{"id":2472249,"date":"2026-06-23T16:08:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2472249"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:08:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:08:50","slug":"netflixs-next-tv-gaming-experiment-will-scare-the-hell-out-of-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/netflixs-next-tv-gaming-experiment-will-scare-the-hell-out-of-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s next TV gaming experiment will scare the hell out of you"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

As part of the latest evolution of its gaming initiative, Netflix has made a big push into cloud-based games you can play on your TV<\/a>, much in the same way you\u2019d watch a movie or show on the service. So far, these games have been pretty tame. Things like trivia, party games, and a weirdly dated FIFA<\/em><\/a>. But Netflix\u2019s next release goes in a completely different direction: It\u2019s an interactive horror experience that\u2019s gruesome, terrifying, and quite possibly the future of the company\u2019s gaming efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The new game is called Unhinged<\/em>, and it launches on Netflix on June 30th. It\u2019s developed by Night School Studio, which is best known for the Stranger Things<\/em>-esque adventure game Oxenfree<\/em><\/a>. Netflix acquired Night School in 2021<\/a>, and since then the studio released a sequel to Oxenfree<\/em><\/a> and some experiments, like a Black Mirror<\/em> tie-in<\/a>. But whereas Night School\u2019s previous efforts were spooky around the edges, Unhinged<\/em> is straight-up horror. And it\u2019s done in a way that feels right at home on the streaming service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure that this could feel like a TV show or a movie,\u201d explains Night School cofounder Sean Krankel. \u201cThere are so many people out there who might love an interactive horror experience, but who don\u2019t want to get good at aiming, survival mechanics, or rationing their ammunition. All of our design decisions were about how to make this thing really simple to interact with and approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Unhinged<\/em> is a first-person game where you control a young woman named Ava. She finds herself trapped in her apartment building during a storm, and it just so happens that a killer is prowling about. Throughout the course of the game \u2014 which lasts less than an hour \u2014 you\u2019re trying to get Ava to safety and discover who the killer is. All of Netflix\u2019s TV games use your smartphone as the controller, but the twist in Unhinged<\/em> is that your actual phone becomes Ava\u2019s phone; you use it to point a flashlight and spot routes to take and items to interact with, as well as accept phone calls from Ava\u2019s friend and her super. (Unhinged<\/em> features a small but mighty cast, with characters voiced by Zo\u00eb Kravitz, Sadie Sink, and gaming stalwart Troy Baker.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The experience sits somewhere between a game and a movie. It looks<\/em> like a game, with its first-person perspective and 3D graphics, but it\u2019s also been streamlined in multiple ways, cutting out a number of more traditional mechanics. For instance, you don\u2019t control Ava directly; instead, at various points you\u2019ll have to choose a path for her, usually by pointing the flashlight in a particular direction before time runs out. According to Krankel, these kinds of design decisions were made in the interest of making the game as easy to pick up and play as possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That wasn\u2019t always the case,. The Unhinged<\/em> concept started around two years ago as a more typical horror game built around the idea of using a flashlight. Eventually, the team settled on the idea of a controller serving as the character\u2019s in-game phone, and around the same time Netflix began really putting effort into its cloud gaming offerings. The timing lined up perfectly. But the original Unhinged<\/em> concept had to be altered to fit the new platform, a process Krankel describes as being \u201csubtractive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Originally Unhinged<\/em> had players directly controlling Ava, for instance, but that didn\u2019t feel great without a normal gamepad. It also had more complex features like branching dialogue and a phone interface with different apps you could scroll through. \u201cThis feels like Flight Simulator<\/em>,\u201d Krankel remembers thinking at the time. \u201cIt was not at all the pacing that we needed.\u201d The final product is much more akin to a theme park ride, racing you through a tense and at times horrifying experience without ever letting up. You have to make quick decisions, but you never have to fight with controls or the UI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Another key part to making Unhinged<\/em> fit on Netflix was its length. \u201cWe wanted a horror experience that somebody can get through in one night, which is how we envisioned it,\u201d says Krankel. \u201cOur hypothesis is that there\u2019s really a market out there for that, and a lot of people who want something short and consumable. I think if we had to charge money for it, we would make different decisions. But one of the fun things about working [at Netflix] is that we can try things like this, and experiment with the duration of a game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It\u2019s also an experience that was designed to be watched as well as played. It\u2019s not a multiplayer game in the traditional sense \u2014 only one person can control Ava \u2014 but much like a Netflix series or movie, it\u2019s something that can be even better as a communal experience. I played Unhinged<\/em> while my teenage daughter watched, and it only upped the stress, as she yelled at me to make decisions in the heat of the moment. It\u2019s these kinds of reactions that Krankel and the team at Night School are really hoping for when the game launches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI hope we get TikTok videos where people are losing their minds with this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n