if you're trying to make something in any genre or medium, it is not only a good idea, but absolutely vital that you study media not only outside of it's genre, but outside of it's medium
if you wanna make horror games (random example), don't just play other horror games. go to an art gallery (or check out virtual galleries on the internet if you don't want to physically go outside for any reason). read/listen to classic literature. watch theater performances. read screenplays. read modern literature. absorb folk tales from not just your own culture, but around the globe (if you're north american, the latter goes triple). watch non-anglo movies, amateur films, even just minute long youtube skits. play strategy games, RPGs, roguelikes, automation games, tower defense games, survival games, fucking Call of Duty and DOTA, everything. don't just experience "good" art, seek out flawed, unrefined, or just outright dogshit art, too.
fear and anxiety are very potent emotions that are invoked as tools everywhere, for different reasons. if you want to evoke fear in your audience, then first you must understand fear, and for that, you must study as many expressions of fear as humanly possible.
in every sincere creative expression is a facet that is unique to that piece of art, regardless of where it's from, what it is, and who put it there, and with every facet you make your own, you learn to shape and refine the facet you wish to leave in your own work.
experience as much as you can, so that the facet you show the world factures light in as dizzying of a lightshow as possible.
