I recently did a Let's Play of ObsCure, which is an action survival horror that's basically Resident Evil, but with plants. Due to its nature of having multiple enemies as well as weapons to defend myself with, the primary sources of fear and unease were, in order of most prominent to least: Scarcity of items, reasonable abundance of monsters, sound effects and music, monster designs, combat, and story. In an actionized horror game, balancing item scarcity and the amount of monsters is the most important aspect of the gameplay. A similar enough game, Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare, had constantly respawning enemies, but non-respawning items, meaning that your go-to action was most likely going to be you running past enemies, where ObsCure paced out non-respawning enemies and non-respawning items. Because there was a constant need to manage what you had, squandering your inventory could lead to bad situations. The use of compact discs for saving anywhere allowed a frugal player to progress, at the cost of a potential large setback, while a wasteful player would find themselves lacking when they most definitely needed a save. My most tense moments came not from enemies, but being low on health and not having healing items. Always provide a player with just a little more than the minimum of what they need to survive.
Sound effects and music can set the tone for a situation, but overuse can lead to desensitized players. Throughout the game, just before things really kicked off, screams could be heard. At first, it caused anxiety, but hearing it over and over again made me question why exactly the main characters weren't getting the hell out of there with the blatant loud screaming going on. What was once a genuinely frightening sound became a source of ridicule within minutes.
A monster's design can make or break a game, and the monsters were legitimately frightening, or disgusting depending on the situation, but after encountering them multiple times and being able to overcome them with relative ease the further I progressed, the only thing keeping them as a thing to be feared was, again, ammo scarcity. This factors in with combat, which was complicated enough that I occasionally made mistakes, costing me valuable ammunition and even killing me on occasion. Combat in horror games can be done well, but it is not often done well. A good example of a sort of pseudo combat done in an RM horror game is the One Night trilogy, which used items and eventing to allow the player character a greater chance of survival.
Story, in the case of ObsCure, was essentially your typical teenage horror flick. In games such as Amnesia or Outlast, the story is told through bits and pieces hidden about. Both first games of their respective series did well in this regard, but suffered in their later games because there wasn't enough information up front to keep the player engaged. (your mileage may vary on this, some people are of different opinions that are no less valid.) Some games have the story be something more overt, with the background details hidden in symbolism. The game, 'Pocket Mirror', tells much of the overarching plot through childlike 'theater' scenes, and depending on your actions, certain details can be brought up that change the way things are done. In the case of Pocket Mirror, the horror is less from overt jump scares or sound effects, but by the interactions with various characters and objects.
Now the reason I felt it necessary to bring this up isn't to bore you with details and tidbits I noticed in games, but to bring to your attention my reaction to certain games and how they effected me. No single way will create enough tension to put a player on edge, you also need a reason for the player to keep going in spite of the tension and fear. Even if your game uses an excuse plot, as long as you do it well enough to justify time spent playing it, you've done good. ObsCure, Pocket Mirror, One Night, Cardiophobia, the aforementioned game with the creepy face, all left an impact because, in some manner, I was able to empathize with the characters, no matter how cheesy or bad the writing was. Games with no overt overarching plot, or extremely confusing directions from which to follow, no matter how good the spooks are, do not give me a reason to keep playing. Flash games like 'The Darkness' or 'Ex Mortis' or the myriad 'spooky old house with spooky jumpscares' games I used to play as a kid never left an impact on me because they were all too often too ambiguous about what was happening, leaving too few details for me to piece together why I should care about the character I'm playing. Real, good fear comes from not only sympathizing with a character, but actively wanting to keep them alive long enough for them to attain some semblance of a happy ending.
Make certain that the game does not exist solely to scare people, the game must also exist to make them want to go through the fear beyond simply seeking thrills.
Yeah, all the comments on this post really makes me understand how psychological fears and scares are so important. I also ought to keep in mind of those who aren't scared by direct jump - scares. Kudos to all of you!
