- Resident Evil Survival Unit studio JOYCITY monitored playtesters’ brainwaves to make the game “objectively scary”
- Business manager Jun Seung Park said the team “achieved meaningful results that helped us adjust the fear levels and immersion”
- The team also referenced the mainline series to “capture the same unique feel on mobile devices”
The South Korean studio JOYCITY, the developers behind Resident Evil Survival Unitapparently monitored playtesters’ brain waves to make sure the game was scary enough.
That’s according to JOYCITY business lead Jun Seung Park, who told This Is Game (machine translated by Automaton) that the developers wanted to make sure the mobile game was “objectively scary” for players.
“We conducted a bio-signal-based focus group test that monitored players’ brain waves, eye movements and heart rate to objectively measure their levels of excitement and immersion,” said Seung Park. “Even if we received positive responses through studies, looking at actual bio-signals could lead to a different conclusion. Through this data, we obtained meaningful results that helped us adjust the fear levels and immersion.”
A documentary-style video on JOYCITY’s official YouTube channel shows a bunch of playtesters wearing said brainwave measuring devices strapped to their heads, so it’s clear that the studio went all in on trying to up the scare factor.
Seung Park also discussed referencing the original Resident Evil game, saying that the team tried to “capture the same unique feeling on mobile devices”, even going so far as to mimic the series’ sound design, particularly the sound of footsteps in a scene without background music.
“Capcom’s 30 years of accumulated know-how proved invaluable,” they said.
Producer Dongkyun Kye added, “At first I was worried if this kind of approach would be effective, but seeing how surprised and tense players became in those moments made me feel relieved.”
It’s also worth mentioning that since this is machine translated, some additional context and nuance may be missing in Jun Seung Park and Dongkyun Kye’s comments.
Resident Evil Survival Unit quietly launched on mobile last November and flew under the radar of even the biggest Resident Evil fans. Reception was lukewarm to say the least, with some players praising its exploration but criticizing the game’s lack of horror, limited-time purchases, and overpriced microtransactions.
Resident Evil non-mobile game fans can look forward to the next main installment, Resident Evil Requiemwhich launches on February 27, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
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