Why Five Nights at Freddy's is Scary

Five Nights at Freddy's is undeniably scary. While it relies on jumpscares, notice that it uses them not to scare you along the way, but more to condition you for much greater and sustained fright and paranoia. FNAF is a clever, well-designed, simple horror game that in many ways has redefined horror games as a genre.

What exactly makes Five Nights at Freddy's so scary? What game mechanics does it employ to do this?

Threats in Games

What is a threat in the context of a game? Can they affect the outcome? A snippet from our larger Practical Game Theory at PAX East 2013, we briefly explore some aspects of threatmaking in games, and what it truly means to make a "credible" threat.

PAX Prime 2012: When the Game Plays the Player

At PAX Prime 2012, we presented three mini lectures as part of Short Subjects in Gaming on Friday in the Wolfman Theater. This is the first of them

"When the Game Plays the Player" explores rhythm games, such as Dance Dance Revolution, both from a historical and game design perspective. Dive deep into the sometimes surprising mechanics of these games, a genre often ignored by theorists, and see how their concepts can be applied in places you would never imagine.

For more GeekNights lectures, see our Convention Lecture Youtube Playlist!

PAX East 2011 was the second PAX East in history, and the first in the BCEC, Boston's cavernous venue. If you don't know what to expect from a Penny Arcade Expo, let alone a PAX East, this highlights montage will tell all. It's quite a thing to see. PAX is like no other convention we attend, either as simply fans or as guest speakers.

GeekNights was there with FIVE panels/lectures:

MMORPGs are Anything But http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cV8wCWi54U

The Game Makes the Community http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRlYM9F50EQ

The Ballad of Dudebro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11gyD9cf5o

Game Mechanics and Mechanism Design http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXdfU2DoF8o

How to Win at Games http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bz-v5J5wc

All video was taken/edited by the GeekNights staff. (http://www.frontrowcrew.com)

The song is a Wesley Hopper OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org): Enigmatic Lunacy (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00762/).

As you know, GeekNights (www.frontrowcrew.com) was in force at MAGFest X with two panels, a lecture, copious amounts of alcohol, and four days of 24/7 gaming! We present for your consideration some highlights.

Our coverage of MAGFest X: http://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20120112/magfest-x/

Beyond Dungeons & Dragons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtUgtX3ncTk

Money Making Games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFfkPlHjyLA

All footage taken by us with two very important exceptions! Special thanks to PAX Community DVD! (http://www.paxcommunitydvd.net/)

Nobou Colossus Roaring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBYjlggRLPE

One Ups Concert footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNDMPAdkmhI

Rym and Scott of GeekNights (www.frontrowcrew.com) presented "Discover the Forgotten Masters" at PAX Prime 2011. Discussing many largely forgotten games, including Sopwith, Spy vs Spy, Aerobiz, Outlaw, Metal Marines, and more, they consider what can be learned from these lost treasures, both for game players and game designers.

The final GeekNights lecture from PAX East 2011, we discuss winning (and not the Charlie Sheen kind). Specifically, we discuss how one actually wins at games, what winning really means, and why so few people are very good at it. In the words of Herm Edwards: "You play to win the game."

A warning: out primary audio device failed near the very end of the video, forcing us to switch to the backup. The last ten minutes of the lecture will be available as soon as we can master said audio to be reasonably understandable.