One time I played a game so scary that my skeleton leapt out of my mouth and ran around Debenhams trying on loads of different dresses. It eventually settled on a dress it liked, a purple floral wrap neck dress, before stepping back into my limp body and hoisting my lips up around its waist like it was getting ready for a sack race. That actually happened, but please let's never mention it again.
That game wasn't Resident Evil Revelations (though that is a scary game). It was a PC game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a first-person survival horror set in a badly lit Prussian castle in 1823, in which you play a man who's lost his memory.
All you've got are your bare hands, your wits, an instruction from yourself to murder a baron and the sense that some nameless menace is stalking you. That sense of being hunted drives a sense of inescapable, deeply psychological terror.
Resident Evil 3 had that too, with the horse-toothed Nemesis pursuing you throughout the game, muttering about how much he hates STARS and walking through walls when you least expected him. Outrun him and he'd whip out a rocket launcher. Good luck outrunning a rocket, you cheeky sod.
So here are my three golden rules of scary games development, each more guaranteed than the last to make your game scarier. Simply apply them to the game you're developing, sit back and watch those greasy fright-dollars roll in.
NB: These rules also apply to train companies looking to turn their boring, normal train lines into a ghost train line. First Great Western London Paddington to Reading Express (which I accidentally got stuck on two weeks ago when I was supposed to be going to Ealing Broadway, causing me to be an hour late for a hot Teppenyaki date), I'm looking at you.
That Stuff I Just Said About Being Hunted
Pretty much the second to fourth paragraphs. A scary game should make you feel under pressure at all times by featuring a super-powerful and invincible bad guy, preferably faceless, who actually exists in the world. His singular goal should be to find you if you hang about in one place for too long trying to read all the data logs or play with the dead bodies or whatever.
Bubble Bobble had Baron von Blubba, an evil, skeletal whale who would appear if you lingered on a level, zipping about the screen faster and faster as his creepy-as-hell music played. Give every game its own Baron von Blubba and not only will we all suffer high blood pressure, but we'd complete games in half the time.
Don't know who Baron von Blubba is? I've found this interview with him, which sheds light on the nuance of his character.
Remember how Eternal Darkness would really try its hardest to freak you out once your sanity meter dropped too low? It would conjure up enemies that weren't there, doors would lead you into the room you just left, a malevolent force would spit you back out to the title screen and pretend your save game didn't exist. It was unsettling knowing that nothing was out of bounds.
But we can do better, right? Imagine a USB nerf gun you place on top of your television, and when Nemesis turns to face the camera - to face you - he says "you think I can't see you sitting there? Empty Dominos pizza box on your lap? Well take this!" before the nerf gun fires a spiteful round at your face. He'd be guessing about the Dominos box, sure, but we'd still be scared.
Really good post- as an indie game developer myself, this is actually very useful!
How about locking you in a room with just a mirror and a note that is written in blood "say 'Bloody Mary' three times into this mirror". And then a faceless thing comes out of nowhere.
One time I played a game so scary that my skeleton leapt out of my mouth and ran around Debenhams trying on loads of different dresses. HAHA
For me, the most scary thing is definitively what you hear. Crank up the sound or use headphones and it definitely intensifies the experience. The Dead Space games have incredible sound design. From the tense rising music to the freaky sounds the monsters make.
Also, good old fashioned darkness is creepy, especially when all you have is a torch to see. Resi 4 and Doom 3 did this really well.
This isn't very good at all. The first point isn't really a "golden rule", just a method to achieve some sense of doom or even just threat. Breaking the fourth wall isn't necessary at all, and would more likely break immersion unless handled really well. Subtle stuff like personalisation, which you could argue is a form of breaking the fourth wall, is better suited. Sound design is obvious, periods of nothing happening is a good point, but then again, I can't think of a horror game that doesn't really utilise this.
Oh and my scariest game is Project Zero 3. Amnesia was decent but short-lived. Scariest moment was...too many to think right now. Something in the aforementioned game though.
Eternal Darkness was really scary as you didn't know what was going to happen when your sanity meter got low. You enter a room and there is no way out, your limbs fall off one by one or you hear a baby crying and a mother trying to make it stop. Top that all off with a scary soundtrack and tense gameplay and you have the perfect survival horror game.
Nemesis was scary as well as you could not defeat it until much later in the game, that fear you feel as you run away from it still haunts me. Silent Hill Shattered Memories also created a similar feeling of fear in me as i ran away from the demons that haunted the frozen streets.
Survival horror video games can easily rival any movie horror film in terms of the scare factor if not even more so as you are controlling the character and therefore more imersed in the experience.
I have to agree that sound design is crucial in creating a scary and tense atmosphere.
Playing the original Resident Evil as a child it would always be the brilliant, super creepy soundtrack that scared me senseless as opposed to seeing the zombies shuffling towards the screen.
I'd also say that atmospheric lighting also helps to really create a scary game,the Resident Evil remake and Dead Space are both prime examples of effectivley using lighting to highten the scares.
Thoroughly enjoying Resident Evil Revelations and I hope Capcom will make more RE games in the future that embrace it's survival horror roots.
Mike.
Dead Space 2 was the scariest game I played. It was so dark every where and you only had a small light to see with. That made things more scarier besides the gruesome Necromorphs.
You have to be in dark areas too. That's why Resident Evil 5 is not really a survival horror.
Let's not forget tingle on four swords. Stay in one room for too long and he would come along, dam that guy freaked me out.
I know, I know, this probably counts as advertising, but If you want to read more content regarding horror in gaming, check out my three part feature series:
http://www.gamescares.com/main/index.ph ... ut=default
It's a little out of date now, but hopefully you'll find it a good read. ONM staff please give it a read too, as I'd love to write features for you if you like my work, especially horror-based features, what with REvelations being out now and the Fatal Frame spin-off coming up.
I haven't played a lot of scary games but the scariest thing for me were the Regenerators fro RE4. I remeber the scary music, the dark labs with all sorts of freaky stuff on the tables. Whenever they were around you could always here their creapy heavy breathing which always jot my heart going and they were always in narrow places so you never knew if they were just around the corner. I remember missing the thermal scope on my first playthrough and thinking they were unbeatable. Of course, those were the only scary parts of that game.
The most scared I have been is when watching the film IT.
if i ever make a scary game, the SA-X is randomly just going to come out of a door in front of you, no matter what sort of a game it is. its not got any warning, its just coming out and shooting you and all you can do is run. come on, that would be scary, especially if you were just playing eternal darkness or resi, and just saw a massive orange evil being shooting at you out of nowhere. sample quote
'JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL GOD KNOW WHAT ON EARTH THATS THE - NO! RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN. DEAR GOD, ITS CHASING ME, I CANT KILL IT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'
I love scary things. I don't get frighten easily. Love horror movies, books and games. I've played Amnesia and it's pretty awesome. Play most of the games you mentioned. Baron Von Blubba is awesome!
Love IT! And, in general, Stephen King! I've read the book IT too and I've watched a Indian TV series of IT called Woh (I'm Indian, but born and raised in good old London XD).