Andy Powell // Creative Director

Client: Nintendo
Project: Eternal Darkness (Sanity's Requiem)
Media: Radio
Scope: Copywriting
 

Eternal Darkness was a game like no other. Flitting between present-day Rhode Island, a forbidden city in Persia, a Cambodian temple and a French cathedral, the game set out to disorientate and play with the minds of its players. It featured a skewed camera angle and a foreboding sanity meter which caused eerie effects and disturbing whispers, cries and unsettling sound effects as it dropped to alarming levels.

 

By the time the brief landed with us, reports from the beta testing were of gamers being genuinely affected by the hours they'd spent trying to crack all of the chapters. They reported waking in the night to screams and getting properly twitchy at the sound of rattling chains or approaching footsteps.

 

This truly was a game that actually played with you. A great proposition for any medium, but especially radio. We developed numerous scripts and entered into our own ongoing test of sanity with the radio ad clearance authorites and various stations around the country. But, after weeks of effort, all of the ads above actually ran – and I can still look back with fondness at some of the great sessions we had in the studio.