Resident Evil: Survival Unit is a free-to-play strategy game released at the end of 2025, developed by the South Korean studio JOYCITY and published by Aniplex in collaboration with Capcom. The game is set in an alternate timeline compared to the main series and offers a very different take on Resident Evil.
Even though the game adds base-building and strategy elements, the developers wanted to keep the classic Resident Evil sense of fear and tension. To achieve this, they allegedly used a scientific approach during testing sessions.
Players’ brain waves, eye movements, and heart rate were monitored while they played. This allowed the team to better understand real emotional reactions and measure tension and involvement more accurately than through surveys alone.
According to Jun Seung Park, business director at JOYCITY, questionnaires were not enough, as players’ physical reactions sometimes differed from what they reported. The collected data helped the team fine-tune the intensity of different gameplay moments.
Parts of these tests can be seen in a documentary published on the studio’s official YouTube channel, showing players wearing brain wave monitoring devices. When it came to horror, the development team closely studied the original Resident Evil titles to recreate a similar atmosphere on mobile devices.
Sound design played a key role. In some scenes, music is completely removed, leaving only footsteps to increase tension. At first, the team was unsure if this approach would work, but testers’ visible surprise and stress confirmed its effectiveness.
According to the developers, Capcom’s more than 30 years of experience with the Resident Evil series was crucial in maintaining the franchise’s horror identity, even within a project that uses gameplay mechanics very differently from the traditional entries.
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