From an N-Europe interview with Renegade Kid's Jools Watsham:
"N-E: With horror games on home consoles, the size of the screen, surround sound, force feedback and more realistic graphics are usually helpful in scaring the bejesus out of players. What measures did you take to ensure that a handheld game with smaller screens and lower resolution graphics could be as scary as titles such as Resident Evil 4?
JW: It never occurred to us that we needed a large screen, surround sound, and all of that other fancy stuff to make something scary. Watching a scary movie on a basic TV without all of the bells and whistles is still a scary experience if the movie is good. We focused on the atmosphere in Dementium: The Ward. Being alone in the dark (no pun intended) is naturally scary for most people. Once we were happy with the atmosphere we wanted to try and make the player uneasy about every step they took. We approached this by establishing a credible threat early on. In the first corridor you enter, you see a large fleshy beast with a cleaver knife surgically attached to its hand dragging a poor helpless woman along the floor and into a room, slamming the doors closed behind them – that's a little unnerving. We also thought it would be important to make practically everything a potential threat: enemies smash through unassuming closed doors and squirm out of ventilation shafts on the walls and ceiling, and they jump over railings from the darkness below. Our hope is that you are always looking around not sure if something is going to jump out at you. Once this scene has been set, it is most effective when nothing jumps out at all..."
