Maintaining Fear in a Horror/RPG

[hiromu656]

A game I'm planning is going to be a Horror/RPG Hybrid, you switch characters throughout the game, and one character places you into a Horror game scenario, and the other character(s) plays like a typical RPG. The story is basically a witch hunt, the horror part plays as the Woman being hunted, and the RPG part lets you play as 3 Hunters. As the Woman I want the player to get scared by things, and have a complete shift once you're playing the Hunters, as you're a tough group of soldiers who can defend against the horrors that she may have faced. The problem I'm having (in my head at least), is that the terror that I would like a player to feel while playing as the Woman may be weakened, knowing that eventually you'll get the chance to kill the cause of all that fear.

What I want to have happen with this game is make the player get a "Take That!" type of feeling knowing that after you were just afraid of something, you get to take it down with your own hands. That's my goal at least, but what if there never is that feeling since you aren't afraid in the first place? Am I just over-thinking things? What are some things I should do to make sure I don't run into this type of problem? As I'm not much of a horror fan myself, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Dedhsme]

I'm assuming that the woman has no way to fight back, which is good for keeping the horror atmosphere. Another thing is to maybe change the perspective of the surroundings. Mess with the tint of the screen, make things like stuff dropping and enemies showing up have more of an impact by lowering the music temporarily (if there is any) and making the sound effect a little louder, make it ring a little more. Make corners darker, and keep the Woman (player) on her toes. then, when it's time for the Hunters to charge in, throw that out. Doing this could also keep the game feeling fresh, instead of feeling like you've gone through the same old rooms again. Throw in some awesome music that emmphasizes the player (think Doom), makes them feel powerful.

 

[David Bergström]

I agree with Dedhsme here, particularly about the music. The soundtrack of a game can make just about anything creepy, as well as making anything creepy feel not creepy. If you have discordant, ambient and kind of echoing music for the horror scenes (think Metroid Prime style synth pads and stuff) for the creepy scenes, it will build apprehension and add to the horror feel. There is also potential to have something that the hunters themselves are afraid of. Say for example the woman may be scared of monsters, which the hunters dispatch of easily, however the hunters may be apprehensive of magic while the woman is less fazed. In that case you'd loose some of the distinction between game elements, but your feeling of horror would be more easily maintained.

 

[Harmill]

I have played very little Horror games so I don't have much I can say on the subject. BUT, since the music has been mentioned, I'd like to give my two cents on music in Horror: don't make it predictable. IE: Making the music always change when an enemy spawns. This kills tension IMO. When I was playing Dead Space, the music would suddenly shift as soon as an enemy spawned, regardless of whether it was on-screen or not. So what could have been a creepy game, became very predictable. When an enemy spawns behind me, or just outside my line of sight, I don't want to know the enemy is there until I ACTUALLY SEE IT. Making the music change in this consistent fashion gave away the fact that an enemy was sneaking up behind me or hiding around a corner I couldn't yet see around.

 

[hiromu656]

I'll make sure to use fitting music. I'll probably be studying some horror games for a while before actually jumping into actual development so that I get a better understanding of it all.

@Dedhsme - You are right, the woman cannot fight back. When it comes to switching between the groups, you will pass through the same areas, but I'd like to make side routes that are inaccessible by the woman to be the route that the Hunters will take.

Thanks for the advice. If there is anymore, I'm all ears.

 

[Curia Chasea]

Horror game design...

 

Alright, first of all -> How much experience do you have with creating horror games? Specifically in horror game CREATION and not "I watched some movies" or "I played some games". This will actually help me give you the right information you need for your game. 

 

One MAJOR advice I can give you (and it will save you a ton of work and frustration) is something that might not exactly be popular, especially in the way I will say it. I apologize in advance to everyone in the thread - I'm sorry. 

 

"Don't take small, random tips about horror design."

 

Designing a good horror game is hard. Its a very delicate process at that as well. Random tips will just not cut it - they will make the experience worse if you don't know WHY the trope was used in the game. 

 

For example, Dedhsme mentioned that not being able to fight back is good for keeping the horror atmosphere. That is not factual under some circumstances. When playing MMO games if you are lvl 10 and you see a lvl 65 monster standing in passive mode, do you feel the horror? Of course not - you may be aware that attacking it is a bad idea OR if the monster is aggressive, try to avoid it. But there is no horror experience in there, despite the fact there is no fighting back the monster here (the thing will just one-shot you). 

 

In other horror games - for example Dreadout - you have a way to fight back. The ghosts will disappear or run away if you make a photo of them. You are not that helpless there you see. However the game can still scare the brown out of you, despite the fact you can somehow fight back. It uses special tactics for it though. 

 

Sorry to use you as an example Dedhsme - just trying to help out a designer here. 

 

Anyway - depending on how much experience you have with Horror Design - I could give you some good pointers at what to look at and what to try out and experiment with. Also - the basics. Why we mess with the lights, WHY the creepy music plays at the right moment etc. (Did you know that the sound queues are creepy not because they sound creepy but because the designers TEACH the player what they mean?) No advanced techniques though as I am not a well-known horror game creator. 

 

 

General advice:

 

Creating horror games, despite what you might have heard or saw, is about PACING and not light tricks or just sound. Visual tricks, Sound and background music help you create the right atmosphere. However you need to know how to build up the tension before you release it with the right jump scare and then give a period of downtime for the player so you can build up the tension for another scare. 

 

There is a lot more to it than this - but the one MAJOR stumbling point for beginner horror designers is that they focus too much on gore or monsters or death threats than on the pacing of the game. 

 

PACING is key here. 

 

About your idea:

 

I am afraid that swapping between the phases will kill the pacing of the game. Doesn't really have to though. After this empowered state, the sheer switch to the weak protagonist sets the mood for the player.... but the question is what exactly do you want to do WHEN you switch? What is the plot here, what is she actually afraid of? Why should the player care or be afraid? If switching to the hunters is a huuuge game shift into some kind of action/RPG thing or pure monster grinding... that is an easy way to kill the horror experience completely. Unless the hunters also have a deeply tied in horror experience - you are just merging two games into one. Like trying to switch between a racing game and sudoku puzzle. Technically possible - but could frustrate the player. 

 

[whitesphere]

Some things I find that work very well for horror-based games:

1. The background music and sound effects can work VERY well to set the mood.  Sound effects like, say, ominous breathing, or a heartbeat, can set a level of tension.

2. Tints are fantastic for changing the feel of a map.  They can introduce ominous darkness, or a mist.

3. If you want to emphasize a scene, slowly fading out the background music or sound effects can really ramp up the tension

Try to use the "less is more" feeling of, say, Jaws or the original Alien.  This gives people's imagination the ability to run wild, with strategic hints given by music and perhaps flashes of images, etc.

You could use the "Take That" if you, say, have a gun with very limited ammo like some survival horror games.  Sometimes in horror films the protagonist DOES get to strike back, perhaps unsuccessfully at the villain.  Or maybe it just slows the villain down rather than killing or defeating it. Like the gunshot that "killed" the villain really just stunned it (bulletproof vest, perhaps?)

 

[hiromu656]

About your idea:
 

I am afraid that swapping between the phases will kill the pacing of the game. Doesn't really have to though. After this empowered state, the sheer switch to the weak protagonist sets the mood for the player.... but the question is what exactly do you want to do WHEN you switch? What is the plot here, what is she actually afraid of? Why should the player care or be afraid? If switching to the hunters is a huuuge game shift into some kind of action/RPG thing or pure monster grinding... that is an easy way to kill the horror experience completely. Unless the hunters also have a deeply tied in horror experience - you are just merging two games into one. Like trying to switch between a racing game and sudoku puzzle. Technically possible - but could frustrate the player. 

I guess I should have went more into the what exactly the horror is. As the Witch (at least in a cinematic) you will be chased into an abandoned village by the Hunters. You will cross paths with the Hunters and vice versa a couple times, but that's not where the horror lies. I don't want you to be afraid of the Hunters because both groups are actually being hunted by something else (whatever I decide to put in the village). In my head I wanted to justify the Witch's need to continually advance in this horrific location because if she doesn't, the Hunters will catch her. So you're kind of forced into danger the entire game.

When you're playing as the Hunters, the "RPG" aspect of the game is really just the fact that you enter combat with enemies, you'll still run into similar monsters that the Witch meets, although most of the time you won't get to engage them, and you'll also be solving puzzles. There aren't any random encounters or grinding, every battle will be a specific event and part of the plot.

Something I wanted to play with for the Hunter's side of things is since they can fight back against monsters, a good layer of tension could be that any of the 3 Hunters can die, permanently, which could affect the story/ending. But if you die as the primary Hunter that you switch into, you'll just get a Gameover or have to restart. I guess that could sound like the "death threats" that Curia Chasea mentioned, so I'd like to get some input on this idea as well.

 

[Curia Chasea]

I get the feeling you did not read my post for some reason... I mentioned that "Death Threats" along with "Gore" and "Monsters" are usually TRAPS for beginner horror game designers. People tend to focus so much on "death is scary" that they deliver boring action-game experiences instead of a Horror game. 

The closest thing I can imagine that captures your idea is Gorky 17. 

That game uses a few clever tricks - I would suggest you take a look at it and analyze why they work. Specifically - focus on the battle placement and ammo and healing kits. 

Especially the healing.

 

[hiromu656]

I certainly did read your post. I thought I replied appropriately. :/ Unless that's your way of telling me not to go with the Perma-death idea, I don't see what you mean.

I watched a bit of Gorky 17 and it's definitely a game worth looking into because of its combat design and atmosphere. My primary inspiration for the game was Parasite Eve which is similar in some ways to Gorky 17, so having more games to study will surely help out.

 

[Setheim]

Just wanted to mention that the switch between characters shouldn't kill the mood (or pace) if done correctly. I remember playing the first Silent Hill and thinking the fog town was scary until you find the nightmare town that is, and then everytime you get back to the fog town you felt a sense of relief and every time you heard that damn siren and everything went dark the fear returned. I believe it could be something similar. 

What made the nightmare town scarier was a combination of several factors, these are just a few I can think of. 

-Even when you could fight, it made no sense because enemies were more and stronger than in fog town, so you could only run and fight only when trully needed.  

-Soundtrack and lighting made a huge difference. Silent Hill used the radio sounds (and enemy sounds) to let you know that something was near and hunting you, but the darkness to make it hard to know where things really were. If you could not see 'em, you cannot actually fight them until it's too late.

-No jump scares there, just constant tension of not knowing what was ahead.

-Amazing and scary level designs (how things look really matter) that seemed to distort reality (if you play with the player's idea of what is supossed to be real, you can achieve huge things...you can use the Hunters' perspective as a check point and say "this is real" and then distort it and change the rules when you switch to the woman).
 

And that's what I can think of right now.

Cheers.

 

[hiromu656]

That was actually very helpful. It gave me a couple new ideas to work with.

you can use the Hunters' perspective as a check point and say "this is real" and then distort it and change the rules when you switch to the woman).

Well said.