#ArmchairImagineering: Expedition Into Madness scarehouse

A scare house design for Rob Yeo's #ArmchairImagineering Challenge #4.

Be sure to visit the Instagram post for a couple more shots including a better look at the finale statue concept.

Expedition into Madness finds guests following an archaeological dig team as they explore an eldritch ruin. They discover a being capable of trapping them in a time loop, feeding off the madness it creates.

Deja vu. That’s where this concept started. I’m not the biggest scare house fan, but I often like to check in and see some of the great concepts and theming work that teams cook up. I took inspiration from something like Kojima’s P.T., wanting to create a loop experience where things get progressively worse. If scare houses relish catching people off guard, I wanted a way to amplify that.

This house is actually three repetitions of the same environment. The idea here is that guests go through the same environment, but the scares would change and/or repeat between iterations.

Imagine passing a statue that scares you during Iteration 1. You see it again and brace yourself during Iteration 2, but now a completely different scare happens behind you. During Iteration 3…you’re completely on edge because you have no idea what to expect. Will the statue strike again? Will the second scare happen? Neither? Both? Something new?

At the end of each iteration, a central statue in the main chamber grows, evolves and comes to life, having fed on the madness of the guests on the expedition.

Throughout the journey we hear the voice of the leads archaeologist over the radio in short narrative bursts. This leads to the grand finale: one team member trying to convince us to run and another trying to convince us to fight.

This leads to the other unique aspect of this scare house: a split grand finale that gives guests the ability to choose an ending. Each path leads you to an ending experience: one shows the team crushing and defeating the monster, and the other showing the monster defeating the team.

Thanks for checking this out and thanks again for the fun idea Rob!