Horror: 80's nostalgia body-horror - Arcade Flesh

Arcade Flesh: When Pixels Twist Your Skin

Story Dossier + Outline

Premise:

In a forgotten 80's arcade, high school outcast Connor Davis becomes obsessed with a mysterious game cabinet that starts morphing his body into pixelated horrors, forcing him to confront the machine's alien intelligence before it consumes his entire clique and erases his humanity.

✨ Genre: 80's nostalgia body-horror

✨ Tropes/Themes: 80's nostalgia, Retro Tech as Catalyst, Obsessive Exploration of the Unknown, Gradual Morphing / Loss of Bodily Control, Alienation & Betrayal of the Self, Isolation Amid Clique Setting, Final Confrontation / Unstable “Survivor”, Cursed Arcade Machine

✨ POV & Structure: 1st Person Past Tense Single POV, 4-Act Structure

✨ Vibe: A creeping dread builds through nostalgic fun turning grotesque, with high levels of body horror involving visceral transformations and psychological unraveling. The vibe is dark and unsettling, emphasizing isolation and loss of self without any romantic distractions. Expect bloody, squirm-inducing scenes of flesh warping amid 80's arcade glow.

✨ Book Size: Novel (60,000-100,000 words)

✨ Chapter Count: 38 Chapters

✨ Word Count: target 1800-2200 per chapter

✨ Heat Level: No Romance (plot-focused, no romantic elements)

What you get:

✅ Complete Premise with core concepts and Narrative Physics Architecture

✅ Complete Story Dossier — including detailed characters, relationship arcs, locations and objects, world rules and histories, multiple subplots, and market researched genre and style guides.

✅ A detailed 38 chapter outline.