Been mentioned a few times already, but water absolutely horrifies me ever since I played Amnesia....
The bear traps in this game scare me too, only because when I don't notice them and then I step on one.... with my headphones turned up.... *THWACK!* lol
Definitely check out Amnesia: The Dark Descent though if you're planning on making something scary!

Frost spiders AHHH!! They literally give me chills up my spine when they sneak up on me. I really hate spiders lol.

What is MOST scary is when you hear something, than you turn back and there's nothing, then when you are turning to the "front" again, there's a monster starring at you... I hate Falmers and Hargravens...
Psychological are the worsts...
Also silent monsters such as the Draugr..

A good scaring thing is an Abandoned Mansion creeping you out with sounds of ghost laughs and "balancing chairs" making noise, doors opening and closing with the wind and then BOOM a Hargraven appears..


Seriously Hargravens are the scariest thing ever !

Darkness and loneliness are a good way to scare even more... A dark place with some sounds creping you out and you are alone, then BOOM a Hargraven appears !!

AAh i hate Hargravens !!!!!

When you clear a path in a dung and then somebody comes at you from behind ...

Hmmm, you all really seem to hate Hagravens... I'll certainly have to use them.

Actually... you want to know what scares me in the game.... other than that feeling of going into the unknown and all of the ambient sounds or music stuff.....

It's the dang Level Up notifier... or something like it.
Seriously.
Here I am sneaking amidst all of this dungeon-esque ambiance.... attentive and cautious... and then...

KA-CHING! OOOAAH-RUH! RUH!


I swear... almost every time it scares the [censored] out of me, is so unexpected.

The traps.... Always forget about them so i almost always trip them and when i do they make me jump lol. And the Draugr jumping out of their coffins.

Too right. That game scared the bajeebus out of me.

As has been said before: Amnesia style stuff.
Especially important are the sounds.
You also need to have a certain feel that you won't be able to just easily kill the possible threats.

Absolutely nothing in the current Skyrim really classifies as scary to me, since there are no real threats.

Oceans. I don't know what it is about them, in real life they completely don't bother me. But when it comes to games, I just have no idea what could possibly be in them and it freaks me out when I have to go swimming. Even in lakes, not just oceans. Rivers are usually fine as long as they're not huge.

It is just me or does anyone else get scared when the hit the shout key by mistake instead of the running key. It gets me every time, I've always been a fan of the dungeons but every time I go by one it has the horrific sounds and once you get in, you can hear some of the enemies. I really need to start venturing more into these dungeons.

Yeah, that quest freaked me out from beginning to end. Brilliant.

Not being able to see the enemy- near complete Darkness.

Things not working the way they should. Your healing spells start damaging you, or your conjurations turn on you.

Not being able to protect myself. When you have a weapon it makes the enemies seem less threatening, if you are defenceless it makes you feel more vulnerable. Maybe an encounter that locks you out of your highest skills, or temporarily removes your armour and weapons, forcing you out of your comfort zone?

Having a companion makes things seem less threatening, as you are not alone. If they were to suddenly disappear it would makes things much scarier. They could be replaced with a copy that randomly turns on you when you need them most (But you get your real companion back at the end of the dungeon)

The exit is locked. You can't fast travel. You have nowhere to go but forward...

What scares me is the "favorites" layout next to tab menu. I have died sooo many times.

I've been thinking about this a lot myself and I figure if you are good with Skyrim's modding, you could do this well...

Hallucinations / residual paranormal recall...

What I mean by this is pretty simple. Imagine you are walking through the woods. You find a small shack in a clearing that looks to have supported a small family at one point. Upon entering, the walls would be stained with blood and turned over/broken furniture.

You get a message that tells you that you are feeling sleepy... You try to leave but the door is jammed...

There are beds in the next room, you feel progressively more drowsy as you make your way to the bedroom where you eventually collapse to the ground.

When you awaken, something isnt right, you can't tell what it is but theres something wrong. The music is gone, there is a sound of wind echoing outside... It is all so unreal.

You realize you are weaponless. Powerless. You look in the mirror and you see the visage of a person that you don't recognize, you are a child...

Is it a dream? What is happening?

You go into the living room where you find a man standing over a woman she is dead... A bloody hammer in his hand...

Mommy? What is daddy doing? What has happened?


You are reliving the last moments of a child murdered in cold blood.

When this night is over, you'll either be too scared to breathe or ready to seek revenge on the man who betrayed his family.



Dunno, but monsters don't scare me nearly as much as a warped human psyche... Experiment with scary story telling and see what you come up with!

Still wanted to add that journals of some kind really help build the atmosphere, because you can tell about stuff that wouldn't be possible during gameplay. They are really the only type of storytelling that can support horror stuff.

I also think that having other npc:s(as in other "victims") talk to you during a horror dungeon will considerably lessen the scary mood. I think that it's essential that feel that you are alone.

Good luck on this possible project. Would love to see horror quest type of thing.

I guess I'll just add my voice to the "play amnesia and you'll know" crowd, its bloody terrifying.

Caves that are really dark and don't have lanterns on the ground illuminating your passage, requiring you to hold a torch or cast a light spell. That would be a good start.

Bear roars and surprise trolls.

I got attacked by a Sabre cat out of nowhere, just had enough time to see him claw my face in, SAVE OFTEN!

This is what I was planning. Somehow you are trapped in this place, with no weapons or armor. You are forced to explore forward, possibly threatened by some creature that you cannot harm or something.

That scared me too!

I have lights hooked up to my game.. so when specific things happen it is definitely more intense..

Check it out..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx9bHoZmJx4

Hmmm. I personally think that would destract me and break my immersion far more than it would help. But it's still a really cool idea, I have never seen anything like that anywhere before!

not being able to save progress could make people more scared as well. you get far into a game, big ol' monster comes storming at you and you'll panic for sure. but for me, it's mostly ambient sounds that creep me out, and monsters that can turn invisible and/or cling to surfaces. I.E. bloodsvckers in STALKER or Lickers in the resident evil 2.