 Williams had wanted to do a make a horror game for eight years prior to Phantasmagoria , and had started to design a few , but none came to fruition . She felt the computer game industry and software technology had not yet reached the point where an effective and frightening computer game could be made . As a result , she decided to wait until CD @-@ ROMs were faster and could handle real actors , which she believed was crucial for a horror game because she felt the player had to be able to empathize with the character to fear for them . Williams had been considering several horror story ideas for years before making the game . In one , the heroine answers a magician 's advertisement for an assistant and gets the job , but the magician turns out to be insane . Another was set in the past , with the female protagonist getting involved in the supernatural life of a magician character . That idea evolved into a woman being married to a man who is drawn to a bizarre house that previously belonged to illusionists and is haunted by ghosts . The final story as it appears in the game is in a contemporary setting , but combines elements common in modern fiction with those of 19th century literature and classic horror films of the 1950s . 
