The Hot New Indie Horror Genre | Fully Ramblomatic

[@grfrjiglstan]

Stealing from one person is plagiarism, stealing from many people is inspiration, and many people stealing from one person is a new genre.

[@TemperusMaximusM41]

Do you feel like a game designer yet?

[@smokinggnu6584]

I've been told that this is how writers work too.

[@gimmedataids]

All the black skimask kids in my neighborhood started a new genre at the Footlocker the other day

[@LapsedPacifist79]

@@gimmedataids 😂

[@n0isyturtle]

There are only so many ideas you can utilize for a horror concept. Horror as a genre and concept, leads to the boxing in of creativity. But that is not the appeal for people who love it, and most horror fans when presented with a fresh and new concept outside of their known perceptions, will hate it or say it's not really horror. Just the way it is.

[@kingsleycy3450]

Maybe Kojima's greatest feat of genius is never completing P.T., thus ensuring that it exists as a primordial perfect game inspiring countless developers

[@RaxusXeronos]

Yeah cus that game was supposed to be a new Silent Hill right? Theres no way it would've ended up with the same feeling as PT. It obviously would've been third person because, of course, had to show off photorealistic Norman Reedus. And would've had combat so it wouldn't be AS scary if you can shoot the spooky thing in the face. Though I would've liked to see if he could retain the atmosphere because holy shit PT was scary without jumpscares.

[@JTProud]

Ah, the old Half-Life 3 gambit

[@linktomario712]

That makes just way too much sense

[@originalindigodingo]

​@@RaxusXeronoshis next game had you fighting invisnle ghosts while a bay screamed in your ear, so I think he threaded that needle pretty well.

[@Doktor_Vem]

@@RaxusXeronos P.T. definitely had jumpscares, though. There were only like 2 or 3 that I remember vividly but they definitely existed and most certainly succeded in making many people shit their pants

[@TheBrianJ]

Finally, Yahtzee gets around to reviewing the Anomalomalanaomaaolamoanlaoamaomlalay Genre

[@GameDevYal]

Yahtzee kinda just mentions it in passing, but I think the main reason why anomaly hunt games got so popular is the whole "contrast between subtle and unmistakable anomalies" thing - you WILL need to be paranoid and take super close looks on everything to succeed, due to the subtle anomalies, and that forces you to drop your guard so that when the giant creepy things happens, they hit you for the maximum possible effect. (Also the ceiling mold anomaly from The Exit 8 looks like a creepy face covering the entire ceiling, it's just very easy to miss since players subconsciously never look up)

[@theomegajuice8660]

I agree with this and you'll also notice that the games started out mostly being "find if there is an anomaly this time round" to "there are several anomalies and you have to find them all". People enjoy being in the uncanny creepy situation and the latter means you always have a level of uncertainty and can't relax even if you find one really big obvious difference

[@1Raptor85]

honestly the big problem with anomalies like that is since there's only 1-2 ceiling ones in many of these games they train you to look everywhere but up so you easily miss those and it gets frustrating, the game could cheat a little by making sure a more obvious anomaly is on the ceiling before the hard to spot ones so you at least have a hint that you may need to look up at some point.

[@astrotrek3534]

If the player looks up they actually see a scout standing on a weird piece of level geometry

[@C0C0L0QUIN]

players are NPCs of a stealth game confirmed

[@1Raptor85]

@@C0C0L0QUIN doesn't help that playing on a monitor/tv gives you a pretty narrow view where you don't have any peripheral vision at all, so you have to actually tilt up to see things above you where IRL you would likely see them on the edge of your vision and look up.

[@Cyan-hide]

With hindsight, it's kind of a no-brainer that spot-the-difference would make for good horror. Having the player self-inflict themselves with paranoia seems like one of the ideal thing for horror, just like how an obscured monster has the player's imagination do a lot of the leg-work.

[@N8Dawgg314]

It's also a great way to force the player to engage with the horror. Traditional survival horror games you can get over the fear by learning how to most effectively kill the monsters. Amnesia/Outlast style horror you can still hide from the monsters and as a conscious choice try not to look at them so you experience as little of the scariness as possible. Even FNAF if you do the game well there's barely any jump scares at all, especially since to beat them you need to be 100% familiar with every single scare in the games. With these though, no matter how scared you are, you can't avoid them because seeing them IS the game. Monster right behind you waiting to jumpscare you when you turn around? Can't just cleverly complete the level without turning around, you need to deal with it to examine everything. Hell, for the "Observation Duty" series the entire point is to catalogue the exact nature of the things happening so you have to stare at the weird naked man eventually or you won't be able to tell if he's a Type A or Type B creepy guy or whatever.

[@theomegajuice8660]

Hidden object games have been a really popular sub-genre of games for ages however they've been neglected and treated as "not real games" by quite a lot of people

[@megapussi]

@@N8Dawgg314 To give a little bit of credit to FNAF, the idea is that, when you first play the game, you are not 100% familiar with every single scare. The tension comes from the uncertainty, the seemingly inscrutable nature of the machines. Even if your current strategy will beat the night, you dont necessarily know that yet, so there is still tension and then a sense of relief when you manage to get to the end. The games very intentionally do not make it clear how everything works, meaning if youre playing blind you never actually reach that point of 100% familiarity.

[@iller3]

"Horror" ?? ..that's stretching the term a bit, it's more like "first world Anxiety" simulators

[@jasonblalock4429]

@@N8Dawgg314 Sound design, too. I got bored of Dead Space halfway through, because I'd sorted out all the various clanging and groaning sound effects, and which ones meant baddies nearby. Games like that become very tedious once you can predict most of the jumpscares. (See also: Doom 3.)

[@ricardoediza2690]

Yathzee should release several versions of this video and then put 1 error somewhere in them

[@E1craZ4life]

What about a version that plays like Detective Kimball from American Psycho?

[@Esitaro3670]

I was thinking the same!

[@Blueisland-e9m]

He should have a version where he looks like the ZP version of himself or a replace the dog with a imp.

[@CyphDragon]

How do you know that he hasn't? A/B testing is a thing, you know...

[@idanbhk3875]

He did. This version has an anomalomaly in the way he pronounces "alomanelomy".

[@gaberahamlincoln7358]

I feel like Prey is a close idea of what AAA might do with an anomaly hunt: give you the ability to shoot the anomalies.

[@IanMcCloghrie]

Or become them.

[@dastvan8002]

I was thinking that or Control

[@gameoverman-h1r]

I mean, Prey is great, I stared down far too many coffee cups and chairs only to be attacked by a plant

[@948320z]

"Not a mimic" (the post-it note is a mimic)

[@NotSoMelancholy]

An even better example from the same game might be it’s Timeloop DLC mode

[@Darius_Cyrus]

Cant wait for tomorrow's Semi Ramblomatic review of a video game.

[@BFedie518]

If you reach back to when things were yellow he literally did that for Undertale.

[@ExactApproachLOL]

Maybe THAT’s the anomaly… how do we go back?

[@Darius_Cyrus]

@@BFedie518 Been watching since it was originally Fully Ramblomatic, but thanks. He didn't review Undertale because it's a subversive game and ZP itself is a subversive show and also because he loved Undertale, so he didn't want to make fun or it.

[@ehoffart529]

​@@Darius_Cyrus no he did. I believe the review was "it's quite good." Then started that years Best Worst and Blandest.

[@awareqwx]

​@@ehoffart529 "Undertale is a good game..."

[@icarue993]

How AAA can adopt it: - Shoot the (monstrous) anomaly - Do several different anomaly hunts, with story in between - Collectathon - The anomalies can be super surreal super changing set pieces

[@ReverendTed]

- Unlock new anomaly hunt locations by climbing a radio tower.

[@TapirMask]

@@ReverendTed Tbf I'd be shocked if the repeating radio tower SCP isn't made into one of these.

[@jorgemontero6384]

Think of the wonder of an anomaly crafting/automation game, where the haunted ores' effect become more and more sinister as it goes up the item value chain. At some point you become a quality control inspector, trying to identify why your rockets are haunted, and having to trace it all down to a mechanical arm which had been made with ore from an old mine sitting under an ancient burial ground

[@nobleeverett5980]

@@TapirMask That could actually be kinda cool. Have it advertised like an entirely normal ubisoft-like radio tower climb-athon but instead of being told to "Climb and activate all the radio towers" you get told "Activate all of the REAL radio towers". You'd end up scouring the entire nearby mountaintop to find anomalies. Whenever you activate a false tower it gets slightly less subtle, but you still might not notice it. Sometimes it sucks you into a horrific scenario you have to fight your way out of. Maybe the more false towers you activate the more dangerous or doomed the game world gets, like Cheer going up in the Home Safety Hotline christmas special whenever you mess up. The actual story and tone of the game in how it's related to the towers would have to be completely different than how it's advertised/how it comes off through any direct communication from the game, or even like, the UI.

[@boxhead6177]

- Make the anamoly easier to spot, by buying it a pretty hat in the MTX store.

[@DWRDan]

Don't expect Yahtzee to read this but the effect hes describing with "spot the difference puzzles causing paranoia is called by Freud "Unheimlich" which translates to "unhomely" or "uncanny" where something is instantly recognisable but off. Its the feeling in a lot of Edgar Allen Poe horror

[@KingBubblesV]

Thank you for my daily bit of trivia! I never knew there was a word for it, but of COURSE the Germans already thought of one!

[@Teh_Akod]

I feel like this is something Junji Itou also used to an extent in some of his novels by taking something that is normal in our lives and flipping it around into something terrorific.

[@The_OwO_Shogun]

You’re giving me 🔹House🔹 of Leaves flashbacks.

[@themaskedmysadaean8885]

Unheimlich!! XD

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

Uncanny traces back to supernatural horror. The idea of the every day being tainted or influenced by an outside force.

[@rocknorris9508]

The one possible storyline that I think could lend itself to this genre is the film 12 Monkeys, where the protagonist is thrown back in time over and over and over again, trying to spot things that ended up creating the global death-virus that the group of scientists who keep sending him back want to stop. Of course, his memory keeps getting scrambled every time he goes back and can’t recall if what he saw last time is what he is witnessing again, and trying to find the one piece of commonality among all of it to figure out why he’s being sent back (because the scientists don’t give him a great explanation and assume that he knows when he’s in the future versus when he’s not. But to him, both future and past are just as real, so he can’t figure out if it’s all a dream, and if so, which side is the dream. I found it to be a very underrated movie that almost required at least two viewings to really get it (which of course e meant it flopped because no one wanted to go through that head trip again).

[@Falcovsleon21]

I want those babbling noises at the end as a Banjo-Kazooie voice.

[@metrick00]

The opening of this is the most pleasant commercial I've seen in years.

[@aturchomicz821]

Yeah it certainly wont ever show up on Vinnys sunday stream, its too nice💀💀

[@aohige]

One thing I should add, is that in Platform 8, a prequel to Exit 8, the creator got advertisement deal to use REAL advertisements in the train. Which was a BRILLIANT move for advertisers. What could be more effective than having your ads in a "spot the difference" game? You examine the ads so much, the mileage you get on exposure is tremendously higher.

[@sayakai7561]

It works especially well given that there actually are anomalies in the ads.

[@Uniscorn123]

I say one of the first anomaly hunt games was Preflight Panic. I reject the idea that it's just a spot the difference game. For someone who has a crushing fear of flying there is no greater horror than knowing your plane will explode on take off if you don't belt all the kids to their chairs in time. I would love for Yahtzee to make a full game out of it. I still play it pretty regularly to this day.

[@Tickerbee]

I loved Preflight Panic, it might be my favourite of the series. The tension of waiting to see if the plane explodes was a lot scarier than the monster from Something's In The Sea for me.

[@noizepusher7594]

@@Uniscorn123 good to know I’m not the only one still playing one of the dev diaries to this day, though for me it’s Casey Joint. Absolutely love the hacking minigames and their fun control scheme combined with the strategic heist gameplay

[@E1craZ4life]

I have an idea for a game that incorporates gameplay from all 12 Dev Diary games into one giant game. The only hint I’ll give about its premise is that it’s based on a game that Yahtzee joked about making more than a decade ago.

[@Tickerbee]

@ The supervillain sandbox from like year one of ZP?

[@glossyplane542]

@noizepusher7594I don’t know if it’s a dev diary game or not but I still play the consuming shadow I’m trying to get the best ending with at least 1 more character

[@mogullll]

I can't believe I'm actually being introduced to a new genre I haven't heard of until now by Yahtzee, he's 41 but still as entrenched in the medium as ever, truly one of the greatest to ever do it

[@USMC49er]

Spot the Difference horror is an interesting new genre, reminds me a bit of Eternal Darkness where you are in a room that you thought was safe. But then game either glitches or there is a silhouette of a monster that isn't supposed to be there. A sort of primal fear of expecting normalcy but becoming disturbed by minor differences.

[@mmm1217]

The thing I've always enjoyed watching (other people playing) in these kinds of games is the hyperfocus phenomenon. This is particularly pronounced with mot of the 'I'm on Observation Duty' games. You're looking at images that are mostly static. You have to look very carefully, because sometimes it can be as subtle as two similar-looking but distinct objects switching places, or a fan's stopped spinning. You're so focused on the smaller details, carefully trying to figure out if your memory is playing tricks on you, that when the few jumpscares or actually dangerous things happen it's magnified by that hyperfocus. This sometimes gets to the point where one can completely miss an obvious horror for a while because they're so focused on the details, and it never fails to be fascinating to witness.

[@capmsoupy4737]

I can't get enough of this genre. I gobble the games up like om nom nomilly.

[@hourglass1988]

I run an escape room and this is the biggest issue in puzzle design in my experience. Make a clue too obvious and its not really a 'clue' and more you just telling them what they are looking for and its no fun. Make a clue too subtle and you risk absolutely no one catching it and getting frustrated. Of course the player is the biggest issue here. One player will miss a spotlight shining on a series one foot tall painted numbers on the wall and another player will find a dead fly in the room and start counting its legs and I'm stuck designing for both.

[@GriffinPilgrim]

One of the few genres that can do subtlety. Because players are less likely to complain that they missed something that's hard to find when that's the point.

[@N8Dawgg314]

Now he needs to do a review of the related genre of new horror games: The "Papers Please" Horror games, usually about using clues to determine if you can let someone into a safe place like a bunker or apartment building. "No I'm Not a Human" is the one that sticks out the most to me having an intriguing hook, really unnerving designs, the story in the background just keeps heaping on hopelessness...and that's all just in the demo.

[@changvasejarik62]

Gonna have to remember that

[@samparker9631]

Like "that's not my neighbor?"

[@N8Dawgg314]

@samparker9631 YES! That's the other one I was thinking of but I couldn't remember the name!

[@mushuwu]

"Why is that kangaroo looking at me? Does it know what I did?" Still can't completely shed your Australian roots, eh?

[@TheShadowOnline]

Roots? He lives there now, sure, but he was born in England.

[@bobipuegi]

@@TheShadowOnlineI think he‘s living in the USA now since quite a few years

[@Mischief_Manager93]

​@@bobipuegiyeah, he's been living in the US since about 2016

[@CJBooks4]

​@@TheShadowOnlineYahtzee's been living in America since 2016

[@ObieCS2]

@@bobipuegi He moved to the States in 2015 I think

[@Danmarinja]

That ending is going to feel weird in the 2025 4-hour video.

[@AuroDHikoshi]

There always has to be one weird ending for the collection

[@Medytacjusz]

II'm more excited for a "4 hours of Yahtzee going anomalomanomenom" ASMR video

[@cubicuboctahedron]

If AAA got their hands on this, I can see a glowing red outline and a contextual button prompt showing up when you are barely staring in the general direction of the anomaly.

[@Nix-Man]

That ending was pure dad brain, and it was adorable

[@A-Spoto]

5:15 It's times like these I know Yahtzee is a dad.

[@stevenneiman1554]

4:25 I dunno, the modern job market seems like a nonsensical space where you have to appease the malevolent entity that runs things to me.

[@DiabloGraves]

2:54 To be fair, the water stain did kind of look like a spooky face from the right angle, but yeah, the hardest part of getting this sort of thing right is not being TOO obvious with all of your anomalies, but also not getting too fiddly with them either. That said, this is the fun stage of genre exploration, when games may fuck up certain implementations of ideas, but at least there's enough variety to try different things. Sure, there are straight-up copycats too, but I think because none of them are selling like 10 million copies, nobody's absolutely certain what's the right thing to copy so there's room for innovation too.

[@roboknobthesnob]

Anomanonanomanonomamomoly

[@KainGerc]

oh crap, now I have the 'Mahna Mahna' song stuck in my head again (Do doo, Be-do-do...)

[@LemonGrinder]

There's potential for a body horror-type anomaly hunt too. Like the loops go through the environment per usual, but there's notes in your manual that warn of exposure dangers. Mirrors are on the wall every now and then, and as you walk by, you catch a glimpse of something wrong with your body: another eye here, a stray finger there, a lump of flesh that looks curiously like Mac Tonight....

[@FflawedMetalhead]

There's also the benefit of these games being very cheap (but using polished assets), great for streaming, and just *enough* horror to tickle that part of your brain w/out necessarily having to worry about jumpscares or actual threats, because the game just restarts with no real consequence (other than time spent).

[@GCTubaGames]

This feels more like a Semi Ramblomatic

[@nirast2561]

Yeah, I was just thinking this. If he does a proper review on the next Semi, we'll have to turn around, we're in an anomaly.

[@madcat789]

Well he's been doing this for a long time, sometimes he can only do a Semi.

[@emilybarclay8831]

@@madcat789that’s the trouble with being over 40, sometimes you can only achieve a semi

[@williamhardee8863]

@@madcat789 As is the case for many middle aged men.

[@dio469]

We in January prolly had nothing to play 😭

[@timpointer6664]

"Find the anomaly" style games already feels like a genre that's been pretty thoroughly explored despite being relatively new. There doesn't seem like there's very many interesting things to do with it that isn't just trading out the settings and the nature of the anomalies. Though I admittedly don't find "horror" games very interesting, especially liminal space ones. The liminal space ones just look like they're just shy of an asset flip like a lot of rage games like 'Only Up' or 'Sisyphus'. I don't find rage games particularly engaging either. I like games that are hard and occasionally a bit obtuse, but i don't like being pissed about for no greater purpose than the only purpose i'm there for, which is to achieve the only explicit goal.

[@Sadarak1980]

Next: Magic Eye horror games :)

[@deathsyth8888]

"Is that a boat or an elf with a knife? Maybe I should squint harder.'

[@Narokkurai]

I really like The Mortuary Assistant, where you play exactly that role, processing bodies on a night shift at the mortuary. Only catch is some of them are possessed by demons, and you need to inspect each body carefully for signs of demonic influence and adjust your normal work routine accordingly. It functions very similarly to these anomaly hunt games, while actually contextualizing the gameplay in a way that makes sense and feels properly visceral when, for instance, you turn the cadaver's head to inspect a suspicious mole on their neck, determine that it's probably nothing, only to turn their head back and see it grinning back at you.

[@bluegatito8684]

''The Hot New Indie Horror Genre'' is my favorite game next to ''New Triple AAA game that is actually good before the company fire everyone for doing a fun game''

[@occasionalart]

I like seeing this more cheerful, goofier side of Yahtzee as time goes on, it seems like he's getting quite comfortable with the whole Second Wind situation which is nice to see. Of course he still retains his ability to tear bad games to shreds and I sure do hope he keeps that for the forseeable future.

[@thereadersvoice]

Remember, he also has kids now. That itself may well be a factor in how he's evolving. 🤔😆

[@lordbarristertimsh8050]

Was Yahtzee having fun with mispronouncing "anomaly" at the end a shout-out to Eddie doing the same with the words lavatory and laboratory in "Bottom : LIVE Weapons Grade Y Fronts" ? I cannot believe I am making that kind of reference.

[@lightsidesoul]

One thing about Cabin Factory that I'm surprised you didn't mention is that it gets away from the "Spot the Difference" model in another way: Things change in the cabin, that happens every time, but if the change is static, you send it on to wherever the good ones go, it's only motion that means the cabin is anomalies, even if all the furniture is stapled to the ceiling, as long as nothing's moving, it's good.

[@KevinJDildonik]

Disagree. Because it includes a few "scp that gets you if you blink" scares, where things change when you're not looking. I think this violates the stated goal. I think even if the house makes mechanical sounds behind you, and furniture scrapes around and rearranges, but it stops when you look at it, that should be a pass. Then this would be a total twist on the genre.

[@Pecisk]

Cabin Factory was interesting in fact you have to go back to entrance, in very crampy house, where haunted furry wait you around the corner, so it had its moments. But yeah Ten Bells nailed it from production point of view. Overall, it is very destiled experience and thus feels great.

[@Deverosfear]

I could see this being done in a detective story where you are shown a room and follow each persons alibi and have to work out which story or stories have events or actions that contradict the others.

[@_sophies]

I made sort of a version of this for Ludum Dare a few years back called Portal Detective, where you're on an abandoned space station with a bunch of near-identical rooms, but 2 random doorways are actually portals, making the space infinitely loop. Either through your spatial awareness or specific tells, you have to spot the portals.

[@angeldeb82]

LOLed at the buzzer sound and the loops being reset to zero. Also, the way Yahtzee gets to the cabin and gets all bloodied before pressing the red button to drop the cabin while flipping birds and sticking out his tongue! LOLed at the funny bits here and there. "Oh, f**king cork it! Cork it with a big floppy knob!" XD

[@leafmonster]

Kinda sad I've not seen anyone mention The Devil is in the Details. These types of games have the issue that the developer might change something too subtle to be noticed by most players. They fix by telling you which objects might change that round, so you only even have to remember a few items each round. Also, the Arbiter is a fun character.

[@BFedie518]

Wouldn't that take away a lot of the point of the game? You can completely ignore anything not on that list. I'll have to assume that the devs made it work better than I think it would.

[@leafmonster]

​@@BFedie518 Not at all. The list of objects that can change changes between rounds, and most objects around the house change between rounds. Basically, almost everything except for the walls change between rounds. A painting of a lady on a lake that you weren't supposed to pay attention last round might become a painting of an old guy that you DO need to pay attention to this round. If you were to do a single round per sitting, that would probably not be challenging, but you usually play multiple rounds per sitting, so it all starts blending in together the longer you play.

[@Medytacjusz]

Patreon reward idea: "4 hours of Yahtzee going anomalomanomenom" ASMR video

[@Dhlamedia]

Nice that the Time Loop genre is getting somewhere.

[@lokiswager]

Who would have guessed that a genre about doing the same thing over and over would have games that do the same thing over and over? Absolutely scandalous!

[@willgiering6844]

What if you wanted to go to heaven, but god said: 5:25

[@alldayagain]

I'd argue that PT was really the instigator of this genre, or at least an early but necessary metamorphic phase, like the sleeping bag full of slime that will one day become a butterfly 😅 Edit: 1:17 Well fuck me 😂

[@ZxiferKatsura]

There's an early one of these sorts of things called Knock Harder, and THAT one actually has a reference to Yahtzee in it. Don't know if he's aware if its existence.

[@Scarker]

I think it's important to add the "I'm on Observation Duty" style of anomaly horror - partially out of a sense of completeness, partly out of a sense of further ways the mechanics can go, and partially to help point out what does and doesn't work in the genre - either of anomaly paranoia or horror in general. I'm not going to put words in Yahtzee's mouth, but if I had to guess why he didn't want to include Observation Duty, it's just because it's more frustrating than it is horrifying. Most of the anomalies are so subtle - and the environments so cluttered - that you can be swarmed and have no idea why you're losing. Add to that, the player is doing this remote, so they don't have a stake in the house being safe. It's like you're playing 5 Nights at Freddy's, but you're not actually sitting in the security room, you just lose your pay for the day if they damage the security equipment. That's not horror, that's not a fun game, that's just a bad day at work. I think that's an important place to come from as well - the mechanic done badly is just frustrating, and there's this really good example of that to aim future endeavors away from. ...then again, you complain about a mechanic being so unfair that it isn't fun and the Souls-like-simps will start crawling out of the woodwork crying "just get good, scrub" and reinforce to the developers that it's a perfect vision that doesn't need any polish, and can we please have an 8th game to get frustrated at? Fuckin' hell, have they really made 7 of them already? Shovel-ware problem on top of it, too...

[@pravkdey]

I'd love to see a multiplayer version. Like one guy is the investigator and the other changes the scenery. If you know your friends well and what they might miss could be fun

[@sonfoku73]

I didn't even realize it'd become a whole new genre but I'm happy because it's fun and a great group thing

[@lukepavitt4603]

Start with an interesting observation on the current game industry, then devole into bill and ben the flower pot men impressions. Never change Yahtzee.

[@ryanhenderson225]

I think that was my favorite END to a Fully Ramblomatic yet. It just hit me some kinda way at the end of my lunch break in a way I can't exactly explain

[@RFC3514]

There were similar concepts in a couple of areas of the original Dungeon Master (you weren't explicitly asked to "spot the anomaly and turn back", but you effectively had to, to be able to get past a seemingly infinite hallway and an "unsolvable" labyrinth.

[@Hartmansgrad]

I for one welcome the Ayatollah of new indie horror

[@kevinschultz6091]

I can see a variation being used in AAA horror - for a chapter/scene a monster is chasing you all around a house - to avoid it, you have to figure out where it is/where it went based on the changes it makes to the environment as both you and it moves through it. (Doors opened/closed, chairs pushed off to the side, a scratch on a wall, etc.)

[@shryko]

That ending of the main vid segment... I was trying to be quiet, but nope. BURST out laughing. Same with the end of the credits.

[@aohige]

The water stain on the ceiling is in a shape of a horrifying giant human face though. That's creepy anomaly enough, don't you think?

[@matthewshiers9038]

Regarding the T-shirts: Tell your marketing team to hide the tag in the neckline for those t-shirts in the future. My first impression was "What is that random I above the printed graphic?" Second thought was "That looks like it would drive me insane as it keeps poking my back, or worse yet, flicking up and poking me in the neck, in full view of everyone standing behind me!"

[@mrprince911]

Now I need to watch this video seven more times and spot the differences or else I have to start all over again with the darkness demo.

[@georgesedov7973]

For me the first game in this genre was "Knock Harder" from 2020. It has an excuse plot and tries to be grounded in reality. Which makes the anomalies stand out even more.

[@Puffleman24]

I love the theme in Yahtzee's videos where he genuinely praises something, talks about the good and bad examples, then rightfully points out that AAA studios are going to milk it so dry that we'll be begging for games with anything else in them.

[@SlavaRybka]

I feel like the one advantage that the Cabin Factory's structure has is that you can first establish and then subvert the expectation of "I'm safe the moment I'm out the door"

[@ebbderelict]

This is how I described Exit 8: Creepy at first, then annoying, then easy.

[@gamemasteranthony2756]

Yeah...the "Observation Doody" games are good to separate from what you are talking about because they also like to do the jumpscare bullcrap from Stairway 7 in the newer titles. Though some can be a mite humorous if the Grumps are any indication. "BIG STRONG MAN!" "Yes, I'd like to report a SEXY anomaly!"

[@DragonBoi3789]

I can think of a good use of this for a full game, maybe AA in scale. Mix the time looping nature of Groundhog Day, make it a mystery exploration game ala Sherlock Holmes or Return of the Obra Dinn, and the anomalous parts require you to REALLY analyze the evidence and determine which clues are physically impossible to have occured as presented. Perhaps if we really want to make it closer to a traditional 'spot the difference' puzzle we can make this a time-split mystery where two detectives at different time periods are investigating a mystery in the exact same spot. And they need to talk to each other somehow to find the differences in this apparent cold case copy cat killing scenario.

[@taculo3231]

One of the best things about this genre of games is that its great to play with friends watching: horror games are usually very fun to watch, but now they can all chime in about how that poster in the wall actually spelt TRUCK and not FUCK, interacting with the gameplay together with the one streaming it.

[@GeneralNickles]

That may well be the single best ending gag Yahtzee has ever done.

[@bachpham6862]

1:59 "I'm the Spirit of the Harvest Moon."

[@adammckay3299]

Holy shit, what a reference!

[@brianmckee2267]

Have to say, that's the best FR vid in a while. Yahtzee sounded like he was having fun

[@ThePurpleBookWyrm]

Didn't Chilla's Art do this too with one of their more recent games?

[@n0isyturtle]

Horror as a genre is by definition indie in every industry. Movies are the exact same way, with most horror films being from small studios done by no name writers and directors who just had one good idea and a bunch of money. Game industry is the same way. Horror will forever be the indie darling, and the most shunned. Always popular with the people, but never the industry darling.

[@AcrylicPixel]

Even other big games media outlets haven’t covered these games much. I think they are a bit out of touch

[@spacecentergames]

Never stop!

[@ASFalcon13]

2:33 "Cork it with a big, floppy knob" is my top expletive for 2025 so far

[@AverageGamerGuyPlays]

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl already kind of did this. There’s a cave made from square rooms, each room only has rocks in it and you have to solve the rock puzzle to know which of the four doors to take to progress. Get it wrong and you’re right back at the entrance. If I remember correctly, this is how you get Giratina in those games.

[@taukid421]

I can't believe he didn't mention the new anomaly time loop game: Ratshaker!

[@zacnewman7140]

"I'll stop." _looks to camera_ "Anomelomonomonom" F---ing amazing.

[@wanderlking8634]

I have rewound this video and watched it again several times but nothing is changing.

[@Draigo_MD]

I'm all for more Ten Bells praise

[@hillfortgames]

I approve this message.

[@DrakeBarrow]

2:35 - "Yahtzee used Biting Remark!" "It's Super Effective!"

[@birdsbayes]

Ah man these videos are always just the right length to trough a pot of red pepper hummus from co-op

[@Twy87]

Ironically, where I live in the UK, one of my locals is called The Ten Bells 🤣

[@TheKrossRoads]

Forget about the AAA space, what are indie devs going to do to innovate on this genre without just copying what we have now? It arrived on the scene and developed a formula in record time, which may hint that there's not a lot to expand upon. You find TWO anomalies at once? The main character was an anomaly the whole time? Retro pixel nostalgia-bait graphics? Anomaly Horror Game Number 227: Starring Dante from Devil May Cry and Knuckles? I'm not saying the genre CAN'T be innovated on, but it seems like this might be a trend that wears out quickly if it doesn't, and that train isn't moving forward right now.

[@stonerhino83]

The next one needs to be some sort of indie roguelike deckbuilder.

[@socalminstrel]

I think anomaly hunting could be scaled up. Instead of it being a repeating area with "spot the difference," it could be a more realistic world, but the anomalies are people acting just a little off, normal processes sometimes are just a little...off. Spot the uncanny, rather than spot the difference. And it's all part of a big story in a big(gish) world.

[@ApocalypseMoose]

I can't believe they made those "CAN YOU SPOT THE DIFFERENCE?" screamer prank videos on KZbin in the late 2000s into a game genre. Man, we've come a long way.

[@Troixix]

The way to create a much larger horror game around the concept would be to have the looping environment take far longer to navigate, say, 20 minutes, and to loosen the failure state from "instant failure if you fail to notice something" to "if you miss the signs, you get to "proceed" , but not finish the game" until you've gone back and corrected all your previous mistakes and found the one true route through the game. The game could dole out story details to the player over time, "revealing" new anomalies to the player. The player picks up a note describing how the perfectly-intact picture on the wall the player has passed multiple times accidentally got destroyed years ago, a map showing a door the player hasn't ever seen in any previous loop, stumbling across a doppelganger of a trusted NPC who insists they're the real one and the one we've been familiar with all this time is a fake. There's a quirk of this subgenre where the player has to encounter the "normal" version once to really be able to spot the subtler anomalies. If the "true" normal version were withheld from the player, you could create a greater sense of paranoia as the game gaslights the player into questioning their own progress.

[@thecrabmaestro564]

Yahtzee I'd really recommend you try out "Voices of the Void", it's in alpha but it's really content rich regardless and is a good example of a daily life sim that is also an anomaly spotting game (but not in the vein of the ones you've been talking about). Very much recommend giving it a look at least!

[@MattParker117]

I look forward to seeing this concept in the Control sequel

[@TroopurHQ]

"The Devil is in the Details" is another recent one in the genre. It has multiple anomalies per level and you've got to spot them all while avoiding enemies and trying to outrun a timer. Very stressful.

[@kefkaexdeath]

"Anomaliminal space." this phrase is my gift to the world of aspiring indie devs. use it as you wish

[@kefkaexdeath]

"Liminomalous space," even

[@gus.smedstad]

2:29 - apparently Yahtzee can knock someone over by yelling at them hard enough.

[@pilipolvoron2699]

He's really bringing out a cute "dad" energy with that ending stringer.

[@slothfulcobra]

from the sound of it, I'd imagine that the rise of these games was somehow connected to the rise of hidden object games, which is one of those genres that has always been just out of my awareness. I've heard that they ended up supplanting cheap mystery adventure games a few years ago.

[@Schpoonman]

That was the most wholesome ending I've ever seen from the man.

[@averagejoe5145]

I've heard of Shikansen 0 & seen Let's Plays of it, but I've never heard of these other anomaly spotting games. I didn't know other horror games were even bothering to try it out!

[@DannyboyO1]

The cabin wasn't bad, but I think is the worst of the three. It also got a little less fun after an acquaintance pointed out that as you're "Greta" and your li'l bro is "Hans"... this is Hansel & Gretel. Still, having the test not be "anomaly" but rather "motion" was a nice twist. Ten Bells is brilliant, I've yet to find a better example. Hospital 666... had multiplayer, and did mix things up every 10 floors with a shitty level and then it'd modify the corridor by opening up a room. And it's terrible. Platform 8 by the guys that did Exit 8 is nifty. I do recommend it if you played Exit 8. It's less of a "spot the anomaly" and more "get through the scenario" with a few of them being clearly signposted "find the anomaly to progress". Looking forward to finding more, but boy.. some of these are kinda terrible.

[@shadowscribe]

Anomaly doot dooot do doot doot