer the perfect horror playground.
From its earliest iterations, Halloween has been built with the goal of delivering a dynamic, enveloping horror sandbox worthy of the legacy of its iconic source IP. As horror fans, we understand the importance of frighteningly relatable locations, believable characters, and dread-inducing situations, and wanted to ensure those fundamentals were presented throughout Halloween.
As an homage to the meticulously crafted execution of John Carpenter’s: Halloween, our team has worked diligently to recreate the quaint town of Haddonfield as a living, breathing game world for players to exhaustively explore. Working with Malek Akkad and Ryan Freimann, the original producers of the films, has been amazing to make certain that the game is authentic to the source material every step of the way.
“This franchise gives us the perfect opportunity to explore the unique, yet familiar vibes of Haddonfield and its iconic Killer. Everything we’ve built and designed comes together to create the perfect horror sandbox playground to interact with. We couldn't be more thrilled to develop such an experience and truly bring players into the world of Halloween. It’s an exciting challenge; to craft a time, place, and lifestyle that sets the stage for recreating the terrifying experiences of the original film.
Not only did we get to build one of the most iconic killers of all time, but we also got to reconstruct Haddonfield as a period accurate 1978 town, filled with unique interior and exterior gameplay spaces. While Michael stalks and kills in these seemingly safe streets, the victims work to scour the world for helpful items to fight back against the Shape before it's too late. We've built a suburban playground brimming with endless opportunities that empowers players to star in their own horror movies, where their choices decide the fates of everyone around them,” shares Jordan Mathewson, Design Director, IllFonic.
Effective scares are often executed through a careful concoction of stark lighting, unsettling atmosphere, anxious musical stabs, and most importantly - the element of unpredictability. Halloween leverages Unreal Engine 5 to provide convincing in-game locations and familiar landmarks from Haddonfield with an expansive array of dynamic map features, distinct gameplay systems, and life-like NPC interactions - all accompanied by haunting visuals and chilling audio that adapts to the world and actions around you.
“Since day one, our mission has been attempting to honor the aesthetics captured in the original film. We’ve thrived to faithfully recreate the look, feeling, and tone of the horror classic. The 70s were a very specific moment in time in terms of style and decor, and we made sure to immerse ourselves in those design principles to provide convincing environments reminiscent of the era. We want players to feel connected to the authenticity of Haddonfield,” Cole Gray, Art Director at IllFonic explains. “Our teams combed through every frame of the film to ensure the visual fidelity and presentation was fitting of our horror sandbox. Today’s technological advancements enabled us to more potently recreate the noir in the film.”
Whether it’s allowing players to step behind the mask and shape the critical narrative events of “The Night He Came Home” through the eyes of Michael Myers in a standalone single player story mode or cooperating with friends as the Heroes of Haddonfield to rescue innocent residents in elevated asymmetrical multiplayer matches, we’re heavily investing in core systems designed to foster engaging, unpredictable sessions with endless replayability. Our commitments to sandbox-first design decisions are guiding these principles and we can’t wait for players to experience Halloween for themselves.
“Replayability is such a critical component to any compelling gameplay loop, which is why we’ve dedicated extra development time to ensure we deliver a cohesive and endlessly replayable horror game. The foundations of our design goals center around an engaging core that breeds infinite possibilities throughout the game, regardless of how you choose to play. From the moment-to-moment gameplay to the front end metagame progression experience, there will be consistent possibilities evolving around you. The feature and mechanic alchemy throughout Halloween has been catered to allow for expansive gameplay combinations, ensuring you’re being fed that tantalizing sense of excitement, while leaving you hungry for more!” Jordan adds.
Stay sharp and follow @HalloweenTVG on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
or join the games subreddit at r/HalloweenTVG.