Every single one of you reading this has probably played, or at least heard of, Pokemon GO. It took the world by storm this past summer, and through the use of augmented reality, they were able to invade our personal space. Pokemon GO was fun and all, but those of us with a penchant for horror were wanting something a little more…scary.

And that is where NIGHT TERRORS comes in. The story of Night Terrors is something I have been following for some time, well before Pokemon: Go was even a thing. As a massive fan of the Halloween season, and the haunts that populate it, I am always looking for something to do in the “off” time.

Night Terrors is a nifty little app that literally turns your own home into a haunted house using Augmented Reality. Played at night, completely in the dark, and with headphones, Night Terrors using your phones flashlight and sensors to create a truly terrifying experience.

Though the full ‘game’ is not yet complete, the folks over at Novum have a released a teaser of the experience in the form of “Night Terrors: The Beginning.”

“With the popularity of Pokemon GO, we thought it was necessary to capitalize on the success of the game and release our 10-minute teaser as soon as possible,” said Novum CMO Sean Evans, when we chatted about it. “We were being labelled as the Pokemon GO killer in many press outlets, and it proved quite the popular story, and really got us off to a great start when we launched our teaser.”

Much like the full game will, Night Terrors: The Beginning uses your own home as the setting, and tasks you with finding ghostly orbs throughout your house. However, beware when the timer strikes 666…because who knows what will happen then.

I was able to play Night Terrors: The Beginning a few times, once alone, and a few times with my son, and I can tell you that it makes for some truly terrifying moments. You may think you know your own home, but wandering around in the dark, using your phone as a sort of ghostly conduit device, makes you see it in a whole new light. I’m not usually one for jump scares, but Novum does an excellent job at building the atmosphere, and managed to scare the hell out of us several times.

According to Novum CEO Bryce Katz, the idea for Night Terrors came out when augmented reality was still in its earliest stages. They saw an opportunity to create an immersive experience, from a horror perspective, that hadn’t been done before. And as readers of this site know, we are all about immersive experiences!

“We didn’t have a huge budget to compete with the big, elaborate horror titles out there, and knew that AR would give us away to accomplish something unique,” said Katz when asked why they decided to go the augmented reality route instead of a traditional gaming experience. I am inclined to agree with him, because even with this short teaser game, it works, and works well.

The augmented reality works perfectly, and turns everyday objects into a source of a scare, whether intentional or not. For example, one of the biggest jumps I got while playing Night Terrors: The Beginning, was when the music reached a crescendo, and I turned my phone only to have a skeleton scare the hell out of me. And while a skeletal figure DID appear earlier in the game, this particular one was actually Mr. Bones, my in-home skeleton friend. Despite literally seeing him every day, seeing him through the lens of the game at that exact moment was a perfect scare for me.

One of their biggest influences when making the game was Paranormal Activity, as their version of seeing the world through a handheld lens to see the terrors that roam free intrigued them during the development process.

“The biggest challenge that we faced is that this hadn’t been done, so we had to create a lot of what you’re seeing from scratch and figure out how to make it compatible with mobile processors. It took a lot of time, but we got there,” said Katz. Though some things still seem to be in fine-tuning mode, for the most part, it’s all there. It’s pretty impressive how they pulled this off, seeing as how everyone’s home is different.

The full game will make use of mapping out your home, causing your phone to remember where things are, to more effectively plant scares around every turn. While Night Terrors: The Beginning managed to do a fantastic job of that already, I can only eagerly anticipate what the full version has in store for us.

As for the future of Night Terrors. Well, when I asked Evans, his response was “You’ll have to wait and see.”

To play Night Terrors: The Beginning, you can find it on the App Store at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/night-terrors-the-beginning/id1112350146?mt=8

For more information on Novum, and the upcoming full game, find them online at: http://novumanalytics.com/night-terrors/