🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
A game that really sends the chills down your spine
Author
I have always been keen on games that have that certain element to make you shiver when playing but what makes a game chilling. I thought Silent Hill was very scary, using the school was a nice touch. Also Aliens vs Predator seemed quite scary at times with good elements taken from the films.
It is all well and good to make a game dark and add some sound effects but you need that certain element that can be found in movies. What do you define as scary..making you feel a slight sense of danger or involving you in the game so that you believe you are being chased or running to save you life.
I know that there is a game coming out for the PS2 which looks good...they are using the abandoned space craft plot, similar to Event Horizon.
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day!"
Event Horizon was one freaky book, if they do a good job it''ll definitely be a scary game.
I can think of three basic elements which have often made me a little scared during gameplay...
Knowledge of my own mortality (ie. I *think* 1 more hit will kill me)
Lack of knowledge of my enemy (ie. I have no idea what it looks like, where it is, or even *if* it is)
Infrequent encounters (ie. It''s been five minutes since I was last in combat, and I keep expecting something around the next corner, but it never comes, so the suspense builds)
A really good plot helps too. In fact, I think some of my best experiences have been times when all of the above conditions were met, but due to the plot I needed to rush through an area recklessly to get somewhere quickly (save a hostage, escape an explosive device on a timer, ...etc.)
Knowledge of my own mortality (ie. I *think* 1 more hit will kill me)
Lack of knowledge of my enemy (ie. I have no idea what it looks like, where it is, or even *if* it is)
Infrequent encounters (ie. It''s been five minutes since I was last in combat, and I keep expecting something around the next corner, but it never comes, so the suspense builds)
A really good plot helps too. In fact, I think some of my best experiences have been times when all of the above conditions were met, but due to the plot I needed to rush through an area recklessly to get somewhere quickly (save a hostage, escape an explosive device on a timer, ...etc.)
One of the scariest parts of a game for me was in half-life when i was trying to line up the air-strike to hit the huge monster who was about 1 second from eating me whole.
Generally movies don''t scare me anymore because they are just tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo predictable.
Definition of Progress: Durability control (see Financial interests of stockholders)
Generally movies don''t scare me anymore because they are just tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo predictable.
Definition of Progress: Durability control (see Financial interests of stockholders)
Author
I think a game based around the movie ''Pitch Black'' would be a nice idea. The movie itself was scary and having to live in a world with no light would scare me shitless.
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day!"
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day!"
If you *really* want to understand what fear is, and how it works: Find a moderately->densely wooded area near where you live...and go out there during a new moon(Read
itch Black)..just walk around a bit...you will see what I mean.
This RtS-Babble© has been brought to you by:
-Run_The_Shadows
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
itch Black)..just walk around a bit...you will see what I mean.This RtS-Babble© has been brought to you by:
-Run_The_Shadows
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
quote:
If you *really* want to understand what fear is, and how it works: Find a
moderately->densely wooded area near where you live...and go out there during
a new moon(Readitch Black)..just walk around a bit...you will see what I mean.
Yeah, and bring a video camera with you, so you can sell it and make
lots of money. Oh wait, that''s already been done. BWP. Damn it.
Think about good horror movies like Alien 3, or Blair Witch. You can''t scare the sh!t out of people by showing them lots of blood and gore - it''s what they don''t see that scares them. Let players catch a small glimpse of the monster every know and then, so they know they''re being hunted, but don''t let them see the whole monster unless it''s jumping in on them out of nowhere to rip their guts out.
What people imagine is always scarier than what you can model in your game. This is why I disagree with Paul Cunningham: the airstrike scene with the big monster in HL was exciting, because you were about to get killed, but it was not scary. Scary was when that scientist got dragged into the airvent by something that you couldn''t quite identify. Scary was when you had some scientist following right behind you, then suddenly heard him scream, and you turned around to find out that he wasn''t there anymore.
What people imagine is always scarier than what you can model in your game. This is why I disagree with Paul Cunningham: the airstrike scene with the big monster in HL was exciting, because you were about to get killed, but it was not scary. Scary was when that scientist got dragged into the airvent by something that you couldn''t quite identify. Scary was when you had some scientist following right behind you, then suddenly heard him scream, and you turned around to find out that he wasn''t there anymore.
I think stuff is scary when the people don''t know what it is. Like in a book i just read, there was a disease that was killing everyone automatically, or if they lived through it, they would go insane. Nobody knew why this town had 5000 + people laying in the streets dead, and one guy walking around and acting really crazy.
X X
|
___
X X
|
___
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
