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Making a Horror Game Scary
GameSetWatch has put up an article about the characteristics that give games in the survival-horror genre the ability to unnerve, startle, and scare players in ways that most games don't. The genre has seen a resurgence lately, with titles like Dead Space, F.E.A.R. 2, and Left 4 Dead posting strong sales numbers. What triggers your fight-or-flight impulses in games like these? From the article:
"Being visual creatures, humans are most comforted by sight because of our ability to discern objects, action and consequences based on a picture. As a result, cutting visual stimuli and sticking purely to audio or speech is one of the best ways to keep a player on their toes. Even with weapons, it's very hard to find what you cannot see, and what you do not know. Even if visual stimuli is used, limiting or obfuscating the player's view can enhance the horror in a game, especially if the player sees it for an incredible short time. This can hint both at the difficulty of an upcoming encounter, or even allude to matters earlier in the narrative that the player will soon have to face."
Don't make them shoot'em ups.
It's amazing how many companies don't follow that advice.
Low tolerance for failure (taking a lot of damage or even dying when messing up), uncertainity where enemies are (whether a facehugger jumping out of a corner or a ghost that can teleport around you) and generally a feeling of "ohshitohshitohshit" when an enemy engages you. FEAR wasn't scary, you've got a gun and you shoot people with it, neither was Doom 3 (though FEAR was more of a tactical shooter while Doom 3 was just "eat lead, motherfucker!"). The situation must be life or death, not life or slightly less life. You simply can't have a horror game when your main character is a supersoldier with bullettime, massive firepower and lots of health who murders an entire platoon before breakfast.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Wiki on Blood
I think one of the most interesting things about this game which made it scary was it's sound effects. The designers went out of their way to make the zombies in the game either nearly silent or give off just a small amount of noise. You would turn around, and there would be one. I had the shit scared out of me so many times when I was younger. It was very Michael Myers (the horror movie, not the comedian.)
Making a horror game is well and good, but when you recycle the same scare tactics over and over through an entire game, it's very easy for it to devolve into a simple action game with surprise moments. Ie, Doom 3 and Left4Dead. Both good action games that I've enjoyed an unhealthy amount of, but neither are very good horror games. Play them for a few days and they quickly stop evoking any fear because it's just more of the same.
I have not played FEAR or Dead Space -- do you think they're better horror games?
The only game that has truly given me a scare was the undress Britney Spears game.
She starts out fully clothed, and you have to perform a task requiring a reasonable amount of concentration. I think it's something like move the mouse through a maze without touching the sides.
After the first round, she says something to you but you can't quite hear it so you turn the volume up. She does take off an item of clothing though.
Same again after the second round, so you turn the volume up a bit more. Or maybe this bit wasn't in there... just the first and last round
Half way through the last round a vaguely scary face appears in place of the game coupled with a loud scream - made even louder by the fact that you now have your volume cranked right up. That made me jump.
Another good one was a video I saw on youtube - a car is shown in the distance driving along a winding road until it goes behind a building or something and never comes out the other side. While you are trying to figure out why it hasn't appeared on the other side a scary face appears coupled with a scream.
While playing a horror game you expect scary things to happen, so it's not a big deal when they do. Not so much when you are undressing a pop star...
So... I guess the answer to the question is to put naked pop stars in your games.
This: http://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html
Don't let the screenshot fool you. It is anything but a Mario clone. If H.P Lovecraft and Stephen King got together, and decided to make a 2d sprite-based platformer, with the intent to CREEP YOU THE FUCK OUT, it would be that. Short game, you could beat it in under an hour if you wanted, though to get the 'good' ending needs a little more work.
Seriously. If you want an example of a game that starts cutsey, but ends on the other side of screaming horror, play that. Preferably, at night, with the lights out. Just don't let a young child play it, or you'll be dealing with a kid having nightmares.
I find stealth games much more scary, like Thief, System Shock 2, even Oblivion are scary when you are sneaking around and suddenly get caught unaware.
...was the first (and prolly the only) game to scare the shit out of me.
And it bears our all the points made in the article.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
> a car is shown in the distance driving along a winding road
I actually kicked my chair over backward the first time I saw this. NSFW without headphones. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fTeT3g1AA
Left 4 Dead is a horror game now? Jeez, I thought it was a shoot-em-up or FPS or whatever you purists call it. Just because it has a zombie theme, it gets called a horror game. Sure, and "The Next Generation" and "Star Wars" were science fiction...instead of dramas in outer space.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Actually it's savegames that make PC games boring. Without the ability to save game at any moment you'd be 10 times more alert and immersed in the game.
I think it is important to know that culturally specific items such religious items which are supposedly scary are not universal. Things like the Devil, angels, and demons are only scary in a particular setting. Very few people outside that world even understand WHY it would be scary.
Why is a pentagram scary? I have no idea. They are nice to look at, but why they are used all over id Software games makes no sense to me.
Skip the pentagrams for more universal items.
...you just put in atrocious controls and a broken camera system. Oh wait that's not scary it's just rubbish.
To scare the hell out of me, I absolutely love the Fatal Frame series. Some people say its strong point is having a camera instead of some powerful gun and some people say its strong point is having to look at the ghosts face-to-face and very close to effectively defeat them.
Though I kinda agree with those two theories, I think its "scare power" comes from something else: the fact that the ghosts are "innocent". In FF, like in some Japanese horror movies, the concept is that the spirits are not aware that they are dead, how scary they look and that they can hurt people: they just want to make contact.
For the sake of comparison, consider F.E.A.R.: Alma surely is scary, but there's little doubt she's one fucked up girl trying to kill you. In FF3, however, you have to deal with the ghost of a 5-year-old girl who keeps screaming "daddy, where are you" and whose attack is pulling your arm to call your attention and look at you pleading. That attitude, plus the realisation she's dead, creeps the hell out of me.
Left 4 Dead was scary? Seriously?? It just sounded like a fun "hey let's kill a hundred of NPCs a minute" type of game to me. You know what game was really scary to me? Duke Nukem 3D, for its Octabrain. If you wanna make it scary, you need a monster slightly taller than you, very ugly, that dwells in the dark or underwater, that screams in a scary way and that you can't get rid of easily.
Zombies aren't scary, mostly when you're pointing a shotgun at them.
By the way, are there any good modern 3D games that exploit the concept of 3D Monster Maze? Trying to run and hide unarmed from a monster who's after you is awesome, but few 3D games from 1981 live up to my modern expectations.
You just got troll'd!
...was the only game that ever scared the shit out of me. That quiet hallway where the zombie dogs come crashing through the windows? Jesus Christ, I nearly shit my pants.
Playing the first X-Com at night was scary to me. To have your troopers get off the transport, with no idea where the aliens were was always nerve racking. You'd then use up all your action points, and with the last step, you'd see a shadowy grey just around the corner, waiting to nail you. A very creepy game indeed.
The granddaddy of them all (well, really two) have a lot to teach us: Resident Evil on the consoles and Alone in the Dark on the PC. There are really only two things that matter: the camera and the resources.
Camera: we can't be allowed to see everything. Horror movies exploit this by giving us a limited range of view, setting the movie at night, etc. RE and Alone in the Dark didn't always let us see everything; an enemy would be hiding off screen and we could only just hear them. That works. It taps into deep-seated fears in humans, the very same fears that made us hate the dark when we were small children.
Even Resident Evil 4, for all of its full 3D without pre-rendered backgrounds managed to do this right. The over-the-shoulder view caused your main character to obscure a good part of the screen. You had to stop, look around, make sure things were clear, and continue. You'd sometimes hear a sound and not see that someone was obscured by your character. In an FPS, not seeing everything would be infuriating, but it's part of the horror genre.
Limited resources: We can't be a super solider. We can't have a machine gun, we can't have a rocket launcher, and we probably shouldn't even have enough bullets for our pistol (yes, I realize many survival horror games have had all of those elements, but they're generally late in the game or included as a plot point rather than a weapon). Every encounter is supposed to be a balancing act-enemies can be killed nearly instantly with a headshot, but it requires taking time to line up the shot. Alternately, you can pump them full of easy body shots, but use 3x-6x as many bullets. While you're trying to decide what to do, the enemy is approaching. The sinking feeling you get when you hear an enemy and realize that you only have 3 bullets to deal with them is far more horrific than anything that ever appeared in Doom 3.
Meanwhile, most games won't even let you carry that many weapons; you're generally limited to a pistol and a larger weapon until later in the games. In Resident Evil, for example, even if you do manage to pick up the powerful rifle or big .357, you have to choose if you're willing to give up the group-clearing shotgun to use it.
Along the same lines as resources: your character can't be indestructible. An enemy or two, particularly bunched up, SHOULD have the ability to kill or at least seriously injure you. Having no bullets doesn't matter if you can easily tough it out through a swarm.
The type of enemy doesn't really matter. I'm sure a suitable game could be made with vampires or crazy people or werewolves or even enemy soldiers if it was done correctly. As long as game creators use a horror-inspired camera and limit your resources, you're on track to a good horror movie.
Finally note: What many people have said about FEAR, Left4Dead, etc. is true. They are not horror games. Rather, they are FPS games with monsters instead of soldiers. If you doubt it, then just run them through the camera/resources test. Shooting 100 zombies from an over-the-barrel view is the functional opposite of a horror game.
In the GameCube title 'Eternal Darkness' the devs. used all kinds of tricks, ranging from subtle control 'issues' to a full BSOD, unbeatable enemies, and flies crawling around the screen that looked like they were in your living room (versus artificial game constructs). The overall effect was to render the gamers perception of the game state in doubt during play - reinforcing the game rule that exposure to supernatural creatures would drive a character insane. There was an antidote to this as well, so this was no cheat. It was tempting, however, to forgo the 'sanity potion' just to see how bad the progressively creepier 'bugs' got.
Oh - and it was actually very difficult to permanently die during these episodes, although during play, the character appeared to die, but immediately 'flashed back' to where she was right when the possession/demon encounter/bug began.
Combined with the generally creepy atmosphere of the game, thanks to very good art and design, made the game scary and fun to play.
If I'm creeping around corners, heart beating out of my chest, completely on edge, then putting up a big picture of Rosie O'Donnell would make the game truly frightening.
See?! I get to skip to:
4) profit...
The initial level is pretty much empty. You walk and there is the creepy atmosphere and you keep walking. You walk, expecting something to jump out at you any second, but it doesn't. You walk and... wait, I think I... HOLY FUCK! DIE DIE DIE!
Then there was the one level where a large open room with a cat walk above. After nearly buying the farm about 6 times, I just stayed in there and waited. For 30 minutes. I sat, in a corner, twitching at every sound, doing nothing for 30 minutes. And I was not bored at all.
Scripted scenes can be scary for the player if they are done well like in Doom 3, but they are only scary the first or maybe the second time. Scary noises work better for people watching the game being played, Left 4 Dead has scary noises that MEAN something and it worked for them. L4D's random element is really cool because it does keep you on your toes but that's different from the jump up from your desk and throw your controller effect that you get the first time from scripts. Since most people seem to enjoy the later type for it's replayability then seed your games with random events to keep it feeling fresh, game critics on the other hand won't be judging you based on their 5th time playing so keep some scripted events for the shock value. Make sure the weapons are useful and at fun but keep ALL of the players resources (health, ammo, armor, friendly AI) scarce. Dead Space had a nice feel to it because it didn't allow me to get comfortable with one gun and one tactic but at the same time switching to another gun didn't ruin that part of the game. If you insist on being the guy who forces the player into a corner with a wrench or a lead poll then play BF 2142, ALL melee weapons should work like the Combat Knife that is one hit one kill but it doesn't work if you're pressing up against them it requires at least some skill. Latley I've been seeing a trend in the FPS genre toward Agro damage, stuff like this wouldn't feel right in a true horror game unless maybe it had a diminishing return and even then it would cause it to lean more toward run and gun. Super-soldiers aren't fun to play this kind of game with; but I personally enjoy the chances to dominate or ambush zombies on occasion, it's a good stress reliever and reminds the player that the game is fun.
Hey yeah... Lurking Horror.
Now that had some scary moments. Environmental sound effects in a text adventure, what? Well played Infocom!
One of the scariest moments in Doom 3 is near the portal when everything is bloody and there are noises and shuffling. Things fall apart at certain areas giving out a loud noise. But the best part? There's no bad guys. None, its just freaky, going more than 20 seconds without a bad guy ends up being scary, because you ANTICIPATE one.
And if you dont think doom 3 is scary you didn't play on nightmare difficulty with 3d glasses. Fricken fly-babies...
All these comments and no mention of Silent Hill? In my opinion, the king series of horror/survival games. The combat and control interface (of Silent Hill 3, anyway) was not so great, but on several occasions I had to stop playing due to the overwhelming fear it summoned within me. The first of such times occurred in the subway level, at first immediately past the turnstyles, again by the blacked out platform on the next sublevel and finally the haunted platform adjacent to that one. I was like the guy above who brought up Aliens vs. Predators, immobilized and twitching at every inhuman sound, wishing to whatever powers that be to let me just curl up into a ball and die quietly.
The game's presentation is nothing short of incredible from start to finish. Consider the application of the radio/flashlight combo you pick up in the first area. You get only a small cone of light and that dreadful static as warning that some thing lopes in the darkness around you. There are no cheap scares, either. Silent Hill 3 is probably as close to a living nightmare as you could achieve in reality if you were ever unfortunate enough to wake up in such a place, as the main character does. I've never experienced such powerful states of despair, dread, terror and paranoia.
Speaking of horror and horror games I have published an original horror game involving zombies, mad scientists and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. If you have any interest in those kinds of things, or Rogue-likes, check it out.
Dead By Zombie:
http://zodlogic.webfactional.com/deadbyzombie
There's a free demo for the Mac. If you like the demo, you can also buy a license to upgrade to a Premium version with more game play and a larger world.
Mmmmmm, tasty brains....
Mike Kramlich
Principle Mad Scientist
ZodLogic Games
Combat pacing makes or breaks the horror genre for me. I'll pick on Bioshock. Great game and the environment was oozing with atmosphere however I found it to be 0% scary. The combat was non-stop which allowed no time to become lost in the environment.
When the developer is just constantly throwing stuff at me I respond with a fight response.
Little Sisters pushed back my chances of a serious relationship another 10 years.
Seagoon: Shut up Eccles!
Eccles: Shut up Eccles!
In FF3, however, you have to deal with the ghost of a 5-year-old girl who keeps screaming "daddy, where are you" and whose attack is pulling your arm to call your attention and look at you pleading. That attitude, plus the realisation she's dead, creeps the hell out of me.
Yes, I also dislike the awesome bar.
Friday the 13th
I know, I know, it was a game way back in the 80s that was for the commodore 64, but man, whenever that Jason would come out, because you spent too much time in one place trying to figure something out, it really got your heart pumping, maybe it was also because I was only 14 at the time......I don't know if today it would qualify, I would want to hear what others think though, if there is an emulator out there, and a copy of that game!
(first post from old lurker of /. here goes, pardon my language by the way. im not too articulate in english. i'll try to avoid the brainfarts though, heh.)
i dont find anything scary on BOO!-tactics. Sure, they might give you a good jump or few, but in the long run they do nothing. Doom had a good start, but after you learned to empty a clip to the general direction behind you every time you heard a strange sound, the fright-aspect disappeared.
That is exactly why i love Silent Hill -serie. To me, the basic idea of the serie is to scare you with what you don't understand. Take for example the first set of monsters you meet in SH2, you had no idea what they were but you knew you're not going to survive if you didnt run or start smashing uglies with whatever you could find.
late at night + me at 13 + reading all the lore = nightmares
You want a game that will make you crap golden teddy bears, play Penumbra. http://www.penumbra-overture.com/ageGate.php/
What's funny to me is with all these horror games that are coming out with bleak themes and dark stories, the most creeped out I've ever been playing a game is the Ocean House Hotel level of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
Despite all the wonderful games they have in the Horror genre, by far the most I've ever been creeped out by a game is the Ocean House Hotel level in the V:tM Bloodlines. Don't think I've been scared by a game before or since.
X18 lab in Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. The creepiest videogame experience I've ever had. You enter an underground facility. It is dark, dilapidated and empty-looking. Old fire extinguishers, boxes, and various debris gradually start hovering and then are tossed at you. As you go further, you come across a tunnel which intermittently sets itself on fire. And as you stand there trying to time your passage, squatting things with gas masks on their faces come jumping at you on all fours, with uncanny agility.