Zealous:

I love Deus Ex... played it through 3 times, and each time, it was a different game because of the way I played it (next time I play, I'm going in as a tank and killing EVERYONE -- I haven't tried that yet). Gunther runs out in that scene whether you have saved him or not early in the game, because you have betrayed UNATCO by the time you're in Paris. I don't think this was meant to be scary -- more of a foreshadowing.

What I meant by "close call" types of death is if in a game you were to leave a room after talking to someone. Not two minutes later, you go back in, and find the person dead, and there's some indication that the killer was in the room while you were there, watching you, waiting. That's why the "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" story is so scary -- because you realize through the roommate that it could have been her (you) dead if a very slight thing had changed. (If anyone is unfamiliar with the story, mention that -- I'll be happy to post it).

OK, back to the original point...

I think that Undying works on a couple levels. First is the normal twitch-factor/scary monsters level. Then, it works on the creepy horror level by having things like the books to read (which are the first "color" I've read in a game, BTW. Most of the time, these things are inconsequential -- these ones are actually interesting, though). Then, there's the whole "hidden picture" thing, where you see horrific things by activating the stone... try it right outside the mansion -- the hanging man is a trip.

Having the game penned and overseen by a real horror writer who is familiar with the way visual media works helped drastically. (That's why that Stephen King F13 thing and Crichton's Timeline both sucked -- they both succeed well as writers, but have no clue about making things interesting on a visual level, which is why they need a Spielberg to bring it all together for their movies). Maybe if more games are well-written AS GAMES, there would be many more great games out there.

-Chris


[edited by - crouilla on June 7, 2002 5:24:49 PM]

Heh, my apologies. My computer froze as I was posting, and I clicked multiple times on the post button while it was so. Of course, it just had to annoyingly post the message three times...

[edited by - Kaizton on June 7, 2002 6:33:00 PM]

Thanx for all the replies so far. I guess I''ll be reading and gaming a lot the next few weeks/months to check out the examples mentioned.

One thing runs like a red line through all of the posts in the threat: suggestion. Keep the player guessing, use good sound etc. Do whatever is needed to drag the player into the game and make him ''believe'' it. In short: make the player part of the game-world. I''ve been thinking lately of doing it the otherway around: taking the game-world to the player. I''ll explain a little.

WARNING: SPOILER FOR "IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS" AND "THE MATRIX"!

If you have seen "In the mouth of madness" (If not: go see it. great movie) you know that they take the fictional world to the viewer and make it part of the real world. You are actually watching the movie that the movie is about. (As a freaky little side note: The world is actually getting more violent rapidly, like they said would happen in the movie. Makes you think he?!). Same thing goes for the Martix. I''m sure you took a really good look around you when you came out of the cinema. I wonder if such a thing can be done in a game.

One idea I''ve been playing around with is to have the main character have a matrix-like revelation. He realizes he''s only a character in a game, gets pissed and wants to kill you, the player. The main character could be a teenager who recieved threatning e-mails and faxes after playing the game. He explores, finds that the badguy is trapped in his game. plot continues. badguy is defeated in the end but reveals to teenager the plot of his game. teenager realizes he''s only a game character too. and sudently the actual player (you) start to recieve e-mails, faxes, etc (depends on what''s hooked up to your PC). Turns out teenager was playing the same game you, the player, are.

Could such a thing work for a game? Or is this sort of suggestion best left to movies? Could such a plot be made interactive? Would it be scary?


Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Production][Articles][E-mail]

Personally, I dont think that would be very scary at all. More cheesy than anything else. Like one of those late 80''s horror movies which failed on every level to be frightening, yet they still made more (for some ungodly reason) and there was always at least one scene of frontal female nudity. just because. *shrug*

That could work for a game if the idea of us just being in a simulation had horrific implications, and trying to find out more about that leads to discovering the horrific things that some people are doing based on it. Imagine what it would be like if the morals dictating our society (plus the moralistic force that many of us believe is there independently) suddenly had no more substance because of the lack of the real world we thought was there. Some of us would fall and make our own judgments about what is right and wrong instead of still believing in the use of morals.

That could go pretty deep. In one particular instance then, one group's horrific way of doing things might actually be in the way of allowing things to become "right", and as the player delves to stop it, he must risk going deeper into it. Like the threat of getting so close to something that you become what it is tempting you to be. Maybe there are choices along the way that the player determines their own conviction, and as a result, what they are introduced to because of it.

Really open ended idea. I'd probably have a different idea an hour from now

It could have a strong message about where conviction and morals come from, too. Sometimes we have to do scary things to preserve what we "know" is right.


[edited by - Waverider on June 9, 2002 9:22:40 AM]

System Shock 2 in the cargo bays:
Its a small area, you can''t see very far or around the many boxes. You can hear the moaning of hybrids, and the heavy metalic footsteps of a robot walking somewhere nearby. Your ammo is very low and you have little health, and you ''need'' to find that securty pass. You step onto an elevator, it shudders and falls, narrowly failing to take you with it. A quick sign of relief and you carefully move round a laser turrent, keeping just out of range, one shot and your dead. Suddenly, you hear a crate breaking and a robots voice ''Xerces won''t be happy ....'', you turn to fire just as the android cleaner hits you and explodes in a shower of flaming metal - Your dead.

When I first heard the sound of the crate breaking and the robot voice close to me, I fell of my chair. I''ve never played a game section that made me jump out of my skin so much. The sounds both atmouspheric and effects, combined with the almost claustrophobic feeling were enough to put me on edge. And when I almost fell using the elevator I was really ready to s**t my pants. The knowledge that my character could be so readily killed by a moments inattention was very intense, I didn''t even think about saving, I was too caught up in what was going on.

The rest of the game was very good, but that one section still keeps me on my toes whenever I think about it.

,Jay

So far, I''ve figured out that a good Survival Horror game needs one thing, the inability or difficulty of running away, (RE3:Nemesis was a good example of this.) along with lots of background noise, and dark, inclosed areas. The radio in the Silent Hill series was a nice touch, since it lets you know that something is there, you just havn''t seen it yet.

Well, actually I was thinking of making running away a bigger feature in my game that it is in other games. I fleshed out the idea I had a bit more.

- First Person action/adventure. Not like FPS where you can run and shoot everything. Less action, less bad guys, more adventure and puzzels.
- Very limited weapon capabilities. You can carry one big weapon on your back, 2 small arms in your belt, a few grenades, a knife or 2 and a weapon in your hand. Limited ammo carriage capabilities (perhaps old RPG style boxed-style inventoty). If you really want that big rocketlauncer, you''d have to dump the machine-gun can''t carry both!
- Horror about humans, not demons/aliens/whatever.
- Psychological setting (haven''t fleshed this out much). Stories about mental institutions, mental drugs, psycho''s, etc. usually seem to freak out people a bit. Have you played Sanatarium? Quite good on that i''d guess.

Any comments/ideas?

Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Production][Articles][E-mail]

quote:

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Original post by Hardguy
WizHarDx:
I agree. Sound is the most important thing when making a horror game.

As for the most frightful gaming experience it is without a doubt Silent Hill 1 and 2. Those games really scare you on a psychological level and use sound extemly effectfully.
I have played most horror games and none even comes close in terms of scaryness.

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Exactly What I was going to say, have you seen the screenshots for Silent Hill 3?

I was thinking about incorporating something like those scary gifs that have been around for a while on the net, maybe you put the player on a very dark room, full of (Insert favorite Monster here), and then a movement of the player or a floor tile would trigger an image, the face of a (Insert favorite Monster here) that ocupies the whole screen for 5 or 10 frames, making the player poop his pants or at least jump from their seats, random apearance of the shot could do too, but making sure you dont over use it.

quote:

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Original post by smarechal
.......
- Horror about humans, not demons/aliens/whatever.
- Psychological setting (haven''t fleshed this out much). Stories about mental institutions, mental drugs, psycho''s, etc. usually seem to freak out people a bit. Have you played Sanatarium? Quite good on that i''d guess.

Any comments/ideas?

Sander Maréchal

---

Hitman Codename 47, The Sanatarium/Asylum.

The props like the old electroshock therpy stuff, Steel doors, bars, water stained walls, Victorian showers etc.

Actually come to things of it, just about any Victorian era medical facilites would be prettty intimidating. They liked to experiment and using animals in cages or even (insane) humans would give a setting a real erie feeling, imagine the sound effects, gibbering monkeys, low moaning, you could get really inventive.

,Jay