Tech Tuesdays: "Biofeedback-based horror game challenges players to deal with fear"

Article: http://www.gizmag.com/nevermind-video-game-biofeedback-stress-levels/29728/

Nevermind is a biofeedback-based horror game created by Erin Reynolds. The player is required to wear a Garmin cardio chest strap during the game so that their heart rate can be sent to the game via ANT+USB stick. Their heart rate variability is what helps the game determine how stressed the player is so that the game can be adjusted accordingly.

The game sets out to trigger fear in the players. Therefore, the player must learn how to control their fear or anxiety in order to easily advance in the game. The more stressed the player feels, the harder the game becomes.

Nevermind takes place in the mind of a troubled and traumatized patient. The player takes the role of a Neuroprober at a Neurostalgia Institute and must dive into the subconscious of their patient in order to retrieve 10 Polaroid photographs.  Each photograph depicts a memory and after all of them are collected, the player must differentiate the false memories from the five true ones. Afterwards, the player has to reconstruct the traumatizing memory of the event as whole.

This game took about a year to build and presently exists as a "proof of concept game". However, the creators of the game plan to launch Nevermind in late 2014.