Horror - what makes a game scary?

[cfreak]

It's an alpha version of my old mod's map. It may be released as a stand alone mod if it will not be used in the new mod.

[Rocket_Robinhood]

wow id love to play that, sounds like matrix trippy with the rooms and the battlefield, well thats just creepy shit right thur

[NilCypher]

I don't mean to sound negative, but I would have quit playing that long before I got through 100 almost identical rooms. I hope the number got dropped in the final version, things stop being scary when they start being irritating.

[DRX]

In my little mini-mod I'm working on, the main character is a paranoid schizophrenic (somewhat like Donnie Darko), so he sees a large number of non-existant things throughout his journey. Because of this, City 17's Rebels do not trust him because he is mentally unstable, and the Combine see him as the perfect test experiment.

This brings up another value of horror - the concept that everyone is out to get you. You have no allies, no friend, you are all by yourself, and around any corner could be a new enemy waiting to jump out and attack.

Horror is possibly one of the greatest powers a game developer has if he uses it correctly. Too much horror can bother the player and make them want to not pick up the game, too little and they'll find themselves laughing at your attempts to make them frightened.

Its amazing how horror drags you into a game more than any other type of gameplay, atleast for myself. For me I suddenly get much more caught up and aware of my surrondings in the game, not like when I'm just driving around a car on the highway or shooting a Combine in the head. During those times, I only pay attention to whats important. In the horror areas, like Ravenholm, I see every little detail. Its quite interesting.

[cfreak]

I don't mean to sound negative, but I would have quit playing that long before I got through 100 almost identical rooms. I hope the number got dropped in the final version, things stop being scary when they start being irritating.

Don't worry, the "100 room" things sounds lame only on paper and it wasn't actually 100 rooms. I just don't remeber how many there were.

[NilCypher]

Ok, I'll take your word for it

[Vallian88]

One should associate a certain music or effect with the coming of monsters. Like when theres a ghost in Silent Hill 4. Then you can start to play mind tricks with the player by using the music, but not having monsters. The human mind is it's own worst fear, what you dont know is the scariest thing you can imagine.

[fatherpaper]

SOUND!

Sound and visual corraspondace makes games scary,

end of story,

being suprised , the un exspected,

thats whats makes games scary...

Play Fear. once.

[Ark_Gamer]

What makes a game scary?

UPDATES! VALVE UPDATES! OOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[creamyfeelgood]

What makes a game scary?

UPDATES! VALVE UPDATES! OOOOOOOOOO!!!!

lmao

[Rocket_Robinhood]

theres an old saying

you have nothing to fear but fear itself

i say this to stress the importance of getting a good scare established, like with the music thing and tricking people

oh and i just got the greatest idea

so theres a monster down a medium sized hall way, it starts running at you and as sopon as its pouncing at you the ceiling falls in on it, your all like few, that was close and then like 10 seconds later at the other end of the hall from where you came busts out 2 of the monsters like the one you just killed, thats shock horror used well

[Ale]

I good horror trick is when you have 2 ways to choose from. F.E.A.R. used this a couple of times, but the most difficult time i had, i had to choose a way where paxton fettel appered and disappered, and another way across some water with scary lighting and water sound, flickering lighting. I stood there for atleast 5 minutes.

PS. I took the way paxton fettel was in

[Mess]

FEAR did a lot of good stuff by forcing you into a place or situation you knew was going to be dangerous or scary.

[Vallian88]

I just love the way Silent Hill and Resident Evil make me feel. I think it's all about the enviroment. How everything comes together, the danger, the blood, the rust, the eerie music, the fact that you're low on ammo, the darkness. I think it requires a good blend of all those things in order to give you the best creepy feeling.

[Serever]

if youre making a singleplayer map, an awesome entity you can use for freaky effects is the brush-based 'trigger_look'. if you are in its volume looking at a certain thing for a certain amount of time, it will trigger. so you can use it to make things appear behind the player without him seeing or expecting it.
eg, in a scary map im making at the moment (inspired by this thread ) you walk into a small storage room, and if you stand in the half of it away from the door and look at the wall opposite the door, the door will close and lock freakeh

also, the only time ive ever been playing a game and been actually scared was on the Cradle map on Thief 3. go play it. now. totally fucking insane.