How I Tried To Beat My Arachnophobia… By Writing A Game About Giant Spiders

OnTheHouse Studios’ Jory House talks to Graeme Mason about the indie horror Huntsman and our innate fear of spiders.

Hi Jory. Is Huntsman your first game?

I began designing games around 2022 after the pandemic. I have only worked on one other game before Huntsman, which was called Solace and can be found on Itch. I always had the dream of doing this for a living or hobby, I just never got around to it until the world was shut down and I had the time to developing the skills needed.

I read that you’re an arachnophobe – so why do this to yourself?

I am not sure at all why I did this to myself. When testing the game alone at night in my office, I gave myself some scares and questioned my sanity, but at the end of the day, making a horror game isn’t about just putting something scary on the screen or creating jump scares. By looking deep into what I fear about them, and projecting my fears of spiders into this project, I felt as though I could make a compelling and scary game for us arachnophobes out there.

Why do you think you, and people in general, fear spiders?

I personally believe it comes down to how they behave, how they look, and a touch of an innate fear learned in humans for venomous spiders, even if you do not deal with dangerous spiders in your area. Spiders are fast, sporadic, and unpredictable. Anyone who has ever had to relocate a spider knows that at any moment they can bolt, or fall from the ceiling, or in general surprise you. These qualities trigger a fear in myself and others I'm sure because of the uncertainty in what they will do next. On top of that, they have eight legs, eight eyes, and can dangle from ceilings, and can have large fangs. A horrible combination.

Ha, true! How have you tried to put this fear into your game?

I tried emulating this by making the spiders in my game act as close as possible to real life spiders. For example, if anyone has ever used a stick to poke at a common grass spider’s web, you probably have seen sometimes how they can bolt quickly out of hiding before assessing their next move and attack. I brought this to the game by having our spider bolt out of hiding when it spots the player, and then trigger its next response to either stalk its prey or freeze in place for a moment.

Do you struggle with spiders in media? I’ll always live in fear of Shelob from the Lord Of The Rings movie!

Actually not really! I really enjoy horror movies, and when it's a monster movie about giant spiders, I'm ready and excited to watch it!  Two recent spider movies I watched were Sting and Infested. Although, nothing will ever beat the classic Arachnophobia!

Absolutely! How did you go about researching the spiders in the game and choosing which ones to include?

The challenge with this, especially as a hobby game developer with no budget, is that I had to find spider models already made, and then work out how I could fit them into the game. Usually you would want to design what spiders work best for your game, then create models for them, but I had to do it the opposite way. Once I was able to find several spiders that I could add to the game, I then decided how they would function and what roles they would play in the game. For research on their behaviors, I would watch documentaries and live feeding videos while I coded all day to study their movements and behaviors.

The plot reminded me of the Alien films/tv series, with the corporation trying to weaponize a creature. Is that an influence?

It was definitely part of the influence. I grew up on the 80s/90s horror movies, especially the creature features. I loved the isolated dread that Alien induced when watching it. And it definitely took huge inspiration from the game Alien: Isolation as well. I wanted to add a little more depth however, so I presented it as the company using these engineered spiders to produce technological and medical advancements. Using their oversized silk to create new types of kevlar armor, or using their enhanced and highly potent venom to create toxic weaponry for the military, which is another similarity to the Alien franchise.

How tricky was it to adapt the spiders’ movements into the Unreal engine? It seems to struggle with the clipping sometimes, but with all those legs, I’m not surprised!

Very tricky. Inverse Kinematics is what allowed the spiders movements to feel much more realistic, but as a hobby game developer with only one other small game under their belt, it was a large undertaking to both learn and implement in game. We definitely have our struggles with the legs clipping through walls, and are actively working to make this a much better feature. At first, the spider was only able to walk on the ground, but with recent work and updates, we were able to get the spider to walk on all surfaces, and with that comes more issues to solve such as the body going through objects, which is also being actively worked on.

The star of the game is obviously the Huntsman spiders – how does their AI work? Are they actively stalking the player in some way?

When it comes to generally stalking or finding the player, the AI of the Huntsman are actually quite simple. Where its AI is unique however is how it emulates the random and sporadic behaviors of real life spiders. When the spider spots and is stalking the player, it doesn’t simply just follow them at the same speed. There are several different chances and events that can trigger during its patrolling or stalking, that act as this randomizer for what it does in that moment. Will it freeze for a moment? Will it randomly bolt at you at max speed? Will it choose to stalk you from the ceiling? Will it actually go hide and wait for you somewhere else? There are many different options and choices the spider can make.

The game is played almost in total silence with no music. I like how it emphasises the spider’s scuttling noises.

This was deliberate. Sound design is crucial in horror games, and sometimes music or too many environmental sounds can take away from the fear of the medium. I decided to keep the game as quiet as I could because when there’s no sound, your mind starts filling in the blanks. And the brain is very good at inventing threats. Also, I really wanted the spiders footsteps to be heard loud and clear, really emphasizing the volume and impact they have. The sudden sounds of scurrying footsteps against silence can be really scary!

Has developing Huntsman helped your arachnophobia?

It actually has a little! I will admit, I was the first to kill a spider that was in my home or in an undesirable place like my car. But I have recently since developing this game tried much harder to just relocate them, and try to look at them in a different light. However, it is hard to rewire your brain to not be afraid of something, so I will always have that fear of them. I know that spiders are great for the environment, and pest control, but it doesn’t change how they look, or behave which are the true triggers of the fear.

Do you worry people will give Huntsman a firm ‘NOPE’ because of their arachnophobia?

Sometimes I do, but I think sometimes you need to push the boundaries and if people are too scared to play the game, I understand and hope someday they can use it as a way to face their fears. Horror that everyone can tolerate is rarely horror that anyone remembers. On top of this, many people WANT to experience this fear in a controlled way that is safe, and this game offers that for them.

Is there anything you’d like to change or adapt to Huntsman in the future, or that you think needs refining?

We’re continuing to get feedback from the community on things they’d like to see and some of that has informed our longer term plans, such as quality of life improvements. We always read the feedback and take everything on board and I’m excited for the future.

Do you plan on making any more  games in the Huntsman world? There seems to be a lot of potential, deeper plot and corporate machinations, more spider types etc.

It’s definitely a potential. I would love to see more from this world and see where we could go with it. Once we have wrapped up on making Huntsman the best game it can be, exploring options for continuing the series will be discussed.

So, do you still need a tumbler and magazine to ‘escort’ spiders out of the house?

No, I need something much longer and controlled!! If I can relocate a spider out of the house while also keeping it 5 feet away from me, then I am happy as I can be at the moment! And I don't even have anywhere close to big spiders around me.

My thanks to Jory for his time and TenImage Publishing for arranging the interview.