What scares you in a game?

Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:11 am

I think, to make a great horror mod for a game, one should emulate the horrors of reality. Universally, people fear the unknown, as well as helplessness. A few things I can think of that fit those two things:

- Enemies that vanish from sight and reappear at differing locations, perhaps behind the player or someplace nearer than they were.
- Low-level lighting, and lights that dimly flicker
- Fog or mist
- Awareness by the player of a very real potential to be slowed or paralyzed
- Immersion into a world where the usual laws of physics are broken, causing the player to question the certainty of the way the environment will react to their actions.
- The sounds or sights of other in agony or despair
- Sensory clues that indicate impending doom (a familiar sound or image the player would associate with a situation that they feel certain would result in helplessness or fatality)
- The ever-present knowledge that you are at the mercy of entities more powerful than yourself
- Having few or no allies, and those that do exist show signs of being as equally vulnerable and afraid as yourself
- Having the character build trust with someone, only to be betrayed

These are the easiest for me to recommend. Not at all an all-inclusive list, but it should help to attune your mind's creativity to the aspects of horror.
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Loane
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:11 pm

Explosion like sounds from a firebomb from complete silence
I was creeping around in a cave trying to kill these one creature like witches and their firebomb spell or whatever it was gave me the jumps the first few times lol mainly because I keep my volume up kinda high
Then another instance was when I was at one of Legate Rikke's camps and just as I was about to leave I pressed what I thought was the sprint button but I pressed the power button (RB Xbox360) anyway I happened to have the Firebreath shout selected and well it scared the crap out of me because I wasn't expecting it lol my mind was preoccupied thinking of other things pertaining to Skyrim
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Vickytoria Vasquez
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:58 am

I shoot dead bodies with arrows to make sure they aren't really Draug's or skeletons :wink_smile:


LOL i do that too xD
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Amy Smith
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:31 pm

Damnit guys! You're all giving way too good of advice! I still have to make the base mod. (like 7 months and 1300 hours of estimated work) You're all making me want to just make the horror mod now but I cant! :P I honestly didn't expect this level of input. But keep it going! I can plan now, then have a lot more to go off when I actually make the mod!
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Connor Wing
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:54 am

Pretty much every sudden moves from behind.. Everything from a wolf sneak attacking me. Bandits dont scare me cause usually i just see an arrow flying past me cause they cant hit for squat if its further then 5 feet away :D
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Sabrina Schwarz
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:57 am

Big things creatures in the water
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SHAWNNA-KAY
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:43 am

The putty-faced models from Oblivion.

Scare the living [censored] out of me.
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katsomaya Sanchez
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:41 am

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



Take a look at amnesia the dark descent and all your questions will be answered!
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Tammie Flint
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:44 pm

Take a look at amnesia the dark descent and all your questions will be answered!

While I have never played that game I have heard that it is indeed fantastic. However I could only immitate it oh so well, so I need other stuff to compensate. Like, I'm not sure if being completely defenseless is an option. I could prevent using weapons (including magic) if the game works anything like previous BGS titles, and it should. However I'm not sure if I could disable dragon shouts... I could try, I'm sure they have something for that. Then it's just me scripting eerie sounds, crazy enemies and environments, and tying it all together with a good story.... how hard can it be?
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Talitha Kukk
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:38 am

A dungeon in Oblivion did something that I thought was kinda cool / scary. There is no enemies when you go into the dungeon, but when you go deeper in and grab the Ayleid statue, the place is all of a sudden crawling with undead, so you have to get through them to escape.

Can skeletons be reanimated? A place could be filled with dead (more dead) skeletons, but a scripted event could cause the skeletons to reanimate and attack.
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Guy Pearce
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:32 am

Minecraft is the scariest game I have ever played, not even kidding. Your all alone in a huge world, with only mentally challenged livestock that jumps around and evil creatures of the night. For your mod, I suggest making it very large but without NPC's that talk to you, or maybe around 2 if you need to. Make it dark and a swamp or forest full of dead trees would be a good environment, something like that moor at night time outside Morthal (that place gives me the creeps). Make sure enemies are twisted looking, something like The Harvester or the Broodmother bosses from Dragon Age.
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[ becca ]
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 8:21 am

Make sure enemies are twisted looking, something like The Harvester or the Broodmother bosses from Dragon Age.

Hmmmm. I won't have (or at least it's not planned as of now) a modeler for new creatures. I have a friend who is just getting into modeling who will be making me some objects, but thats it. So I will have to stick to that which is already in the game, but I can deal with it. Look what I did with Deimos and Project Genesis. I made some pretty crazy unique stuff by duct taping together a bunch of vanilla objects. :P
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Racheal Robertson
 
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Post » Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:43 pm

Bumpity bump. Come on guys, you all have had such great input so far!
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Pawel Platek
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:20 am

Those damn Hagravens really freak me out, just look at them: http://www.made2game.com/uploads/tinymce/images/skyrim-hagraven.jpg, I don't know why, but it's something to do with how it was once human, but got genetically re-arranged, like Ghouls in Fallout.
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Marie Maillos
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:19 pm

BEARS!!!
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Lily Something
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:25 am

The ominous feeling of not knowing whether something is going to jump out and attack me while walking alone in the dark with a huge ass snowstorm blowing between two mountains. At least that's what gets me every time I play Skyrim.
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Kari Depp
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:31 am

Anyone planning on making a horror game/mod should play Amnesia. That game has everything a good horror game should have.
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El Goose
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:39 am

I hate spiders!
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Dalton Greynolds
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:21 am

The game freezing when i haven't saved in a while. :rofl:
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Juanita Hernandez
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:23 am

Hey everyone,

What scares you when you play games?

Thanks for any ideas and input,
Alexander J. Velicky


CTDs
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Tai Scott
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:13 am

Falmer dungeons have a way of keeping me on my toes.
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john page
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:47 am

Hearing voices and seeing things rank high on my list. Especially if you are seeing multiple monsters and one of them is real. Never know which one is real. A game that did an ecellent job of this was I believe Sancutary on the GameCube. By far the best horror game I have played. Unfortunately I do not think many of these things are possible in Skyrim, then again, I may be wrong.
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Elena Alina
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:00 am

Anyone planning on making a horror game/mod should play Amnesia. That game has everything a good horror game should have.


Totally. Someone already said it, but sound is important; you don't necessarily need things to pop out and scare us because we can scare ourselves. Disembodied footsteps, the creaking of bones, or scratching sounds from the walls could do it. If you haven't played Amnesia, it's an awesome game to take notes on what's scary.
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kennedy
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:10 am

Having a follower follow you into a deep dungeon then finding out in a letter that your follower is a serial killer. The turning around process is freaky.
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Charleigh Anderson
 
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Post » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:27 am

Ambient sounds.And not being able to kill anyone.Being alone.Darkness.
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Project
 
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