Introduction

First of all, thank you for giving us this space to share about our work, briefly our team is composed of:

• Malu Spotorno: Our Creative Director and the eye that oversees the quality in everything that we do.
• Walter Goria: Sound Producer and Character Creator, as well as an important part in the development of the story itself.
• Diego Lezcano: Game Designer and Producer, the one who wears many hats and is always helping to make sure every aspect of this experience feels real.
• Tobias Moscoso: Our Lead Developer, creating the systems and helping the game to be experienced in the best way possible for players.
• Liam Candido: Junior Dev and Level Designer, making sure that the environment reflects what it feels like to be under such situations, working closely with the Creative Director and the Psychologist Advisor.
• Paz Miqueo: Our very own psychologist advisor, always working on developing the characters' behaviors and personalities, based on the knowledge and thinking from a position of how the characters will feel, while working with an anonymous form regarding depression, where people would share their experiences.
• Esteban Sturla: He joined the team last. He saw potential and joined us to help with Business Development, helping the team to understand more about the business perspectives of working with a company in general.

We started as Haunting Humans Studio around 2021, just being Diego, Malu, Walter, and Tobias, when we started our first demo for a game regarding real urban legends of Buenos Aires, called Chilling Winds, with a small demo on Itch.io of the first level, Line A of our subway. But we wanted to learn more before moving forward, so we put that project on hold, and began practicing and learning (We didn't know about development or Unreal Engine, this was our very first steps)

After some time, and while Tobias left to work on his own projects for the moment, we gathered forces with our new dev who was also learning, Liam, back on 2023, where we participated on a game jam for horror games, and we wanted to create something unique, to practice, something that was not seen before that much, something that was deep in touch with our own experiences.

That's how Who Are You!? saw the light for the very first time, but once this happened, after developing the first instance of the game in 3 weeks, it just didn't stop moving and growing until now.

Inspiration

Our vision was to make sure we portray what it feels like for a family who has to go over these strange circumstances, involving the disappearance of the mother, and how, in reality, people who are connected to those who experience the UFO Phenomena can also have their own experiences as well, since it's all connected. Games like Senua: Hellblade or Silent Hill: Shattered Memories inspired us to create something unique, involving other areas like Psychology and the reality of actual research and real experiences that people shared anonymously.

What makes Who Are You!? unique is that the work that we do with the team is to create an environment where you can actually have the same feelings that those who have had different types of encounters share. And understand why it feels that way. Adding a layer of reality to the whole experience, making sure these matters are not taken lightly.

Who Are You!?

Who Are You!? It's a first-person psychological horror experience inspired by real UFO investigations and the emotional impact those events can have on people. The story follows Ray Roswell, a man living in the 1980s who is still haunted by the disappearance of his wife decades earlier. When a mysterious cassette appears at his doorstep, seemingly carrying her voice, he's pulled back into a past he never fully understood.

The game is less about external horror and more about what happens internally:  memory, grief, and the uncertainty of what is real. Players who enjoy narrative-driven experiences, slow-burn tension, and atmospheric storytelling will connect deeply with it.

They can expect exploration-focused gameplay, environmental storytelling, and a strong emphasis on immersion through sound, pacing, and psychological tension rather than traditional combat or jumpscares.

The Visual Style

The visual style aims to feel grounded and believable, but with subtle distortions that reflect the protagonist's mental state. We're working with a contrast between familiar, lived-in environments and moments where reality begins to feel unstable. We developed the game using Unreal Engine 5.5, which allows us to push cinematic lighting, detailed environments, and atmosphere in a very controlled way.

We focus heavily on lighting and composition to guide emotion. Using darkness, color shifts, and spatial design to build tension rather than relying on overt visual horror. The goal is not to overwhelm the player visually, but to make everything feel just real enough that when something breaks, it becomes unsettling.

How to Portray Depression

Portraying depression responsibly was extremely important to us because it's at the core of the protagonist's experience. Ray isn't just facing external threats. He's dealing with loss, isolation, and a fragmented perception of reality. We worked with a psychologist, Lic. Nicolás Crescenci, who specializes in both psychology and video games.

His guidance helped us avoid clichés or exaggerated portrayals and instead focus on something more grounded and human. The intention was not to "gamify" depression, but to reflect how it influences perception, behavior, and emotional response. That's why his work, together with the one done by our own psychologist advisor, Paz, was so important.

That process helped us make more thoughtful decisions in pacing, narrative delivery, and even silence. Understanding that sometimes what isn't shown or said is just as important as what is.

Aliens

We approached the alien phenomenon from a research-driven perspective rather than pure fiction. The goal was to treat it with the same ambiguity and seriousness found in real-world cases. We collaborated with Argentine UFO researchers, including Silvia and Andrea Pérez Simondini, and also connected with investigators and specialists internationally.

This allowed us to build a foundation based on documented cases, testimonies, and patterns reported over decades, as well as creating an anonymous form where experiencers would tell their stories, which we use to create the whole environment and atmosphere of this experience.

Instead of presenting aliens as purely visual or antagonistic elements, we focus on how the phenomenon is experienced, the uncertainty, the gaps in memory, and the long-term psychological effects. That ambiguity is key to the experience.

Current Development Process

The project is currently in active development, with a public demo already available that has gone through several iterations based on player feedback. Our main design pillars are:

• Immersion through atmosphere
• Narrative integrated with gameplay
• Psychological tension over action
• Ambiguity between reality and perception

One of the biggest challenges has been maintaining that balance, making the experience engaging without relying on traditional mechanics like combat or explicit guidance. From a technical standpoint, optimizing performance while maintaining high-quality visuals in Unreal Engine has also been a key focus, especially to ensure accessibility across different PC setups. The feedback loop with players has been essential in refining pacing, clarity, and emotional impact.

Conclusion

Our advice for beginner developers is to start small, but start with intention. It's easy to get overwhelmed by scope, especially in horror, but what makes a game memorable is not scale. It's clarity of vision. Focus on what you want the player to feel, and build everything around that. Tools and technology are important, but they should always serve the experience.

Also, don't be afraid to seek help outside of your immediate field. In our case, working with a psychologist and researchers gave the project depth we wouldn't have achieved alone. Collaboration is key. And most importantly: release something early. Even a small demo. The feedback you get from real players will teach you more than months of isolated development.

Haunting Humans Studio

Interview conducted by Stephanie Almogabar

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