The Art of Making Horror Games by Supermassive Games presented by Isis Sousa

Want to know how Supermassive actually makes you scared without relying on cheap jumpscares? This master class with Isis Sousa pulls back the curtain on art direction at Supermassive Games, using The Dark Pictures Anthology to show how characters, ships, hotels and light do the storytelling for you.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How Supermassive structures art direction for cinematic horror games
• How to design locations that act as characters and drive narrative
• How to manage visual hierarchy from broad ideation to fine detail
• How to use lighting and shadow to ground terror in reality
• How character design choices support story in Man of Medan

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic familiarity with game art, concept art or visual storytelling fundamentals

📝 Description

This is not a button-pushing tutorial. It’s a production breakdown. Isis walks through how the team plans visual consistency, makes calls on environment building, and keeps tension high from first sketch to final shot. You get concept art, early drafts and behind-the-scenes footage, with straight talk on what worked and why.

A big part of the class is about locations. In Man of Medan and The Devil in Me, the ship and the hotel aren’t just backdrops — they trap you, mislead you, tell you story without dialogue. You’ll see how the team blocks out spaces, layers in props, and decides where to put detail and where to leave emptiness for your brain to fill in.

Then there’s the fear factor. Isis shows how lighting and shadow anchor weird, scary stuff in normal-looking places. It’s practical stuff: how dark is too dark, how to lead the eye with contrast, how to make a character feel wrong just by silhouette, costume pattern or hair. Small choices, big payoff in mood.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Concept artists, character artists and environment artists who want to get into horror games
• Game devs and students who want a real studio look at art direction for narrative thrillers

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Isis Sousa is an Art Director and former Lead Character Artist at the BAFTA-winning Supermassive Games, specializing in horror and dark titles. She led character work on Man of Medan, collaborating with a tight team on hair, costume patterns and final in-game looks. She now shares that studio experience on visual storytelling for interactive horror.

🏁 Final Result

• A solid, studio-tested framework for horror art direction you can apply to your own characters and environments, informed by breakdowns from Man of Medan and The Devil in Me.