Fragmented Agency and Narrative Multiplicity: Crafting Existential Dread in Deadeus

This presentation examines Deadeus (Izma, 2019), a microhorror Game Boy title developed in GB Studio and later released on cartridge, through the lens of emotional design and player agency. Drawing on an original interview with developer Adam Birch (Izma), it explores how Deadeus crafts horror through spatial familiarity, moral ambiguity, and nostalgic mediation rather than traditional shock or gore. Set within a small, looping village that unfolds across three in-game days, the game employs minimalist mechanics and limited pixel graphics to evoke dread through recognition and memory. By granting players full narrative freedom and multiple equally consequential endings, Deadeus transforms gameplay into an ethical experiment in authorship, so that the player becomes both investigator and storyteller. Beyond the screen, the game’s afterlife continues through glitch folklore and online communities, illustrating how microhorror circulates as digital folk narrative. Through this case study, I argue that Deadeus exemplifies how horror can emerge from design constraints, affective pacing, and collaborative myth-making in the era of independent and retro-inspired development.