The Unconscious as a Source of Horror

That was one of the first questions we asked ourselves when we began developing Parasomnia: No REM.

We decided to explore a theme never before seen in horror video games: sleepwalking.

The game is a first-person psychological horror experience in which the protagonist suffers episodes of sleepwalking that drag him into a world twisted by the traumas of his childhood.

The unconscious as a source of terror

The terror in Parasomnia: No REM is built around the No REM state, a scientifically real state where the real world and the world of dreams become fused.

During development, we understood this state as an opportunity to work with the unconscious: incomplete perceptions, fragmented memories, and shifting rules governed by dreams.

Instead of confronting the player with constant jumpscares, fear emerges from inhabiting a world that stops responding to clear logic and becomes a reflection of a damaged mind, where repressed memories inevitably seep through.

Gameplay based on sleepwalking

The experience revolves around:

• Switching between being awake and sleepwalking

• Connecting with your sleepwalking body in the real world

• Solving puzzles by combining both planes

In Parasomnia: No REM, puzzles are not abstract objects: they are fragmented memories that gradually help our protagonist reconstruct events he tried to forget.

This is just the beginning.

In upcoming devlogs, we’ll dive deeper into how these ideas translate into mechanics, level design, and atmosphere.

👁️ You can now add it to your Steam wishlist:

Parasomnia No REM