*SIGH* I think i have came late to this thread. Well, late or not, i have something to say about the "How", one experience:
When i was playing "Lord Of The Rings" long long time ago (the VERY old one, strategical game for MSX), i was moving my units (i was seeing the Middle Earth map) when, suddenly, all screen went black, only with the words "PUSH SPACE" in red letters. Boy, I _WAS_ scared. I happened ''cause Sauron Had the Ring (Game Over V_V), but the way the game did it was... my heart nearly exploded.
I say: What about playing a game (RPG/RTS/FPS/...) and when something happens use this "Black with something unexpected" resource?. Like you''re running in a room full of aliens, and when fight starts, screen goes black and you can see "You''re going to die" in red during one second (with a scary sound added).
BTW Ultima 7 also used this, when you''re going to sleep or talk to people and with no reason the full-screen guardian appears ^_-

quote:
Is it? Or maybe it''s because the only games that have ever attempted this were created by people who know nothing about games.

I think part of the problem there is that game developers are generally scared of putting anything too sexual into their games because of the current views Congress and the such take on the gaming world. Which is unfortunate...

for example...

if you built up two deep characters, one good-harted but mentally unstable. the mental one eg brutally and explicitly rapes the other, then both their lives and personalities change dramatically in a moving way with a clever impact on the plot... assuming the rapist gets their moral justice, i don''t think anyone has the right to complain

but anyway, what''s this got to do with fear?

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A Problem Worthy of Attack
Proves It''s Worth by Fighting Back

i apologise if somebody has stated this previously but there are a lot of things that people are afraid of. alot of the responses include the unknown and death as main ones, which may be correct but how about specifics that people have phobias of. I realise that a lot of these phobias are because they can lead to pain or death, or involve aspects of unknowingness(?), but some of them don''t.

Spiders, snakes, heights, german people, embarassment, water (oceans, lakes), wide open spaces, small enclosed spaces, other people... i don''t really have a large list but u get the general idea...

I remember playing some game where i had to balance and walk across a small bridge really high up, and that was pretty scary to me.......not really scary but i''m sure to people who have that phobia this would freak them out. Remember the spiders crawling over that guys head in Arachnophobia, that had an uber creep factor of at least 17.3.

I hear that some people have phobias of Peanut Butter....its possible. "Attack of the killer Peanut Butter!" ''argh its oiliness is increasing my blood pressure.....argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''

and so on...

true but impossible to incorporate in a game, obviously, people''s irrational fears are down to individual psychology.

it would be cool to be able to read the player''s mind and change the game according to what buries the needle on the freak-o-meter

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A Problem Worthy of Attack
Proves It''s Worth by Fighting Back

quote: Original post by walkingcarcass
true but impossible to incorporate in a game, obviously, people''s irrational fears are down to individual psychology.

it would be cool to be able to read the player''s mind and change the game according to what buries the needle on the freak-o-meter

I think putting in an assorted array of common phobias would work. Even if people don''t have arachnophobia, many of them probably have some sort of small fear of spiders deep inside.

I like the idea of claustrophobia. I think John Romero once mentioned a level where you were trapped in a small box and enemies could come in. The lack of maneuvering space is pretty scary.

Mess with reality.

Reality is what the player expects to happen. Reality is the basis of their actions. Reality is the counterpoart to the unknown.

If a player is unsure of reailty, the fear of the unknown takes its place. If I don''t know what might happen in a situation, I don''t know if I am safe.

For example (to pick on an earlier example) - the idea of a monster in a town. We assume towns are a safe place.. we assume monsters are bad... we assume a monster in a town is wrong. So far, reailty hasn''t changed much. But what if the monster cast a look at you, and continued walking? What if, the longer you spent in a town, the more evil the people looked? What if reality changed - and you were no longer sure if what you knew was correct?

Location - its always important to know where you are. There''s minds to be messed with here! Impossable buildings are one idea (Your back in where you were five rooms ago.. but since you left, all you did was turn right... somethings wrong there - is it the same room? Has something changed? Have you lost count? Are you sure you passed though five rooms?).

Again with location - most games are 2D. Doesn''t matter what the graphics engine is, most gameplay is limited to 2D - you never have to consider what is under you, or what is over you. (This is where Descent broke the rules!) After all, no one walks on the ceiling right? Or do they....? Gravity, after all, is part of reality.

Another idea it could be fun to play around with.. normally, you are good, everything else is evil. The sides are clearly defined. You kill what is evil, and all is well right? What if your assumptions of who / what is good / evil are challenged? Alright.. so you went and killed the huge monster.. but you come back to find your best friend (who you trust) really angry at you - they claim you don''t understand (play on the unknown) and that you were wrong.

Play with their minds! Fear is driven away by certianty.

Last idea... play with their trust. If the player has allies, its easy to ensure they build up trust with them. Play on this! Let them build their trust... then open up the possability of betrayl. Have they or havn''t they? How much can I trust that person? What would happen if....? Trust is a world of fun all of its own!

Think outside the box. After all, "there is no spoon."

Assume nothing. Question everything. Who are you?

quote: Original post by FrozenGecko
Mess with reality.
Assume nothing. Question everything. Who are you?

Yes! I've come up with a basic premise for a horror game based on a lot of what has been said in this thread. I know most people won't take the time to read a design doc so I'll just keep it a basic summary.

A man is trying to kidnap your son and he is caught. But while in jail, he invades your dreams. All of the major gameplay takes place in this dreamworld. Your son dreams with you and joins you in your dreams. You and your son to try to fight off that man, who is still after your son in the dreamworld.

Because the game takes place in a dreamworld, the rules of the game universe are up for grabs. At first, you must protect your son, who is an NPC ally, but as the story progresses, you find that in the dreamworld, he is very powerful and he ends up fighting alongside with you in battles. At first he is a liability but if you keep him protected, he becomes an asset. Eventually, he becomes a crutch for survival, which is then pulled away from you in a dangerous situation.

[edited by - beantas on October 29, 2002 8:08:41 AM]

go play unreal again. relive the moments that made people like me shit my pants.

atmosphere will always be what makes you feel what you feel in a game. Good theatrical music works well.

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http://on.to/oni

I think that to create fear you have to show the player as little as possible. Sending armies of zombies after him just gets boring. Have things move in the wall that you can hear but not see. Don''t attack the player but attack NPC team-mates instead. Have the player walk into room where a NPC gets brutally slaughtered. When the thing doing the killing sees the player have it jump into the shadows and disappear.
Give the player only close combat weapons. Make sure that all combat is up-close and personal. Never let the player feel that he is in control (unless you do it on purpose only to scare him later by making him realise that he is not in control).
The real problem with making a scary game is that players expect to be doing something at all times, you have to keep them busy but sending in hordes of enemies (as in most games) is simply not scary. Most scary movies take time to build up supense and there is often just a single source of terror (eg Aliens). So how do you structure a game where you only hunt a singular enemy but still have it be fun? I don''t know.