I didn''t mean to use the music as some kind of predictable clue. Just because the music is crescendoing doesn''t necessarily mean the monster is around the corner. You could try the old trick:
There is some movement in the other room. You cautiously walk over there, music growing louder, look around in the dark, and then meow, it was only the cat. You feel relieved. Then the monster jumps out at you.
Music and sound are the most effective ways to control the players emotions. Atmosphere, description, also work, but it''s the audial clues which are most riveting. Any time you know how to control the players emotions, and predict the players emotions, allows you to control the game while letting the player think that they do. You don''t have to pay off every time. That spooky music means that something bad /might/ happen soon. Maybe. You can never be sure. You have to mix it up. You can''t give people a really good scare when they expect it.
Not being sure is what is really scary.

Thief has scared me quite a few times. When you are sitting there in a shadowed corner carefully listening for footsteps. Then you see a guard 2 inches away from you. Will he see you? Thief IMO created a lot of anxiety and fear to some extent because of the atmosphere.


"" "'Nazrix is cool' -- Nazrix" --Darkmage --Godfree"-Nazrix" -- runemaster


Edited by - Nazrix on October 7, 2000 4:20:56 PM

One important thing is to make load/save so that you can''t use them too often, and make at least some of the monsters very dangerous to the player. This already helps very much.

I played a 3d-pacman game that had candy-like graphics and happy-looking monsters, but at the final levels I was *really* scared because I really didn''t want to die. The monsters kept saying a sound "baaaa" so I could know how far they were, to some extent.. That pacman game scared me more times than Quake/Doom/Half-life, because it was hard and the monsters were really tough (even though they didn''t look like it).

You should make some really nasty monsters that a player can avoid by standing still. Like sharks/crocodiles IRL can''t see animals very well if they stay still. Then that evil nasty monster would come close to look at the player.. And you''d know that if you move one little step, it notices you and killes immediately.

And make some monsters that can''t see you if you''re in a shadow, so if you saw one of those monsters, you''d have to keep in the shadows all the time.

Also make tight areas, open spaces are very rarely scary.

So make effective monsters, that can kill the player with one hit or at least injure very badly. And save/load not too often, maybe save points. That''d scare the hell out of everyone. Of course sound/music is important too but that''s already covered here. (the sounds in the 3d-pacman game were very important)


-Hans [home page] [e-mail]

Hans Quo: "I played a 3d-pacman game that had candy-like graphics and happy-looking monsters, but at the final levels I was *really* scared because I really didn''t want to die. The monsters kept saying a sound "baaaa" so I could know how far they were, to some extent.. That pacman game scared me more times than Quake/Doom/Half-life, because it was hard and the monsters were really tough (even though they didn''t look like it)."

So the psychological pressure point here was the fact that you had invested so much effort in getting so far into the game, and that this could be messed up by one false move. So the monsters represent things which will make all that effort worthless.

Well, that is one way to scare the player, but what other psychological pressure points can we exploit ?


(although I DON''T agree that saves/ loads should be limited, instead the game should be made so that saves / loads aren''t really necessary if you are good at it, and give you unlimited saves).

quote: By Ketchaval
Well, that is one way to scare the player, but what other psychological pressure points can we exploit ?

Time limits are a way a creating a sense of urgency. Maybe this sense of urgency can be transformed into a tool for scaring people. There''s also the factor of opportunity. If the player can get to this point then they can fix or do something, but if there''s serious danger in the way then this can scare as well.

How about the fact that the players character has been weakened temporarily and they have to do something to rectify the situation. This can be scarary too. Or that the player has to take care of something.

I thought the most scariest part of halflife was when i was being chased by that huge monster in the car park. That''s another method. ie. there''s one solution and if you don''t run like hell then you''re dead. The best horror has drama included i think.


"So you're the one that designed that game are you?"
*Gulp* "Umm, yeah"

Didn''t anyone ever play Aliens Versus Predator, the PC version I mean?

That game used to scare the crap out of me when I was a marine, you''d be wandering round, you could see bugger all and you just had this motion tracker going ''blip'' every so often, then an alien would come flying out of some hole and tear you apart.

It was pretty tense in single player.

The theory behind that is probably a mixture of the lighting, the motion tracker and the sounds the aliens make, plus the fact they have so many degrees of freedom to come at you from you felt like you needed eyes everywhere.

-Mezz

quote: Original post by Paul Cunningham


Time limits are a way a creating a sense of urgency. Maybe this sense of urgency can be transformed into a tool for scaring people. There's also the factor of opportunity. If the player can get to this point then they can fix or do something, but if there's serious danger in the way then this can scare as well.

How about the fact that the players character has been weakened temporarily and they have to do something to rectify the situation. This can be scarary too. Or that the player has to take care of something.

I thought the most scariest part of halflife was when i was being chased by that huge monster in the car park. That's another method. ie. there's one solution and if you don't run like hell then you're dead. The best horror has drama included i think.


"So you're the one that designed that game are you?"
*Gulp* "Umm, yeah"

Scarary ?



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" "'Nazrix is cool' -- Nazrix" --Darkmage --Godfree"-Nazrix


Edited by - runemaster on October 8, 2000 10:09:19 AM

Two games I can definately credit for scaring the shit out of me, are Half-Life and System Shock. Those two were great.
The element of scare, in System Shock, was definately the eerie sounds, and how those zombies seemed to just appear sometimes.
In Half-Life, it was definately the enemy placement. I''d go through a door and a head-crab would be waiting there, to one side of me. Or the time when I fell into the water and landed face to face with one of the acid spitting guys




Greg K.

Mezz : yeah I mentioned it as well. This games (Alien vs Predator, played as the Marine) is truely excellent. you are there with your puny little gun, desperately looking at your ammo count reading "0" while suddenly, somewhere in front of you you hear a loud screeeeach ... then the blip on your motion captor get faster and faster ... and you start RUNNING for your life. Never had such a constant fear in a game. I mean, Halflife and the rest of the Quakelike are quite good at that. But this Alien is just soooo fidel to the movies. OMG I loved it
There is sound ("blip .... blip .... blip ...."), lighting (flickering neons, alarm lights, flares ...), enemies (aliens coming at you relentlessly), aaaah, pure hell

youpla :-P

I''ve played AvP too and actually it''s scaryness comes *very* much from the same aspects as the pacman game I described . Beep sound in AvP is like the "baa" sound in the pacman. Claustrophobically tight tunnels in both. Rare savegame (AvP)/no savegame (pacman). Very deadly enemies in both.

They are like the same game .. Except for the gfx, but real scaryness rarely comes from pure gfx.

I still want to say that unlimited savegame ruins some scaryness. In half life at the place where there is a car park and a huge monster chasing, I just saved the game when I saw the monster and ran through the tunnels. I wasn''t scared at all because I knew I could load my game any time.


-Hans [home page] [e-mail]