Matt Gilgenbach, the creator of Retro/Grade, the backwards-rhythm-side-scrolling-shooter, is going in a very different direction for his next title.

Neverending Nightmares is horror title designed by Gilgenbach as a metaphor for his personal struggles with depression. In an interview with Polygon about his newly announced game, Gilgenbach said, "I'm explicitly sharing something about my experience and the horrors that have sort of popped into my head. To the players it won't be clear that, 'Oh, that's an intrusive thought that the developer had.' The theme and the mood are really what I'm trying to capture the most of what I experience."

You can check out the teaser trailer for the disturbing game below, which is in stark contrast to Gilgenbach's Retro/Grade.

[Via: Polygon]

Our Take
Gilgenbach is putting a lot of himself and his personal experience into Neverending Nightmares, which is a trend in game design that can only benefit video games being taken seriously as a medium of artistic expression. I'm curious to learn more about the game. Retro/Grade is a very different game in almost every aspect, but it was a good game. Retro/Grade makes me hopeful that Neverending Nightmares will aspire to a higher level of quality than the somewhat comparable game, Papo & Yo, which had some shortcomings despite interesting themes.