What is the scariest thing that might chance you through a dense woods?

[Grunwave]

Looking for inspiration for a boss mob.

What scares you? More exotic the better.

 

[ozubon]

Oneself but twice as tall.

 

[Grunwave]

Oneself but twice as tall.

damn that is a great one, this stage might be too early for the mirror fight, but... man could be awesome

Going to have to ask how to even do that in RPGMV

 

[KoalaFrenzy]

Anything obviously alien and intelligent.

 

[JayIsrael]

When I was a kid I played the game Myst on my PS1 and there was this one still where when I closed an elevator, the way the shadows hit the back wall made it look like there was this face looking back at me through the door window when the elevator door shut . I don't even think the developers did it on purpose, but it creeped me out so damn much it literally inspired nightmares.
Sometimes something subtle and creepy is scarier than any large monsters.


All else fails. Worms are scary.

 

[NinjaKittyProductions]

I suffer from Nyctophobia and Hypnophobia... so everything in the dark frightens me <_<

 

[Ailius]

My initial answer would've been a bear or mountain lion. If you want something more exotic, a big snake will trigger primordial instincts in most humans.

But the scariest thing that's going to be in any woods is your own imagination. Most gamers have fought virtual versions of just about everything. But, the unknown - that's scary. It comes down to presentation. You just give the player enough information to know that something is there, and try to leave as much as possible unknown. What it is, where it is, when it's coming...that's what's scary.

I mean, Five Nights at Freddy's proved you can make *teddy bears* scary if you present them the right way.

 

[Former_Sky]

In general, bears. Never seen one but they are around in my area.

More exotic fear is the dark. The idea that something creeping around that can see me but I can't see them terrifies me.

 

[Grunwave]

Anything obviously alien and intelligent.

any visual on this?

I suffer from Nyctophobia and Hypnophobia... so everything in the dark frightens me <_<

Oh it is dark: restricted lighting.

What is the scariest thing you have seen before/while/after falling asleep?

 

[l8rose]

Not sure about exotic but as someone who grew up near a huge forest, anything out of place that starts off slowly will be enough to make anything frightening.

Like for example when the little critters slowly stop making noise and you can hear the crack of underbrush and old leaves being crunched underfoot as whatever is out there gets closer to you. Could just be another person that's frightening away the animals or perhaps...

But for actual things, I'd say something like the Wendigo or Wechuge who can often take on the appearance of human like but have something disturbing about them. Could make it all the more terrifying by having the player encounter the human version first near the entrance of the forest before the Wendigo/Wechuge version finds them deep in the woods.

 

[Wavelength]

How about some kind of large form that you can't see - perhaps you can hear it, feel it, or even smell it, but you can't see it? You just know it's a presence that's after you and you have to RUN. Maybe you can see its effects - the trees toppling over and the birds scattering in fear as this invisible presence tracks you down.

 

[Chroma-Creative-Solutions]

It would highly depend on the mood and feel you are going for within your game structure, but, following the dense woods as a theme, how about taking some sort of creature or monster, and starting from a more decayed or dead form. From a decayed or dead form, you can easily add small forest creatures, insects, plants, etc. that are living within the form, either seemingly working together to control the creature, or perhaps something along the lines of the fungi having taken over to use the form as a host. To give you some insight into a similar theme you can check out here.

 

[Elissiaro]

Depends on what type of scary thing you want, if realistic, a bear or mountain lion works. Ooh or a pack of wolves, howling in the distance, slowly closing in...
For supernatural...
Have you ever seen a pic of a Face MRI?

 

[Grunwave]

It would highly depend on the mood and feel you are going for within your game structure, but, following the dense woods as a theme, how about taking some sort of creature or monster, and starting from a more decayed or dead form. From a decayed or dead form, you can easily add small forest creatures, insects, plants, etc. that are living within the form, either seemingly working together to control the creature, or perhaps something along the lines of the fungi having taken over to use the form as a host. To give you some insight into a similar theme you can check out here.

Yeah, that is pretty creepy. Wonder if there are any assets for it though.

 

[Black Pagan]

Some kind of a Wolf-like creature is what i can think of.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

I grew up in the mountains, surrounded by the massive trees of Northern California. Trees here easily best 40 feet, often get up to 60 feet. This is important because they're so dense and tall that light is blocked or reduced except during midday hours, and you can't typically see the sun's location or stars. So getting lost is perilously easy. What's more, there's really no landmarks to find a body... So if an "accident" happens, chances are nobody is coming, or will ever find out what happened.

We have "flumes" that carrying water to various areas, treat them like decent sized aqueducts that travel for miles through the mountains, often running alongside cliffs, with rickety walkways built of metal (you hope), but often just heavily weathered wood. Just a steep mountain towering to one side with freezing water rushing along, and a crappy rail with massive drop of 50+ feet to the other side.

One day out hiking along these around 4pm, I was returning after multiple hours of being out there. By my estimation I had about 2-3 miles to reach my car. Light was already being extinguished by the trees when I came across one of these metal walkways by a flume. It creaked, I had crossed it earlier than day. Maybe 30-40 feet long, 3 feet wide, cliff to one side, shear mountainside to the other.

I stepped onto it and began my trip across, but as I did a guy stepped onto the other side. He was disheveled, and looked like civilization wasn't something he normally partook of. Very back to nature feel, clothing in tatters, massive beard, long unruly hair. He didn't look at me, just started slowly shuffling.

As we got closer I could hear he was muttering something. Obviously I was quite concerned. I mean I'm not a small guy, 6 foot, roughly 200lbs, decent shape, even intimidating to most but clearly not him. At around 15 feet away I did my customary, "Hi, how's it going?" And got no response, he just kept coming, and muttering unintelligably.

As we got closer, I positioned myself by the cliff side rail, as the water had no such protection from falling in. And kept a weary eye on him. Tense moments happened, closer and closer we came, he was still muttering and not looking at me.... 10 feet... 5 feet.. At this point all he has to do was lunge at me, and there's nothing to stop us both from tumbling into the abyss but a creaky old rail.

Louder muttering, shuffling... But then... he just passes on by. Never once looking at me, never commenting. I moved several steps passed him and turned to watch him go. Never a single word, he just shambled away...

So why did I tell you this story? I wanted to illustrate a couple things, the first is that civilization is a thin veneer. You feel safe because you're surrounded by it and have come to expect it to be there. But when it's not, you realize it's just you versus a cold, cruel world. It doesn't care who you are, what you've done... The same things kills us all just fine.

The next is that of all of the things I've ever faced, bears, mountain lions, etc.... Nothing is more terrifying than other humans. Animals are predictable, they act on the same instincts so if you know what to do, and you afford them the proper respect a predator deserves. You will likely be fine. Humans follow no such patterns, they could be crazy like that guy, roughly "normal" like me, or some person meaning you harm. How will you know? And who is coming to save you anyway? After all if they did do something to you, chances are nobody will ever find the body anyway.

 

[Finnuval]

My first answer would be other humans... they tend to be more scary in general xD

More seriously though one thing I remember from when I was a kid when hiking in the woods was following this animal-trail and suddenly being faced with just a wall of wasps... It was a cloud of them the entire with of the path and at least 7 feet tall. It instantly made me go 'okay..time to back up slowly..'
Prolly the scariest thing that I personally encountered in the woods.

 

[Restart]

There's only one answer to this question

 

[Grunwave]

Some kind of a Wolf-like creature is what i can think of.

IA there anything that would make that wolf eve scarier to you? like some human characteristic, a tendency or maybe a deformity?

My first answer would be other humans... they tend to be more scary in general xD

More seriously though one thing I remember from when I was a kid when hiking in the woods was following this animal-trail and suddenly being faced with just a wall of wasps... It was a cloud of them the entire with of the path and at least 7 feet tall. It instantly made me go 'okay..time to back up slowly..'
Prolly the scariest thing that I personally encountered in the woods.

Oh man, insects, nice. Giant insects!

 

[Basileus]

Would a giant spider work? The scariest thing to happen to me in Skyrim was going through a spider cave, getting cocky because I could see the big spiders coming and snipe them with my bow, then hearing something and turning around to see a giant spider had crept up on me. I actually ended up dying trying to run away, and when I reloaded I checked more closely and found a hole in the wall that I missed in the dark before and the giant spider was in the back of it just waiting there. I was pretty paranoid going through the rest of the cave after that.

You could have skittering sounds and webbing on the trees to scare the player before they even see it. Maybe have a huge spider leg poke through the trees to get the player first (or come from underground like a trapdoor spider). You also can't go wrong just having it curled up in the dark staring at the player first. When it chases the player it can spit webbing to slow the player down to add tension by having the spider get closer if the player gets hit.