Making a great horror game

What's your idea anyways?

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H R R Giger

>>389733660
can't tell you exactly what's about, i'll just say that the game will involve the player with a technology that have been never used in videogames before

>>389733290
There is a trick: the sound. Now for every time there is a jump scare, there is a sound with it. I think Fatal Frame 2 masters this very well in not producing any sound at all, for example, you can see some pairs of legs walking but there is no sound to scare you. I find that much more terrifying.

>>389733837
>>389733290

Holy shit, ideas guy right here.

>>389733974
thanks, i'll take a look at Fatal Frame 2

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>>389734047
someone's jelly?

>>389733290

Don't try to explain why things happen, make some procedural thing where the AI follows you from behind even touches your shoulder but disappears, make things that only the player can see like the ghost appears in the window, mirror, water reflection. Make objects appear and disappear.

Try to limit fully revealing the entity as the player will lose the fear factor.

>>389733290
What horror are you going for anon? Here's the money question, what kind of horror are you going for?
Are you going for the Slasher horror? Spooks? Demons? Something more Eldritch?
All of these have different quirks that make them scary in different ways, it's unique to each of them and you need an understanding of that horror to make something scary.
Slashers aren't very scary on their own, it's a dude in a costume slaughtering people. Except when you play up the paranoia, the tension comes from the group and not the killer; distrust and character conflicts create the tension while the slasher acts as a force to drive these beyond rational levels.
Slashers range from psychopath to supernatural kill-streak. Often a slasher will be crafty like the villains in Scream, operating in pairs to divide suspicion and framing others for their crimes, to Michael Mires and Jason who themselves are just big damned near indestructible guys with determination and inhuman teleportation powers.
Spooks are ghosts and any variation of them. Ranging from the Ring/Ju-On to 13 Ghosts. The horror here is that you aren't up against something like a psycho, you're up against someone that is already dead and pissed about it. The horror is that you are in the Ghosts domain and it is in control, the environment itself is against you and the ghosts can appear from anywhere at any time just to fuck with you, subtly is key until you're ready to start fucking with people's heads.
Demons, fuck-em.
Eldritch has a template in Dead Space.

>>389733290
I'll cont. it
>Suddenly spikes protrude from the ceiling
>They start lowering on you and you panic not knowing what to do and start yelling at the door for your companion to come help you
>He opens the door and states
>"Boy that sure was close! You were almost a Jill Sandwich!"

>>389735419
I still don't know exactly what subgenre i'm going to pick.
i can't do something too fancy because i'm a programmer and have almost zero exprerience in game creation.
i really liked RE7 where you knew something was hunting you, fighting was an option but not always the best choice.
For sure i'm avoiding zombies horde and slender-man shit.
The ghost/spirits/psychologic stuff is much more interesting in my opinion

Make a horror game, but don't say/market it as one.

I doubt you will get many satisfying answers, seriously. You don't seem like you have a lot of experience with different horror media, tropes and how horror works so without talking about your concept with someone (not necessarily ITT) who knows their shit about horror, you can't make sure that the things people suggest actually work in the frame of your concept. So my advice would be to look for a competent writer who knows their shit about horror.

But if you don't want to do that and keep things for yourself: I loved the room transitioning in Fatal Frame IV. The camera got more static, like in those old survival horror games with fixed camera angles. That made me feel like I was an onlooker from outside, witnessing something dangerous, or like I (as the player, not as the playable character) was suddenly in the position of one of the ghosts.

>>389737891
you're right, I'm not really familiar with the genre, i've played 10 horror games at best and same for movies, but unfortunately my concept works best with strong emotions, fear above all, otherwise I would have gone for something easier.

Little details like
>a normal painting in the room, as soon as you progress in the game, it has new scary details, but the game doesn't focus on that
You know, don't make your MC said "holy shit, this painting is getting scarier"
>random sounds like steps from the nearest room, only to be empty

Read some interviews Stephen King has done. He talks about trying to inspire different emotions in people like terror versus horror versus disgust, with the last one being the easiest.

I will say you've set yourself a steep hill to climb. It's hard to do good horror games and movies bc everything has to work together perfectly. Sound, pacing, enemy design, difficulty... if anything is off it will kill the mood.

>>389733290
Water stuff. Literally the worst thing in existence is being on a dark open ocean with the sense of something immense underneath you.

>>389738797
OP here
thanks for the tips.
I forgot to mention that it won't be a complete game, but mostly a demo (something like P.T.) since I can only spend 6 months at best on it.
It just have to be genuinely scary

get this a game where you have to spend thousands of hours grinding to win

>>389739182
that's something i deeply hate.
The game should be a unique experience, an hour long at best, very low replayability but very interesting to watch somone else playing it, ireally can't go into details

>>389739994
>an hour long at best
>very low replayability
>very interesting to watch someone else playing it

Then why should it be a game and not a short film?

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>>389733290
>So what makes an horror game a great horror game?

-Great audio-design. The most important part of creating atmosphere, even more important than the graphics ever will be.

-Conservative use of gory elements and violence. This even more enhances the effect of those few times they may be used.

-Element of immersing the player. If s/he doesn't feel like being "there", but instead is observing a game -trying to "win", the result is failure. Thus things like minimal HUD and interesting locales / "puzzles" etc are important. Part of making the game immersive is also making the game's world interesting, make players want to explore them - even if it means exposing yourself for more horrors that lurk in the shadows.

-Similarily: playing with player's emotions and and understanding of the situation. One could summarize this as "mind-fuck". Giving fairly ordinary looking and feeling situations, maybe predictable looking event even, but somehow twisting and turning the whole situation upside down, boggling player's mind. This element truly is a work of art that not too many games get right, but what really makes good horror games shine through the rest. It can be little things, it can be pretty much anything, but you'll notice if its missing.

>>389740247
because it will be even more interactive than VR

>>389740639
You mean immersive, right?

>>389740924
both
>>389740617
great tips, thank you