Hi, I’m Alec Robbins, head writer on Squanch Games’ High On Life and its High On Knife DLC (out today!) It’s kind of like a mini-sequel that bridges between the base game and whatever else we do next. It’s not entirely an epilogue, but we like to think of it as a bonus episode. It’s not entirely a horror experience, but it definitely leans into the genre in ways that we didn’t fully explore with High On Life. So let’s talk about horror!
I have some aversions to horror movies and I almost never seek them out – but my partner loves them so I do watch them all the time. My background is in comedy, and I always talk about how comedy and horror are exactly the same to me, just with different context. If you’re building comedy, or you’re building horror, you’re doing the exact same labor. The whole concept of trying to create a setup that flows into a punchline that surprises people and makes them laugh – that’s identical to the structure and horror; you’re trying to set up some tension that you then release, but instead of a punchline, it’s a scare.
Hi, I’m Alec Robbins, head writer on Squanch Games’ High On Life and its High On Knife DLC (out today!) It’s kind of like a mini-sequel that bridges between the base game and whatever else we do next. It’s not entirely an epilogue, but we like to think of it as a bonus episode. It’s not entirely a horror experience, but it definitely leans into the genre in ways that we didn’t fully explore with High On Life. So let’s talk about horror!
I have some aversions to horror movies and I almost never seek them out – but my partner loves them so I do watch them all the time. My background is in comedy, and I always talk about how comedy and horror are exactly the same to me, just with different context. If you’re building comedy, or you’re building horror, you’re doing the exact same labor. The whole concept of trying to create a setup that flows into a punchline that surprises people and makes them laugh – that’s identical to the structure and horror; you’re trying to set up some tension that you then release, but instead of a punchline, it’s a scare.
The first half of the High On Knife DLC is goofy, where you’re exploring this bright place called Peroxis. You’re there because Knifey (one of High On Life’s talking weapons) got a missed-package slip, and he convinces you to travel there to pick it up yourself. You visit this place called Salt Lick City, which is populated by a bunch of slug-like aliens. It’s packed with side missions and funny moments and weird things to explore. And then that kind of leads into the stark change halfway through the DLC where you’re suddenly in what we describe internally as a haunted shipping warehouse, Muxxalon, which was absolutely not inspired by any real-life companies. We made things darker and added a flashlight, which are obviously slam-dunk horror tropes.
Even though horror and comedy are similar, writing those specific horror moments was tricky for me at first because I come from comedy. I have faith in which jokes are gonna land, but I was initially worried about the horror. In both cases, you really can’t tell for sure until it’s built up enough that you can actually play through it when the voice acting is in and see if it’s timed correctly. That’s when you can really tell if it’s gonna get a laugh. But there was horror stuff where the lighting wasn’t in yet and the sound design wasn’t quite there so sometimes we couldn’t tell if it was going to be scary until much later in the process. So I feel like horror was actually the harder thing for us to get right this time around. But that’s pretty natural because we’ve clearly perfected the art of comedy.
In High On Life, we have characters that are constantly making quips and that can kind of ruin the vibe of horror. We actually have this entire section where the player is first introduced to the Muxxalon warehouse, full of dialogue and jokes. But after playing through it, we ended up taking out all the dialogue there just to make it feel a little scarier. With the dialogue it just didn’t feel scary. It wasn’t working. If the characters are talking and making jokes then they’re not scared so why should I be scared as a player? That first intro area in the second half of the DLC was the biggest test for us because we had to make the really tough call to pull back. Even one out-of-place line would ruin that moment.
I like it when comedy turns into horror and vice versa, where it’s hard to separate them. My premise for Muxxalon and how it operates is essentially “What if your boss was always over your shoulder? What if they were literally attached to your shoulder?” What if instead of like, just having a boss in an office who comes by and walks the floor… they’re a parasite attached to your shoulder telling you to get back to work. It’s absurd and funny but also? Maybe a little horrifying in practice? Maybe?
A lot of the natural scares came out of those basic ideas, and they were really brought to life by Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the boss of this operation, Mux. She was really funny, but she could get REALLY menacing. So it’s the reality of like, what if your boss was this evil glob that has taken over every square inch of this facility and could appear at any moment from any wall? It’s the ultimate surveillance.
But High On Knife is super funny, even with those horrific elements. I’m a huge fan of Ken Marino, and he plays your parasite. And we did so much with him. There’s a whole branching path, almost dating-sim part of the game, where most players are gonna go through it one way, but there’s like, probably five or six completely different routes you can take through this. And the recording session for that alone was like a full session. There’s so much more to talk about, but I only have so much space. It’s funny and spooky, and I’m really proud of our team at Squanch and what we were able to accomplish with the DLC.
High On Life’s High On Knife DLC is now available for $14.99 on PC and Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The base game is available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and we also have an exclusive Xbox Game Pass Bundle, which includes both High On Life and High On Knife for $19.99.
High On Life: High On Knife
Squanch Games, Inc.