I’m going to try to make a simple, short horror game. Hopefully, this project will give me much-needed experience in game development.
The Basic Plot
You awake in a nightmare world. You don’t know how you got here, and you can’t remember anything recent. All you can remember is that imposing figure in the shadows. You see a door that leads into the light and stairs descending into the darkness. Will you dive into the unknown to seek truth, or will you leave this place, forever blissfully unknowing, blinded by the comfort of lies?
The Big Idea
You are given a choice: subject yourself to terror in order to learn what happened in the last few days, or return to your normal everyday life. Descending deeper will bring you closer to truth, but as you proceed, things will become weirder and weirder until they no longer make sense. You may leave at any time, but the truths that you uncover will change the world you return to.
The big idea here is that the protagonist is willingly putting himself in this situation. He chooses to subject himself to terror. There are no external forces compelling him to undergo a gauntlet of horror. He is at the same time the victim and the aggressor. Does this mean that he, himself, is intrinsically insane? Is the truth really worth losing your mind over?
Gameplay Goals
The game will mainly use fixed cameras like the old Resident Evil games. Other camera types may be used in special circumstances.
The game will feature a hub where the player can save, enter a level, or go into the light.
De-emphasis on combat/run-and-hide style gameplay. The scares of this game will be based on interactions with the environment. I don’t want to detract from that.
Emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving.
Emphasis on interactive story telling, possibly with branching storylines.
Death means more than a restart. As you “die,” you start losing your mind. Die too many times, and you may lose that last precious shred of sanity you have left. Then the real horror begins.
Each level will be haunted by a guardian. At certain points throughout the level, the guardian will appear to terrorize the player. If the guardian succeeds, then the player loses some sanity. When sanity reaches zero, the level will be replaced by its “hell” version. In the hell version of a level, scares are randomized, and the nature of the scares will be more sinister. In order to escape from the hell, the player will have to confront and defeat the guardian in its lair. Once the guardian is defeated, the scares stop.
Does this sound like something you would want to try playing?
This sounds very interesting, something new and fresh I feel like!
I’m a huge fan of the horror genre, and this sounds like it can become something great. I’ll take my time to write a more feedback-ish comment asap, but for now I’d say that I’d love to play a game like this! Do you have any pictures or videos of the game?
Unfortunately, I’m still in the prototyping process (only one scene with a very basic, nearly empty room).
I would like to record video, but I don’t think the graphics card on my laptop can handle screen recording software. I would have to record video with an off-screen camera and audio with a microphone (I have both), and then sync them together. It’s a lot of work, and I don’t have much to show right now, but once I get the project rolling, I’ll try to record some videos to show my progress, something like a DevDiary for the game.
Because this game is also going to be a learning project for me, I’m going to keep the mechanics simple. I may update the mechanics once I establish a working game flow.
Update: I am probably going to implement some sort of health system in my game. I figured that I want my game to have some sort of challenge to it. It would also add a sense of threat when the player encounters something dangerous.
How it will work: There will be a crystal displayed in the corner of the screen that measures the protagonist’s fear level. The crystal will change color in this order, from stable condition to critical: blue - yellow - red -black. When the crystal turns black, the world will turn to hell, making the game more dangerous. If the player takes another hit while the crystal is black, the crystal will shatter. If the player has extra crystals, the world will return to normal and the player will have full “life.” If the player has no more crystals, he/she will be returned to the hub to collect another crystal. In essence, the crystals will serve as lives.
What counts as fear “damage”: I’ll add or remove from this list, but here’s what I’m thinking of for now:
Getting hit by an enemy (damage depends on enemy and attack)
Being too close to an enemy (maybe only for some enemies, only goes down to yellow)
Getting chased (only goes down to yellow)
Getting caught in a trap (damage depends on trap)
Getting caught in a lethal trap (lose one life/crystal)
Failure to escape from the level’s stalker (goes down to red. If already red, goes to black)
Played too long since resting at a sanctuary (instantly turns to black)