RPG Maker Forums

A conversation about game difficulty and legitimate horror rpgs (instead of horror visual novels) got me really thinking about a few things.

I once had a theory that anything could be made into horror... and so I thought I'd test that theory (my current game has evolved in a different direction than that so this'll be something I'll work on when I don't feel like making assets or working on my current game).

To test this theory, I was planning on doing everything in my power to make the world itself as simple and familiar as possible so that when the Surreal starts... when things are just off... the player can pick up on it intuitively. Also, since the primary demographic that'll be playing this game will be people who have RPG Maker, I had a thought.

Why not use the RTP assets? People are already familiar with them. People have seen the maps and so are familiar with their layouts. Since horror is meant to play on people's preconceptions and expectations, there is tremendous potential here since you can already predict what the player will be thinking.

The main problem is that, so many people have used them, their use is indicative of lazy game design. So the question becomes: How can you use RTP characters and maps in such a way that the player will play along long enough to hook them with the story and won't immediately put the game down?

My first instinct is to say "Self Aware". Have the rtp characters be aware that they are characters and that the rtp maps are indeed assets. This gets around the need to "sell" the world as its own place.

However, in an instance where the characters are self aware... it opens up to the problem that the player may not be able to "buy into" the world and could be distanced from the horror. In any case, I'm interested in hearing thoughts related to how RTP assets could be used legitimately to enhance the story specifically because they ARE RTP.