How do we make video games scary again?

How do we make video games scary again?

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make a subtle slow burner that don't shy away from proper combat, level design and character development (but don't shove the characters down your throat like RE7)
oh yeah, if you have shit budget don't bother

VR and jumpscares

Dont want jumpscares? sorry your game isnt scary then

insanity mechanics
taboo subtexts
unkillable enemies
industrial soundscapes
put effort into the lighting engine

most importantly - don't explain anything
if there's lore keep it coded and subject to interpretation

i know you're being sarcastic but man i hate the idea of jumpscares being "scary"
it's not scary, it's just startling
you can get me with a jump scare 9 times out of 10 but it doesn't actually scare me like horror should

Does it matter?

It will only end up being played by some unlikeable fuckface on Youtube who screams over the game's entire audio, acts like a turd on purpose and has his ugly cunt of a face shoved into every single thumbnail of his playlist.

Then people watch it but not because of the game but because they're mentally juvenile and want to see an assclown in his his study act like a lobotomized monkey.

In the end nobody played the game but everyone somehow likes it. Sales are abysmal. Studio goes bankrupt. Publishers think the genre isn't profitable and it dies.

Maybe you guys are just desensitised? Or over-hyping previous games? Then again, I am a coward.

Throbbing Gristle soundtrack
youtube.com/watch?v=BXsWBMXorhM

im not being sarcastic

you just cant make something not real scary. because there is no real danger, so you must be kept on your toes at all times with the possibility of jumpscare, because it affects you directly

Open world crafting voxels based survival

Have developers learn to make a scary atmosphere.
Also limit jump scares. If there is a jump scare do what ZombiU did with the zombie dragging you through an air duct.

The most important thing is that you focus on staying away from enemies. If you can go guns blazing, then it won't even come close to being scary. 0 guns isn't necessary, but you shouldn't go past early resident evil level of guns and ammunition. This and constant action, or even constantly seeing enemies, has been the 2 things that tends to destroy any fear a game tries to build up.

Dont tell us exactly what is happening. Leave it open ended and mysterious. The first part of RE7 was great because I had no idea what the fuck was up. Once I got the gist it stopped being interesting

Videogames are meant and designed to be won, this means a players own mastery of the game has an effect on the scariness of a game. If we tried to introduce counter measures to this like scaling difficulty, then the game actually further becomes about taking yourself out of the horror experience in order to play the most efficient way, or by adding randomness, which will ultimately only annoy most players and make the game feel "cheap", or we take away players ability and control as much as possible, but then the game feels like a movie game. There really is no solution, or at least I think so.

Stop using musical chimes whenever something spooky shows. Especially if you want players to be unsure if they really saw something or not.

I think the only times scary music is accepted is when it's meant to mimic panic and makes it hard to hear what's going on. Like an increasingly loud choir.

...

>Musical chime thing plays.
>I didn't see anything because I was looking elsewhere.
>Feel nothing but disappointment.

ground them in realism or at least somewhat believable realism. I personally could never get into a game that tires to warp reality too far. Like I could give too hot shits about death stranding or agony. Id like a game that puts you in a moral grey area and you have to deal with the consequences. A detective game where you make mistakes and get people hurt, a game where you play as a criminal and have to watch or even get involved in more heinous crimes, a game where youre a monster and have to kill tp survive, you are a soldier during a war or the bodyguard to a war criminal and have to begrudgingly assist him. That sort of thing, the "people are the scariest monsters" cliche, but if done right it can be scary. After that its the usual
>jump scares, but few and far between
>dont outright show the monster, if at all. let the imagine do the work
>weapons are few and far between, and dont turn you into duke nuke em (not a fan of the no weapons walking simulators, they go from scary to boring fast)
>a good music score can really bring it together
>a good setting, either flushed out and small or open and vast
>a good story
again, people shit on movie/games but you can tell whats a story people sat down and put some heart into it

what the fuck is that image

youtube.com/watch?v=mzDvpT-MjYs

youtu.be/45baZCeHeWQ

>you just can't make something not real scary
Imagine being this retarded.

Bring back 3rd person cameras, none of that outlast shit.
Not a 3rd person shooter.
Focused on story, exploration, and puzzles.
Story about psychological themes like loss, grief, guilt, regret.
No zombies.

I'm the exact opposite to you. Human shit doesn't scare me at all but supernatural shit like aliens and ghosts scare the beejesus out of me.

>ad hominem

Yep, looks like I'm right

Jumpscares are not the problem, the problem is CHEAP jumpscares, jumpscares that happen every minute.
The anticipation and not knowing when something will jump at you is what makes a game tense.
A great example is Spooky's House of Jump Scares, you know something will eventually pop out, and can even be something cute, but after 60+ rooms without one, it scares the hell out of you when it does pop out.
Not to mention that it's even scarier when you're being chased.

>Jump scares should be limited to when they are unsuspecting and actually needed, to be SCARY and to show THREAT.
>Lore has to be interpreted by the player and is shown only small hints of it by cryptic subtext
>No spooky supernatural ooga booga witch doctor tribal dude bullshit magician bullshit
>Must have a reason for the player to fear death in the game without feeling cheap as fuck
>No soundtracks, pure ambience is the serenade.
>multiple progression lines instead of one linear plot
>avoid cliche cabin in the woods then spooky man come out and do a funne scream

make the setting more than just "scary", make it bleak, unsettling, strange, etc, even when in contexts that would otherwise not be scary

anyone can put someone at unease when they're in a dilapidated mansion hunted by ghosts, you require a bit more finesse to make even normal, every-day settings in full daylight seem spooky

Quality lighting and sound design for starters with proper shadows and no stupid stings for every little moment imaginable. It's fine to have limited jump scare elements if they're in a slow burn plot where you're already feeling tense and uneasy, but if that's the only source of your horror it's going to be boring and ineffective. If it's meant to be overt horror, cover things that people still find genuinely unsettling/repulsive like cannibalism or stalking or unconventional torture/suffering - gore for the sake of shock-factor is something people are generally desensitised to. If it's psychological, pack in the visual metaphors without spelling your overarching narrative out in one go.

Limited resources to fight back against whatever enemies are in the game. Exclude overdramatic scripted sequences that take control away from the player, and leave them no way to pause the game. Don't put ammo crates in front of potential boss fights. Pare back the UI to the absolute bare minimum.

No children, they're too polarizing.

>you just cant make something not real scary
Like the majority of scary things aren't real.

go back to early 3d graphics. look at this old goosebumps game

youtube.com/watch?v=7vQ0qBVhjME

this game looks creepy as fuck. look at those really ugly character animations, the oddly disturbing hallways....games need to go back to this

look at the monster at 6:00, or the creepy hallways at 12:35 and 15:30...that atmosphere is good. the game is creepy as fuck

People need to better understand modern society's fears in order to exploit them in the form of a game, we are way past the days of zombie apocalypses and demonic possessions and haunted houses, a new horror trope is needed to better communicate the horrors of the modern world, although I have no idea what it would be, I think Silent Hill 1-3 definitely strikes a nerve with modern people though. Modern horror needs to be more introspective and abstract than Mr. Bones popping out of a closet or apocalyptic gorefests with zombies and aliens.

jacob's ladder?

Have you played Subnautica, my good man?

>Lore has to be interpreted by the player and is shown only small hints of it by cryptic subtext
I don't get why people love this, I personally think it's pretty boring and lazy.

it's interesting for lorefags instead of a huge ass fucking bible telling you what the hell is going on, which happens in most games just give me a tl;dr and not a journal entry of chad stealing your gf FOR FUCKS SAKE

It's a tool for hack writers to farm out their backstory to hundreds of idiots who think barebones is synonymous with quality.

if you keep the lore vague and structure the game like a nightmare/dream, people get salty as fuck

source: the evil within

People generally come up with wackier shit when things are left up to their imaginations, but it's generally the easiest way to avoid immersion-breaking plotholes.

Fuck you. Deep water is scary af
new update looks good. Hopefully i don't have to restart

another old 3D game i found creepy: 3d dinosaur museum

youtube.com/watch?v=L_CbnBrUYiw

look at the museum tour at 8:55...creepy atmosphere

>that creepy and loud as fuck music when you go behind the aurora
I shit myself every time

Just curious, how much did you enjoy RE7? I certainly have my complaints, but I do think it's a step back in the right direction.

I just googled the most common fears and of the top 100 it isn't until number 67 you get to something not real, ghosts, and the top 100 only contains one other non-real thing fear, zombies, at number 98.

fearof.net/

I guess not real things aren't scary.

one of my biggest fears is going permanently blind....or losing my arms/legs...if games exploit those fears it might be effectove

Naturally, this is true. We need creepiness, not shock. Take Junji Ito, for instance. Nothing jumps out at you, but man, that shit sticks with you.

That's the point. It's the best horror game I've played since CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth, Eversion, or Magrunner: Darkpulse and it doesn't even try to be a horror game.

They don't make the game to scare you, they make the game to be a really good game- and the content of the game just happens to stop my heart in my chest.

Reminder that if a horror game gives you a weapon its immediately not scary anymore

>Without the persistent threat of death or injury to the player it isn't scary
This is part of the problem once you know when and where its safe and how to beat an enemy, then the game no longer is scary.

But don't you want to have fun?

I think it's more an issue of shock-value vs. terror through deliberate gameplay mechanics.

Reminder that not giving the player a means of fighting the enemy means the enemy needs to be deliberately programmed to be dumb or slow enough to be escaped in almost every possible scenario. When you take the gun away, you must weaken the enemy as a result, and that ultimately nullifies the effect of removing the weapon.

>game allows you to throw shit at the monster but all it does is break on the moment of impact and stagger them for a millisecond
golden mechanic

>it's not scary, it's just startling

Oxymoron or just a moron?

I have a better idea

VR Decapitations. You simulate getting your head severed from your body. See your headless body from your perspective.

read a dictionary

Something that really scares me that a lot of games just gloss over: death. Sometimes when playing a game like GTA or Red Dead Redemption, I get chills when I think "what if they just got killed by some no name criminal in an early mission?" and the game was over. I mean 20-30 years of life is over in the blink of an eye simply due to some dumb criminal spat. imagine if, all those nameless goons you killed, the game actually focused on how it affected their families and how it made them grieve.

at 26:24 there is literal chad.

How fucking hipster do you have to be to unironically listen to and enjoy this music?

This is probably the best way to go about the combat in a horror game, it needs to be useful but ultimately futile, either there are too many enemies bearing down on you to do any good or the enemy is only stunned by your best efforts. You can not be allowed to escape every single scenario without actually facing the enemy on occasion.

The scariest vidya moment for me in recent memory was when I first played stalker when I first encountered controllers in the tunnels

2d enemies in 3d environments scare the fuck out of me. remember that spongebob episode with that magic pencil that makes their drawings come to life? that shit was creepy, imagine a game with enemies like that

make an entire game like the hotel in vampire the masquerade: bloodlines

>nouninformal
>noun: moron; plural noun: morons
> a stupid person.

In any case, if it's startling you, it's obviously doing it's job of triggering a reaction in you, isn't it?

I found these "decision points" from Life is Strange really disturbing. When these came up you knew that it was a very important decision, often just a small decision but it would have big impact later on. Its creepy how the game just stops and you're staring at two opposite choices. I would like to see a game take advantage of something like this

I find those are scary, but dont leave me with a feeling of dread afterwards. Its like a roller coaster, from start to finish I might get spooked, but as soon as its done im not worried about a monster under the bed becuase im not 9 years old. A real person who does monstrous things, that is able to act perfectly normal and might even have help from their friends? Thats enough to keep me up at night

That was one of the best parts in Shadowman. When you brought night to the living world you could finally use your voodoo powers and hunt down the serial killers. One of them was holed up in an abandon apartment complex in New York. You were going after the killer on his own turf. He made his presence and then vanished, cutting the power. You had to go through room by room, seeing a human skin rug, decayed bodies strapped to chairs, and wondering were this guy is in a dilapidated complex of rooms.

It's like if you decided to go into some abandon structure. Maybe there is that crazy person in there and you are intruding without even knowing. All you have is the giant beacon of your arrival, your light illuminating the way and drawing danger.
youtube.com/watch?v=NKLk5hgNlrw

weapons are fine they just cant be over powered
>chased by a monster?
>heres a .44 magnum that stops it in its tracks
>becomes an arcade shooter
>chased by a monster
>heres no weapon, just hide in a closet every 5 minutes until the AI walks away
>becomes hide and seek simulator
find a balance and its decent

hard in a game like red dead or GTA when you can kill literally hundreds of people. If somebody made a small town version of GTA and you got to know some of the people I think it would be hugely impact

>it needs to be useful but ultimately futile
If it's useful, it's not futile by definition.

Just replay the three Silent Hill games like i did.

>"You can't have your games be scary without jumpscares, theyre scary"
>jumpscares aren't scary
>"youre wrong, videogames aren't scary"

user you didn't prove his point wrong

>Getting surprised is the direct equivalent to watching a well written horror movie or being chased in a dark alley

Now ask me how I can tell that youre a fnaf fan

Penumbra was scary and you could beat dogs to death with a fucking hammer

this, ive been wanting that for years
>small town setting
>play as a local criminal that interacts with others from the seedy, albeit small criminal underworld
>set up your crew, do various thug things robberies, drug dealings, blackmail and so on
>the other criminal characters you dont pick from your crew become your rivals
>during some of the missions innocent bystanders that you have met can get killed
>have to dump their bodies, hide evidence, then go back to normal work alongside their grieving families
>multiple endings can happen depending on the choices you make
I know it wont happen because the devs at GTA and rockstar only thing bigger, badder, blander but I can dream

random ammo and enemy placements

You're in my spot, sir.

Thankfully horror doesn't need to be scary.

>Spoop in otherwise non spoop games
TOP. TIER.

youtube.com/watch?v=vPmrXozKbhQ

No, I just said it's a valid technique. Do you always jump to assumptions this easily?

The final "boss fight" was fucking atrocious but other than that it was honestly a well rounded game. I wouldn't describe my experience with it as particularly "scary" but it was definitely tense and atmospheric which is all anyone can really ask for with these games. It had the right amount of camp too

wouldn't it be nice if you play some game like an exploration/adventure, milsim fps, tps, stealth, or action game and suddenly halfway through the game it gets spooky?
Like imagine how Spec Ops the line started out as a cowadoody shootan but shifts to morality shit, now do something like that but shift it into horror

This

>not the cult apartment

I'd be pretty pissed my cowadoody shootan game that I paid for suddenly shifted into a product I didn't want.
The alternative situation being that the switch is spoiled and it's not worth playing anymore.

It's not a simple answer. Making a game scary is a much more nuanced task than coming up with a check list of game mechanics. It's just as much an artistic problem as it is a mechanical one.

what about the inverse like in FEAR
everyone thinks it's horror but it's actually cowadoody shootan

they don't even get it

That was more emotional than scary. Both in disgust for the cultists, and rage from having to storm in like fucking call of duty because of how aggressive the cultists were.

the dead children in the basement

I was pretty pissed my spooky cowadoody shootan turned into a regular cowadoody shootan.
FEAR didn't do that. It was a horror from the start, whether it's good horror or not is irrelevant.

Like I said, disgust.

People always say shit like "be subtle no jumpscares" but if that worked people would have done it.

You need people with a lot of experience and an idea. Like shit isolation is not subtle but it's probably one of the best horrorz

VR really does work on it's own

I could barely make it through most of the Stetchkov missions without wasting half the people I saw.

IS NOT THAT YOU THINK, OFFICER
WE ARE BAKING COOKIES

whorerror

This sort of.

I jump and piss myself more in battlefield when getting sniped from nowhere or see an enemy turn a corner eight into my face

>The final "boss fight" was fucking atrocious
I think it's fine if you think of it as more of a playable cutscene. The last Jack battle really felt more like a final boss both in terms of difficulty and the way it ends.

>throbbing gristle
>hipster music
Try not to out yourself as a pleb next time

Can we all agree this is one of the scariest games ever made?
>disturbing as fuck opening
>overwhelming sense of desperation throughout
>if you remain idle to long, Xenos will attack you by crawling through the vents
>they hide on walls and ceilings or dark corners
>if you get impregnated, you literally have to remove the embryo or you die
>very low light
>impeccable sound design, all you hear is low ambient engine hums and your own footsteps
>aliens can kill you very quickly but forces you to fight them regardless
>they will chase after you into vents
>you see them eat people
>gory as fuck
>you only get three beeps on your motion detector to prepare to fight one coming after you

This was the last truly terrifying game, just watch the opening.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfb8p-2JsOU

Familiar settings. One of the simplest reasons why silent hill struck a chord with people was the fact that they could easily immerse themselves in the environments. A suburban neighborhood can be a much scarier location than a haunted castle, or a turn of the century sanitarium.