I am making a horror game that has tank controls like the golden age of survival horror (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.). If you were making a horror game, what would the gameplay, atmosphere, setting, puzzles, etc. be like?
Also, discuss horror games in general.
>.gif
what is the spooky thing about this image though?
You need to make sure there are surprises: that players should fear the next corner and room but give them rewards that compels them to explore.
That you will never kiss a woman
I have kissed a number of women, the sad thing is that the best of them by far doesn't like me anyway.
reminder that the soundtrack and ambient sounds are most important in a horror game and can carry a shit game on its own
>That image
you're pretty good, kid
Im gonna just explain OPs image. What makes a horror game good isn't jumpscares, but putting someone in an environment where they are constantly on edge expecting something that doesn't necessarily have to jump out at all.
Name one scary game that doesnt rely on jumpscares. No Silent Hill and RE are not scary unless you're a child. The only scary bit in RE was the dogs in the window which was a jumpscare. The only time jumpscares are bad is when they happen like every other minute.
>gif
You sick fucker.
...
This. It's called dread.
>Name one scary game that doesnt rely on jumpscares.
Life
lsd dream emulator
the babadook the game
>implying I haven't kissed and fucked multiple women
Your paranoia.
>kissing women
>not kissing men
gross and gay
>those pieces of equipment and machinery in Alien: Isolation that are deliberately shaped to look like the alium
fucking gave me an ulcer
How do I use uncanny valley to my advantage when creating a horror game?
evil androids are a semi-common horror trope. Expressionless humanoid robots are pretty creepy.
It's really more about what you do with them than what they look like, though.
probably with puppets, dolls and mannequins
monster designs too I guess
but if all the characters are uncanny valley it might get uncomfortable to look at, and not in the scary way
Haven't found a trap cute enough to hit who can take my man meat.
try a bear trap
>you are a government agent tasked with the study and containment of paranormal phenomena
>you are assigned cases to investigate.
>details include location, witness testimonies, photographs of objects or bodies found at the scene, etc. They don't directly give you the cause of the case but give you indirect hints as to what happened
>gameplay consists of the player running around trying to piece together what happened for each case.
>you find and photograph evidence, interrogate witnesses, and discover clues as to what is behind the events all while trying not to get killed.
the player eventually find ways to contain the creatures they encounter
they could then view them in a gallery of sorts
which could also lead to a chapter where some or all of them break out and you have to escape the facility where they are kept. just like that one cabin in the woods scene.
How did those guys even catch all them if they couldn't even fight them?
>tank controls
But why?
Don't bear traps only really work on bears?
I'm not trying to trap myself
Honestly, the one good scene of the movie is when they escape.
did you just call yourself a bear
honey..
also the bear trap was because trap chasers need to be captured and dealt with
anyways Japan probably has you covered for traps so go search for anime vidya
So, horror games are divided by 2 types mainly
>JumpScares
>unsettling/spooky
First one relies on unexpected "Loud" & "Sudden movements" that trigger a person's react mechanism
>pros
It's easy and don't require much thoughts.
>cons
People get used to it and be bored of it soon enough
>This methods are great to be used in a short horror game. Or putting a few of these in the 2nd type of horror game is great.
the latter one relies on the game building up atmosphere, good art designs.
>pros
the game will hold up and be scarier as time passed when the horror and spookiness is building up
>cons
It requires efforts and real talent to build the game up.
It's also a hit or miss tactics because different humans have different elements that trigger their fears.
I won't make a horror game if i'm you.
Especially one using tank controls.
Because they were fighting them all at once.
I imagine a lot of them died in the process as well, like those descriptions of catching deadly SCPs
>making a map on time splitters 2
>get spooked because using the haunted hotel map and scary music
Walking around testing the map I still felt like something was gonna jump me any second even though I made the map. That all went away In the actual match while shooting people, but I made the map stupidly big so you'd still walk around alone and suddenly find someone
Either way my point is just being alone with scary music and sound effects is sometimes unsettling enough
I guess if I made a horror game, it would play around a chronic disorder I have but warped to fit gameplay mechanics. Getting out of a chair would have a % chance of causing your charactet to get a heat stroke and fall into some spooky dream space. So similar simple actions could all be disastrous. Also you're constantly fatigued and worsening so you can't avoid doing things or you starve. The fatigue meter would work similarly to that GameCube game with the insanity meter
Unexpected but I got subnautica during the sale and have had massive feelings of dread and fear when exploring. They got the atmosphere just right to where I want to go further but sometimes just Don't have the courage.
I can't get the proper feeling in that game because the graphics are kinda shit
If they did more stylized lighting or shaders or just somehow stylized it to look less shitty, I would've liked it
Man, I've wanted to make a game just like that for years but I've never gotten around to doing it. I should just get off my ass and get to work but I have no idea where to start with something like that.
bampu
decide on which creatures ect to use
you should really only use one or two famous cases and have the rest be either unique twists on existing creatures, somewhat unknown creatures, or entirely original creatures
make sure there is a variety to the cases as well. it would be boring if every case was the same "run from creepy humanoid #349543 in scary building #456355"
think about different environments and the mechanics that would go with those environments. For example, say there is a sea monster case. There would be a section where you would need to go out in a boat with sonar equipment etc. And a diving section when you discover it's lair.
There would also need to be a logical progression to each case which could be laid out in a simple diagram/outline. this would make it easier to keep track of events and a general idea of what will happen.
a quick example
>case file #4
>start in town near by
>interview witnesses and research local lore (foreshadowing what is to come goes here)
>town guy has a shack near the lake
>get him to agree to let you stay there to investigate
>go to shack
>it has a dock and a boat
>boat won't start so you need to find a way to fix it
>while you are looking around the shack to find tools you see diaries,notes, images etc from the guy who owns the shack giving more backstory to the case
>once you find the tools you come out to find the boat sunken with huge bite marks on it and the dock is wrecked
>stay the night in the cabin since it's late
>spoopy roars and noises wake you up in the night
>go outside to look
>see quick glimpse of a huge beast swimming into the lake
>shack has claw marks on the side
>go into town again to find a new boat
then you would go into the boating sequence, and from there the diving sequence. most of the spooky stuff happens here. dark and murky waters. boat getting rammed etc.
eventually the player would discover the creatures nest and trap the monster there.
Yeah, I see what you're saying. The biggest challenge would be having all that and also having gameplay that doesn't feel like a walking simulator or a VN, without drastically shifting the gameplay style whenever a new segment pops up. Maybe something more in line with old adventure games, but with a dialogue system and multiple story paths/endings?
how big is it?
you mean like old point and click adventures?
I don't see how that would work with this. a first person game like amnesia makes more sense imo
>Saw everything but the "Y" and the random scuff on his sleeve
CLOSE ENOUGH
You failed to realize that there is actually more than 10 differences. For example, the stack of papers between their legs is lined up on the top picture, but misaligned on the bottom picture.
So SCP Foundation: the game
>.gif
We aren't developers faggot.
Thought I spotted a difference, but I must be imagining things
>they could then view them in a gallery of sorts
I LOVE when games include a monster gallery of some kind. Being able to look at mobs up close without them aggroing and whatnot is always great.
it's nice until they break out
You really believe that ?
As far as horror goes, I dunno. There's a scene in Dino Crisis right after your first encounter with the raptor that you have to go down this long spooky hallway, and it' super tense and you can hear a raptor prowling outside, but nothing happens.
45 minutes later, you make another trip down the hallway, and that's when it bursts through the glass, when you least expect it. A similar thing occurred in resident evil remake with the dog window.
Umm, another great RE moment was actually in five. You come to a hallway, with an elevator slowly coming up to your level. You and your partner aim at the elevator waiting, but then lickers come from behind you. You turn around and fight the swarm, but forget about the elevator, which ends up making you surrounded by enemies.
That was a good one. Clock tower for snes has a bunch of misdirection encounters along those lines. Take inspiration when it's good man.
Oh and as far as puzzles go, I'm great at those. I design escape rooms. Let me know if you want a few ideas in a certain theme.
You know what gamers fucking hate, and especially survival horrors gamers? Wasting shit. In RPGs, it's elixirs, and in resident evil it's bullets.
There's a seperation that exists in most games between quest items and offensive/health items. The answer to a riddle in resident evil is never a green herb.
Make a wall that you have to shoot in certain locations for it to open or something. Mix quest items with survival items.
Actually this did sort of happen in one resident evil. In code veronica you got the gold lugers, but you had to use them as a key.
Could do that. You have to leave your handgun or whatever in a slot to open a door, and carry on in that section unarmed.
The dog in RE 4 would make a good subversion too. You always free shit and expect you get rewarded for your good deeds. Fuck that. Wait until it's too late for the player to reload the save and have the dog reappear and be a total thorn in your side. Attacking you, attracting enemies, stealing items. Then have you come across another helpless animal and see if you make the same choice. The second animal can be bad or good, it doesn't matter.
Is Soma and Dreadout any good for horror games?
I only remember the one dog, who helps you in that one boss fight.
Soma = Yes
Have a monster that can only appear in the darkness. Then you need to solve a puzzle that involves flipping light switches on and off. But every time it gets closer. Like this video:
m.youtube.com
Non shitty link
Are there any horror racing games? Horror games where you can go fast?
Any RE game speedrun.
I suppose Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a horror game where you can sort of go fast. But it's not like you're driving a vehicle.
I have this idea
>game about going to sleep and having increasingly awful nightmares
>dying in the dreams wakes you up, but you can die in the real life "metagame" permanently
>you become hunted by increasingly intelligent and dangerous beings within the dreams in various settings
>first few are dumb beasts that chase you, hide and outsmart them, throw meat, kill a guy to get past him
>suiciding to "wake up" is a tactic but you get various benefits for lasting as long as you can within the dreams (lucid dreaming, create weapons, dream of a car to drive away)
>intermittent weird/creepy dreams
>face other humans, aliens, eventually interdimensional beings, cosmic gods that transport you to hell dimensions and pick you apart, total hopelessness
>protag begins to believe the beings exist in his reality
>either commit suicide in real life or face them in endless futility
>your last dream is just screaming and then credits
MY MOM
Soma has like 2 really scary parts that's it
There has to be some gameplay-related tension.
If the game's challenges are easy to beat, then it doesn't matter how scary the monsters look or how spooky the sounds and environments are.
Penumbra was creepy as hell at first. Then I found out that you could jump up on a ledge and kill the wolf-creatures without any risk. All the tension disappeared, since I wasn't at risk.
Compare how you felt when you first entered the village in RE4. You didn't know the gameplay yet, you were swamped with villagers and a chainsaw-wielding maniac, you barricaded yourself, etc. It was a great part. When you replayed the game and knew how the enemies acted, it was a totally different feeling - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't tense.
In Alien - Isolation you feel brave when you've just saved the game. But once you're in unknown territory, the savespot is far behind you and the alien is searching for you, it's tense as fuck. Because you risk dying and starting over, losing progress. And again, once you get the flamethrower a lot of that tension goes away, since you've got a tool that can save you.
Let the player feel gameplay-related threats. Let ammo be very scarce, let fights be hard to overcome, let the player actually risk something when he plays instead of just exposing him to jump-scares.
Amnesia really suffered from this. Once you got caught you were just sent 3-4 minutes back - not scary at all. The designs were great, but it's not a film - the gameplay needs be included too.
My game would start off normally, just you, alone in your house. You can't sleep, you're tossing and turning, so you go downstairs and turn on the TV. It's Conan O' Brien, but something is unusual. He's talking to Andy Richter, but no one is in Andy's usual seat. A chill comes over you, and you slowly turn your head to the easy chair positioned beside you.
Then I'd cut to the title card. I'd call it the Richtering.
the problem with this though, is that if you make the gameplay too hard or punish the player too often, then most people are just going to give up.
It needs to be the perfect sweetspot of difficulty and reward
Are you by any chance a 14yo in full emo phase?
You can kill the dogs in Penumbra? I thought they were unkillable and all you could do was make them stunned for a dozen seconds. Either way the combat in the game made me drop it hard. So hard I haven't even bothered to try the expansions that allegedly remove the combat. Strange.
Holy shit why does this sound so appealing to me.
I'm not even that into either genre, but a schlock horror racer would be the tits.
>just posts the same picture
faggot at least draw some circles so we know what we're looking at.
It wouldn't be gay the story would be vague and you'd play it episodically. The dream format makes the scenarios really flexible
Of course, the game should feel fair. And it's no fun being punished so hard that you get no sense of achieving anything.
But the player should never not care about meeting a monster. When you starting thinking "oh, this is a special zombie, it needs one headshot or two stabs, it might drop some money or some healing stuff" then the monster isn't scary anymore.
I think Dying Light did a good job with this, when you were running at night. There was a good combination of risking more danger, yet earning more xp and drops, while at the same time knowing that one encounter with one of those dangerous infected could make you lose all you'd worked to get. The player could also just sleep through it all, if he wanted. The player created his own tension.
Yeah. Just jump on a ledge of some kind (I seem to recall some containers or something?), equip the pickaxe and start hitting them.