THE BACKROOMS 1998 — found footage, survival horror, and creepypasta, all in one devilish package

Makson Lima
7 min readJul 31, 2023

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Hi Ryan! Thank you so much for granting us this interview and congratulations on the release of The Backrooms 1998! What if we talk about game development for this VHS kinda horror? How long until it’s ready?

Ryan Portelli: Thank you very much! It’s an honor to do a interview with you. I plan to have this game in early access for a couple of months till I can add some planned features that I have in mind and also in the mean time, get suggestions and feedbacks from players so I can improve the game — as in my opinion that is the best way to improve a game by hearing from your audiance.

What is it like to compete with so many other games within this backroom theme that is increasingly popular among horror fans?And why do you think the found footage language still didn’t find its place among videogames?

Ryan Portelli: I don’t really mind the competition, I just love seeing all games and enjoying them. At first though, I was a bit hesitate to start the development of The Backrooms 1998 — because there are so many other great backrooms game out there but in the end I wanted to try my own style with the backrooms with my own twist. This mostly started when I watched a video about ‘The backrooms’ and I thought it would make a great horror game! I knew that I read about it on some other site before, so I wanted to make a game related to that — however I wanted to make it in my own style instead of following its original lore of the story so I started developing this game.

I think found footage is a very immersive style if done right, and it’s one of my favorites in games to be honest. Outlast does this best in my opinion, even though the found footage style may not be that popular I think recently it’s getting it’s fair share as more games are adapting to this kind of style.

The FMV mix is ​​certainly one of the game’s highlights. The transition between real footage and game really hit me hard. Even more is the brutal ending! Will your game be in anthological format? Is early access coming to test the ground, the audience?

Ryan Portelli: Yes! I always wanted to do that kind of realistic style blend mix with real footage and the game and this was the perfect chance! Haha. I am a big horror fan, and whenever I see movies that show some “real” footages or kind of that format I go crazy as I love them so much. The movie sinister does this best IMO, where it shows disturbing footages through-out the movie with found VHS tapes and also The 4TH Kind.

Yes, I love to release my games as early-access so I can get feedbacks and suggestions from the audience and that way I can improve my game.

Still on the idea of ​​early access: could this end up mitigating theplayer’s horror experience in the medium term? How do you intend to deliver new content? Or will we only have the full game now? And finally, do you already have an estimate of when it will be ready?

Ryan Portelli: Unforauntly I do not have an estimate for the moment as I have some planned features that I wish to add first then I will see from there, probably it will be for a couple of several months. I wish to also add different languages localization, new type of levels, more features, generated levels, randomized triggers, re-playablility and much more.

Can you talk a little bit about where the actual content of the tapes comes from? How was the filming process and reconciling it with the gameplay, the plot, the creature and the concept of the escape room, in addition to the backroom?

Ryan Portelli: The actual content is me and my family! Hehe. They are all real VHS footages from the 1990s. Some footages are also from @KoolSkaters (which is a group that does great VHS footages style movies) which was taken with their permission to blend in the footages.

I wanted everything to be connected, and as a big horror fan that watched a lot of movies I love the type of movies that are disturbing, plot twists and the type of movies that makes the hair on your neck stand up, so I tried my best creativity to impliment that in the game.

We targeted mostly people who are horror fans, people that don’t like happy endings and people that want to get scared haha.

Any chance of other creepy pasta being exploited? And still on the backroom idea: what was the short movie or the story that you read that really got you, that really messed with your mind?

Ryan Portelli: Yes, currently I also have a pending project based on another creepypasta.

I read so many stories and watched so many movies that I forget sometimes, but one that really sticks with me would be the real life crime documentaries — which really messes with your mind to think that there are so many monsters in human forms roaming around the world and this is the message we wanted to tell in the game, that sometimes real life can be more disturbing then any scary fictional story.

What are the biggest difficulties in creating a game entirely by yourself? And more: at some point, did your creation scare you in anyway?

Ryan Portelli: Being a sole developer have it’s difficulties as you would need to do everything on your own. That means the design, models, story, optimizations, fixes, programming, sound design, graphics, textures and everything else that is needed. This may take time, however I would say the biggest diffculties would be not when you are developing the game, but after the game will be released — because then you will see many different people playing it and that is when you will start seeing glitches, bugs, errors and such being reported by players and it is the most difficult because you have to do everything in a hurry to try and fix the problems yourself, and sometimes fixing one problem will lead to another one showing up.

For example, the launch of The Backrooms 1998 had a bug where the objects were not being saved, so if you loaded the game — then the game will be screwed up and the game may early or not end at all. This was a big headace for me as I spent over 2 days without any sleep on trying to fix the issue. At the end, it was fixed but it was very stressful trying to do your best to fix the issues as soon as possible before more players experence it.

As for your other question — I think I am immune to horror at this point haha, so not really.

The FMV manages to create this immediate strangeness, this almost instantaneous approximation. Is there some kind of personal escapism in The Backrooms 1998?

Ryan Portelli: Yes, I love creating games as for me it makes me feel happy. I have been a fan of games (and horror haha) since an early age and there is nothing in the world that makes me more happy then making my own creations and seeing them take form. It’s really a great moment especially when you see people appreciating your work that you took time and sacrifice to do.

And finally: what is your ultimate terror, no matter the media? Congratulations on the game’s release! It’s certainly among the scariest of the year so far. Looking forward to the next tapes!

Ryan Portelli: My ultimate terror is not monsters, ghosts or the paranormal but it would be real life because IMO that is scarier then fiction.

Thank you so much once again! Sorry if I did not understand some questions and sorry about the typos. English is not my first language so I am trying my best hehe J

I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the interview.

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Makson Lima
Makson Lima

Written by Makson Lima

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