Hey everyone,
Basically, I am planning on making a giant mod. It adds a huge new land with a main quest line, and plenty of side quests. I also have one sequal planned, and possibly an extra Halloween mod. However, I need to figure out in the next few days if I will be doing the Halloween mod or not, so here's what I need.
What scares you when you play games? Is it dimly lit rooms? Certain enemies? Certain situations? What makes a game give you the chills? I need to see if I could make a good scary mod within Skyrim, and if I can't I'll plan accordingly.
Thanks for any ideas and input,
Alexander J. Velicky
Set the tone. You know that big place underground in not going to say anymore about because spoilers? Felt creepy. Felt ancient. Make your areas dim. Purple, red, and midnight blue are all good colors to accent a dark space with. Make the music veyr very soft and creepy. Very soft. The area should seem to amplify sounds, so the sneaky player winces at his own characters footfalls being so loud and the clanky armored guy cant hear the enemy.
The enemy. The one that spawned behind him when he crossed a threshold. Dont have it attack right away. Make it follow you. Maybe get a few of its friends if he doesnt think to tun around as he keeps going. Once he has it in direct line of sight, the hostility triggers. If he doesnt figure out the pattern, every time he plays it will scare him at a different point, keeping him on his toes. If he does then its worse for him, as he will constantly be checking to make sure one hasnt spawned, getting paranoid.
Alienation is powerful. Use it. A town with no people. A tree growing upside down. A child saying un-childly things. Sure a giant hall of black crystal is wierd and cool. But taking familiar things and alienating the player from them is TERRIFYING. Even a dragon that just site stheir and doesnt attack may creep them out. Something is WRONG they feel, as they watch the lone dog limp through the empty city. The black crystal hall is inherently alien, so they dont know if something is wrong. But alienation, the active process, so they can see how things are and know how they should be, creates wrongness. And that bothers people.
You can modify this concept to harm the player as well. You know what isnt dangerous? A skeever. You know what is? 5xCharlevel (max 40, for latency reasons) skeevers attacking from all sides. And again, since this isnt what the player is used to, it feels wrong.
Anywyas, hope this helps.