Horror - what makes a game scary?

[Rocket_Robinhood]

the "art" of creating horror is something that can be seperated into 3 seperate levels.

1: Surprise
Fairly self explainable. Having anything pop out at you is enough to make you jump especially when it makes a loud noise or looks gross. How ever this method althoguh effective if used to much becomes cheesey and expectable. And when something is expectable, that ruins surprise... go figure eh?

2: Suspense
For example the lets say you just had to kill some zombies. About a minute laterstill no new enemies. As time ticks by, you are just waiting and getting ready for the next swarm of zombies... The longer you wait the more suspense builds.
This method just sets up the player for a more thrilling scare a in the end.

3: Enviroment
This has already been discussed in this thread, so im not going to say much about it. Blood, dead stuff, creepy noises, etc. All this creates an enviroment that makes a player feel uneasy. It also creates more suspense. The method of enviroment should be used through out your scary area.

And remeber, these different devices are to be used all together to hopefully create one perfect scare.

[Kris]

One thing that really got me, was a bit on F.E.A.R. walking down a corridor towards a room and a ghost type thing just walked past the end of the corridor and whispered 'theres something in the water'. A few minutes later i reached a pool that i had to cross, turns out there was nothing in the water, but it took a few mins for me to pluck up the courage to get in the water. I like that element, that one comment was the scary bit, nothing to do with what was in the game the next few mins, it jus makes u think, it lets ur own expectations/imagination that do all the work.

[Skurmedel]

If you need tips on scary shit, play F.E.A.R, there is a place with a ladder.. oh man.

[creamyfeelgood]

F.E.A.R, yeah, probably the sacryest game I've ever played......on PC anyway.

Its the fact that all the horror aspects are phsycological (probs spelt that wrong lol)
that little girl....aww god, THAT LITTLE GIRL!!!!

bit that scared me was when you have to crawl through a small space n shes just there infront of you n she scutles toward you, man did I plop!

one thing I always finde scary in a game is when you see something happen but have no way of stoping it or interviening (like seeing a woman crying for help behinde a fence n something attacking her)

[Skurmedel]

F.E.A.R, yeah, probably the sacryest game I've ever played......on PC anyway.

Its the fact that all the horror aspects are phsycological (probs spelt that wrong lol)
that little girl....aww god, THAT LITTLE GIRL!!!!

bit that scared me was when you have to crawl through a small space n shes just there infront of you n she scutles toward you, man did I plop!

one thing I always finde scary in a game is when you see something happen but have no way of stoping it or interviening (like seeing a woman crying for help behinde a fence n something attacking her)

Yeah exactly. The psychological horror is far better than the general american splatter horror. Thats often what distinguish asian horror from western (american/hollywood) horror. I agree on that part with the not being able to intervene, like in HL with the scientists getting dragged into vents and cracks, now it wasnt superscary in HL, but it could be with other conditions.

One thing that always works is having the player getting comfortable with the ghosts/whatever being harmless to the player. But then suddenly getting attacked by it will prolly make the guy behind the screen jump high.

[mahhag]

these are all great. in a prison map im making im thinking of using custom sounds for being scary. you know the kind of needling sound that is really high pitched and ringing like in the ring? that, and also a really high pitch screaming noise. the idea i have is to be in a room, a regular room like the others you have been through. but you hear something, turn around to see what it is and all the lights go off. when you turn off there is something creepy in the middle of the room with only a red light in the middle lighting the place. but it kinda just pops up and you quickly go back to having it be a regular room.

[Skurmedel]

these are all great. in a prison map im making im thinking of using custom sounds for being scary. you know the kind of needling sound that is really high pitched and ringing like in the ring? that, and also a really high pitch screaming noise. the idea i have is to be in a room, a regular room like the others you have been through. but you hear something, turn around to see what it is and all the lights go off. when you turn off there is something creepy in the middle of the room with only a red light in the middle lighting the place. but it kinda just pops up and you quickly go back to having it be a regular room.

Sounds good. Things just popping up from nowhere seems to be a constant enemy of clean underwear

[creamyfeelgood]

a constant enemy of clean underwear

LMAO

[Viceman]

One thing that always works is having the player getting comfortable with the ghosts/whatever being harmless to the player. But then suddenly getting attacked by it will prolly make the guy behind the screen jump high.

I was thinking that the ghost are harmless and they ignore player.. doing their own ghost stuff no matter what player does... BUT in some point some creepy ghost suddenly turns to you and says something creepy, with those dead eyes looking straight at you.

[Shr3d]

I think any disgusting sexual activity is horror
eg zombies masterbating

[creamyfeelgood]

I think any disgusting sexual activity is horror
eg zombies masterbating

SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I like it!

[NilCypher]

The only game I have ever found actually scary was RE3. Why you may ask? I can answer that in just one word. Nemesis.

Yes, it's slasher movie stuff, but I still remember the time he jumped through a restaurant window to get me.

I think you need to decide if you want "made-you-jump" scary, or "freaked-you-out" scary, as the latter is much easier to do.

Environment plays a big part in freaking people out. The poor lighting and eerie sounds play a big part, suspense is important too, as not finding anything to shoot can be WAY more scary than finding a room full of zombies, especially if you placed plenty of ammo around. The player is expecting something and so are on edge. You have to make sure you deliver with SOMETHING if you do that though.

I think true, scary, gaming comes from the little details rather than the big ones. Corpses and all that are all well and good, but it's the corner-of-the-eye stuff that really gets you.

[creamyfeelgood]

I finde fast hard to hit but easy to kill monsteres scary (fast zombies HL2) or big slow monsteres that can take a pounding but folow you relentlesly untill one of you is dead.
Small things that look quite easy but kick the shit out of you in groups can be good too.

Sound
Lighting
music
visuals (someone being thrown at you from a distant room only to finde the room empty)
are all important to making a game scary, you cant give credit to one without acknowledging another.
or if your lazzy, just have a random pic of Kevin Bacon flash up from time to time, that would scare me

[cfreak]

Scariest thing I've ever seen was an alpha of my mod's map. The mapper sent it to me saying "Just take a look at it, the AI might be messed a bit, but watch the brushwork". It started out like this: You're in an abandoned facility which is full of enemies. So you go through, kill all baddies, normal stuff. Then you go into the chairman's office. Empty, quiet, a few creaking abmient sounds. There are two doors on either side of the room. Once you open the door you find you find yourself looking into the same room with another door across from you. If you open that door, you will once again go into the very same room. And that just keeps happening, scary shit. And nothing ever moves or jumps at you, even though you expect it to. I also noticed that the rooms did actually slightly change, but no normal person would notice the small differences, eg a book being turned 90 degrees on the table or a lampshade being slightly torn, while it was perfectly clean before. You could also go back though the rooms and find that the previous rooms were changed as well(he used cameras and teleporters, the evil bastard).

Eventually you go through the 100th or something room, you are expecting the next door to lead to the same. You are not expecting to find yourself on a barren landscape with shots going off in the distance. So now you get a buggy and drive in it in the direction of the shots. The shots are getting closer, to the point of you thinking that they are being fired right beside you. Next the buggy dies and you are in the middle of an abandoned battle field. There are guns and corpses scattered all arounf you. The scary bit here, is that the gun shots are still all around you, along with the yells of the soliders, but everything is still. Because of this mismatched information, most people would freak out. The climax point is when you have to walk through a brightly lit bunker where a dead solider is still clutching his MG. Once you walk past him, you start hearing the sound of the MG being fired(very loudly), while the solider is just lying there.

Gotta tell you, that was scarier than FEAR could possibly be.

[Haas]

wich game? post a link?