Okay since this is gossip i think this is the best place to put it. So i’ve always wondered do horror game developers get scared or even jumped by there own game ? since they know the in’s and out’s of the game. This is mainly pointed towards horror game designer but general discussion. also what do you think makes a horror game ? personally i’ve got to go with sound if i didn’t have sound whilst playing a game or watching a horror then i wouldn’t get startled
Generally speaking, horror games are not scary. Sound doesn’t matter - visuals - etc, etc, etc. It’s a game. There’s no getting around that. You can get as much immersion as you can get with a game, but it’s not going to be the same as that passive element you get from watching a movie or even reading a book.
I tend to focus more on them being horrific rather than scary. A case of them being more unsettling than anything where you’re looking to change your shorts or worried there’s something lurking behind you.
I said maybe. If the gameplay is random, even the developer may not be able to predict it. If it’s linear, the developer will know what’s coming and won’t get scared as easily as a first time player or somebody who doesn’t know the level inside and out.
Wouldn’t you think an interactive game would be more frightening than a passive movie? FEAR had me jumping quite a few times back in the day. Silent Hill has also always been a good game to frighten its players. And EVERYBODY jumped in Resident Evil when those damn dogs busted through the window in the hallway… everybody.
I think, however, there’s a strong difference between “startling” and “scary”. Any shmuck can make you jump with a jack-in-the-box approach, like sudden bursts of sound and action. Creating something that truly frightens you is something else entirely.
This is your opinion. Personally its very rare a horror movie really gets to me at all, its just entertainment to me… But I have had horror games affect me far more then a movie can. Amnesia Dark Decent scared me more then any other movie or book has in my life. If you havent tried it I suggest you do, that game is designed to scare the crap out of you.
I was kinda creeped out playing through a scene. A foggy labyrinth of tunnels, I found some hellish sounds and made mob spawners travel down random paths, if they’re coming closer they get louder, but they might turn in a different direction, if they get close enough to you, the spawn a “horde” of monsters that attack you.
I also added a really creepy screaming sound to mob spawners when they’re trigger, which made me jump numerous times, but it was annoying if you could trigger it more than once in 5 min.
Also hit effects, fading blood over the screen for a fraction of a second when you’re hit along with sound fx is nice.
I think randomness helps with unpredictability. Environment and things coming closer over time that you can hear is nice for building suspense.
Flying monsters, or especially ones that crawl upside down on ceilings/walls are really good, coming at you out of darkness, you’re always expecting stuff on the ground in games. Targeting can get complex though.
Sitting on the couch, watching a movie - your entire focus is on the movie. You’re passive. It’s easier for you to be lulled into an unsuspecting situation. There’s the lack of control over what is happening. You might think to yourself that you wouldn’t do what the characters are doing, but you’re not controlling them - if you feel for them…etc, etc, etc - it can draw you in and create that experience.
Sitting in front of the computer/console, playing a game - well, your focus is split. Sure, you’re watching and listening - but you’re also working the controls. You’re paying attention to things, pausing, thinking more - etc, etc, etc… simply because you are playing the game, you are distracted - your attention is split. You’re not as susceptible to what’s going on.
How? 30 seconds into that clip and it’s already obvious because of the graphics that it’s just a game. The goofy hand on the middle of the screen as you pick things up. Seriously?
No doubt that it’s all about opinion, but there’s no way that something that’s so obviously just a game is going to affect me in any way close to what looks real.
Then cheesy sound effects that you might expect at a horror funhouse to scare tweens?
The Shining, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, Ghost Story, Rosemary’s Baby, The Thing, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, IT…
…yeah, a game’s not going to cut it against movies like those and many more from the 60s through the 80s.
edit: This reminds me of a heavy debate that took place during The Secret World beta. Yes, it’s obviously going to vary from person to person. Different things tweak different folks in different ways. That discussion went nowhere, btw.
I also don’t find horror movies scary… at all. There have been a few, but they’ve been few and far between.
Again, having a long silence, then having something jump out with a sudden, abrupt noise can make anyone jump. That’s not scary, its startling.
Interesting fact; I found the movie, Silent Hill scary as well as the game.
Horror is achieved through story, setting, pace, immersion, etc. This is something that’s difficult to pull off in any medium.
As to the original question, I bet its difficult for the developers to be scared by their own game. After you’ve worked on a game for so long and dug around under the hood, the magic and mystery is gone. It’s like going to a magic show and knowing how all the tricks work.
Their scary monster probably jumps out and their noticing an error in his texturing.
I was scared when playing games like System Shock 2, Doom 3 or Dead Space with headphones alone in the dark. I remember that sometimes you needed to take a break, turn on the lights, eat something, because otherwise it got too intensive.
I agree somewhat with ZeroByteDNA, horror games tend towards jump scares which anyone is susceptible to, especially if it’s random. I often hear people saying Dead Space is super scary and it just makes me scratch my head. After the first corpse gets up and attacks you, you just end up shooting them once when you see them, and there’s so many attempted jump scares in it that you end up expecting it in every room, so I never found it scary.
Maybe i’m just not the target demographic for horror games, I once was asked to play Amnesia while on voice comms and the other person got annoyed at me because I started laughing at the ‘water demon part’ (if anyones played it you know what I mean - apparently it’s meant to be the scariest part of the game).
If devs get scared by their own game, I would imagine it’s down to random elements that startle them. It’s very hard to get immersed in an atmosphere that you’ve created yourself in my opinion.
Scared? Probably not. Creeped out? Sometimes. Especially when playtesting the levels late at night all alone. It sometimes makes me feel uneasy. After all I am a god in my own world so there is not much to be scared of. A line of code is my best weapon 
I think the game should spook the developer a little, but if it does, it’s definitely going to scare the player.
I tend to disagree, I’m more involved/invested in the horror game than the horror movie. In a horror movie, I’m watching someone else going through the scary experiences, while laughing at the cliches that appear in the movie(someone falls down for no reason while running away from something). A horror game is where it’s me trying to keep my character alive. I like the control I presumably have over the events, trying to keep them alive. In a movie, I just sit there and watch them either die or survive due to the script, in a game, my character can die anytime if I suck at staying alive. Also, a horror movie is static, while a horror(or any game) is dynamic. Even on linear games, no two game plays will ever be exactly the same.
It depends on what movie, also. A slasher film is so redundant, I don’t even care who gets chopped. I enjoy the kill scenes… I may be warped(then again, I’ve played Manhunt)
I think thriller movies are more scary, because a thriller doesn’t follow a set premise like action or romedies. I saw movie where the main character died in the middle of the movie, I was like, “WTF!!! This doesn’t happen!!”
But a movie can make you “No, no, don’t do this, this is stupid. Ahhh, i knew it.”
A game on the other side can make you not wanting to progress anymore because all gets too much. Maybe i’m easy to scare in this respect but i remember that for instance whilst i was curious i also had to force myself to enter the Ishimura in Dead Space 2. Or the beginning of Resident Evil 5 is creepy too.
In our current project (Forgotten Memories), we have a system that randomly spawns a ghost that make us all sh*t on our pants, specially when we are playtesting and forgot to turn off the ghost spawning… -__-
Man, there’s a reason I’ve not played Amnesia.
Nice. I want to play that.
Depends on the kind of game I guess.
If the scares are the Doom 3 monster closet kind that you start ignoring after you’ve learned where they are then probably not. If the game is scary because of creepy atmosphere etc. then I bet it’s scary to test it every single time.
I imagine the guy who made the Alien mod for doom shit his pants every time he tested that game because I did every time I played it even though I knew every inch of it. Doesn’t matter if you know what’s going to happen if it is scary when it does. 
Lol.
Generally speaking? I find that opinion to be extremely subjective. What’s stopping you from saying: “It’s a book”, or “It’s a movie”? They obviously are. It’s not like I forget that I’m playing a game and that’s the only time a game can scare me. It’s when I have to tell myself to actually move my character in that game knowing that some scary shit might happen I am scared.
I still haven’t finished Amnesia. And one of the scariest scenes didn’t even have a monster on the screen. Just splashes in the water. And I screamed continuously while playing Dead Space. As for movies I haven’t really been scared by any of them except for the really illogical nightmares I got from random movies as a kid.
Your arguments don’t hold water as far as I’m concerned. Why do you even list graphics as a counter argument when you’ve already said games can’t be scary because you’re in control and you can’t focus on what’s going on. How do you find books scary then? They have no graphics. For me it’s all about immersion and just like with books that doesn’t come from audio or visuals. It just comes from being able to immerse myself in what’s going on. Either it’s me controlling a character in a game with a story I like, watching a movie with believable characters or reading a book with the same qualities.
- Have your player start his mission with a group of friends. Then get everyone to split up and search for the monster / ghost! (Always good advice IMO). The friends will all be AI of course (or not if multi-player! ha). At some point, a friend will be walking around the corner, and blam, gun shot to the head. Oops!
- Get the player into the mind set that ghosts can really appear, in his bedroom! Use an Ouija Board interface (for some game aspect, sending (or receiving) messages to the other side for example) and who knows, he may actually conjure up a real spirit! :o
- Hack into his webcam, and have him look into a mirror in the game, and place a ghost directly behind him.
I love this thread! But seriously, immersion is the answer. Do whatever it takes to get the player to forget that he’s in a game. This includes the HUD and GUI, the more minimalistic the better IMO. And ambience is important too, achieved through spooky visuals and creepy, well timed audio.
The day I program a horror game that I am afraid to play, is the day I become a millionaire!
It’s even there in what you just said.
What’s stopping you from saying: “It’s a book”, or “It’s a movie”?
vs.
It’s not like I forget that I’m playing a game
The difference between having to tell yourself that it’s just a book or just a movie and not being able to forget that you’re just playing a game…
I find that to be mind boggling…
I’m only allowed a single counter? So… with say poop, I can only dislike it because of how it looks - can’t say anything about the smell or the feel when you get some on your hand wiping? That’s kind of silly.
It’s the combination of the unrealistic graphics reminding you that you’re playing a game - there’s no way around that. The level of immersion for that is going to be paltry compared to other mediums. It’s a variation on the issue many folks have with books made into films - the films break the immersion, because something is not “done right” in the film. Yep, the graphics - it’s not done right. It’s right there in your face - this is just a game. There’s no forgetting that. It’s right there.
It’s also the controls as well as being in control. That’s two things…if I’m allowed two things - even if I’m not, it’s an additional combination of things. You can walk down a dark alley and get creeped out…while you might be in control, you’re walking is not something that you’re doing with keyboard/mouse/controller. As soon as you add in that you have to do something to walk down that alley rather than just walk down the alley - bam - you’re once again reminded that you’re playing a game.
Also as mentioned, there’s not going to be the “Don’t do that! I wouldn’t do that!” factor involved. Sure, this works best when you’ve got some level of attachment to the character in the movie or the book…that you’ll experience some form of emotional response to what happens to them - but when you get into a game…well, if you wouldn’t do that then you just don’t do that.
Which gets back into another blatant reminder that it’s just a game - when faced with something you would not do… if you’re not given the option to do something else - BAM! Game…yawn.
Everything about it screams that it’s just a game. Games can be fun, challenging, entertaining all sorts of things. That’s why we love to play them…or at least a lot of us do. There may be masochistic people that despise games and play them to torture themselves in all sorts of wonderfully perverse ways… who knows, eh?
Years from now, say we have ultrarealistic graphics - we have superior controllers that work off of brain input - games provide a plethora of options so you’re not locked into a few linear paths… and bam, yep - I could see finding a game scary.
I’ve devoured 400-800 page books where I’ve completely lost track of time - forgotten that I was even reading the book - so immersed in the story and what was going on. I’ve laughed, cried, cheered, screamed in anger during movies as I’ve gotten so immersed in them.
Games? Well… games are fun, entertaining, pass the time - are great. But they’re just games and there’s no forgetting that…