horror game mechanic

[Oddball]

What if in a horror game you had bullets to shoot, but you only had a limited number

If you run out of bullets, you can still beat the game, but it becomes much harder

Now, studies have shown people in total isolation begin to halucenate. So what if also in this same horror game, you disn't know what was a real threat, and wht was birthed from your imagination? (I know that's story based, but it relates to the gameplay mechanic i just said)

If done well, could that be a scary game?

(The plot will have a lot more substance to it)

 

[Tokumei No]

I think it could be really horrific and I would definitely love it.

 

[Prizmik]

I think so. If some enemies were real enemies and some imagined (impossible to tell witch), that combined with limited ammo, could be a good solution for having weapons in the game, but still making their use not feel empowering, not only due to low ammo, but also, you don't know if you are wasting ammo on halucinations.


This would require the enemies fake and real be indistinguishable though. And make it so you don't want to stick around to find out if they are real, because if they are you die.

 

[Oddball]

I Iwas thinking of using a random number generator to determine.if they were real and make some situation were you have to press on

Because being able to run away would kill the tension

 

[Eschaton]

The way you word this, it sounds like you have never even considered the idea of a finite resource.

 

[Oddball]

The way you word this, it sounds like you have never even considered the idea of a finite resource.

i have honestly, i prefer to use finite resources. Its just, when playinf through "the witches house" i felt like running away killed the tension. The scariest part for me was the painting, were you couldn't run away in that part. Although that wasn't the scary part for me, it kept the scene scaryEdit: if your talking about not being able to get more ammo

Refilable limited resources is good for rpg's. But honestly, horror games want to create a sense of helplessness. Im trying to force the player to use there bullets wisley. Otherwise, it would kill the whole mood of the game

There's a difference between attrition mechanics and limited resources, and i'm using the former

 

[hiromu656]

Having the hallucinations be random seems a bit too unfair if your ammo is limited. There has to be some sort of clue to learn what's a hallucination or not, because otherwise it isn't you making a tough decision of whether you fire your gun, it's just guessing. You get punished for something entirely out of your control. You can randomly run into 3 hallucinations in a row, and you "choose" to shoot each one, that's 3 bullets down the drain. The way I would play is run past everything until the story forces me to kill. Perhaps a melee skill would be good alongside the gun, so you can check if an enemy is real, but you take a huge risk by getting that close to a monster.

 

[Oddball]

@hiromu: all very good ideas. I'd like to know the other downsides to this as well, so i know whether or not to use this

Also thinking of implementing a balancing variable, because three halucenations in a row would kill tension

Basicly, the determining number for the hallucenatons would be out of ten. The balancing variable would make the real threat a bigger and bigger part of that stretch

Edit: also, what do you think of a solve puzzles while under pressure gameplay mechanic?

 

[hiromu656]

I believe Amnesia the Dark Descent is a good example of puzzles while under pressure. The reason its so effective in this game, however, is that the game makes you think that you're under pressure when you really aren't. There are many puzzles in the game and there's always an uneasy feeling that the monster(s) may be coming after you at any moment. Most of the time, nothing is after you, but that feeling doesn't go away. It's all based on atmosphere you can create. One thing for sure is that you shouldn't put too much pressure on the player during puzzles, because giving the player a sense of safety also makes the next scare or event all the more powerful.

 

[Oddball]

I think I've decided that I'm going to present the player with different situations as well.

Like, maybe there's something that might be too fast to hit?

maybe in one instance you have a slow moving threat that you can get away from. Maybe you need to deal with it so you can go back there later. Maybe there are three slow moving threats and you need to shoot one of them to get away