Canadian Indie Game Developer to release 'Worse Than Death' first for iOS

In the new thrilling horror game Worse Than Death, Holly returns to her rural hometown to face one of her greatest fears—her high school reunion. She’s got a secret that she carries with her. Unspeakable events occur and chaos takes. To escape from unseen enemies she must move quickly to try and save her best friend Flynn in this new thriller created by Canadian Veteran Indie developer Ben Rivers (of the hit game Home) and his wife, Nancy. Worse Than Death literally puts her fate into your hands. 

Toronto-based Ben tells us he drew inspiration from his own small town upbringing. “Small towns are scary, creepy places. Everything you seen in horror movies? Absolutely 100% true. Weird stuff is everywhere and they make really good spots for telling scary stories. I like scary stories and there’s lots to look at in this game. There are lots of pieces to put together in the player’s head. My idea is that all players bring 50% of fear with them. It’s not the game that scares you—you’re bringing your fear into the game.”

The duo, met in design school over two decades ago. “She’s the smart one,” says Ben. “She actually hates it when I say but it’s true. She keeps everything in line and make it all work and I’m the one who runs around in circles.” 

He explains that they decided to design the game for iPhone first because he wants them to be accessible to more people, just like movies. What’s also interesting about this game is the artwork was entirely drawn by Ben himself using professional art app Procreate and using an iPad Pro. 

Ben explains that when they worked in the traditional design space the flow was very different from game development. “Everything takes a long time, way longer than anything else,” says Ben.  “Getting stuff implemented and tested took forever. Making art assets takes the most time of all. Previously if we wanted to do cool high-res art like this we would traditionally do it pen or pencil to paper and scan or we’d work on a desktop and be chained to our desk."

When Procreate came out Ben and Nancy thought it something they should try. “So, we got it and tested it and it completely worked. For me it feels like working with pencil and paper—tools that I’m use to and super easy to implement. I can put inks on top of drawings and add in colour, textures, effects, and even shadowing. But the best part is I didn’t have to do most of this at my office. I can work in a coffee shop or on vacation. It actually made the process of creating a game way more interesting to work on because I wasn’t always just at the office.” 

Ben also tells us they’ve tripled the amount of artwork in the game.” It’s been a lot of fun. Since I’ve been working on the iPad Pro and Procreate I can tell you I haven’t had this much fun in a while.” 

Actions in the game are made to be intuitive for users and puzzles run from easy to adventure style heart-pumping action. Figuring out passwords, turning things, finding objects, unlock doors as you follow the storyline and uncover dark secrets all while terrible things are chasing you. 

“It’s a very stressful game. That is, stress in the best way possible,” says Ben.

Worse Than Death is currently available for pre-order on the App Store for $3.99 USD/$5.49 CAD. The game launches late June, mobile first, exclusively for iPad and iPhone. The game is also coming to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and the Humble Store later this summer. Pricing will for those releases will be announced at a later date.

Official site: www.worsethandeathgame.com

Rated for a mature audience 17+