What makes a Horror successful?

[selmiak]

Slender didn't scare me, Silent hill 2 didn't too, but the creepy atmosphere in SH2 is just perfect and catches me every time. Also beating up slimy monsters with a stick with a nail in it is just great

[an Urpney]

I'd love to make a Slender adventure game by the way!;) I bet it's all been copy-righted by now, though...

Use a better and much more mysterious creepypasta

[Grim]

I'd love to make a Slender adventure game by the way!;) I bet it's all been copy-righted by now, though...

Use a better and much more mysterious creepypasta

Oh... The Black-Eyed Children... I can still feel the shivers it's sent down my spine... Loving it!;)

[Anian]

Some previous similar threads:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=41167.0

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=28168.0

[monkey424]

Hey frenzykitty, you should try these games (if you haven't already)..

5 Days a Stranger
6 Days a Sacrifice
7 Days a Skeptic
Trilby's Notes

Scared the willies out of me!

Also, check this out from the movie Samsara.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZSM7YpA0Oo

Creepy!

springthoughts:

It is the unknown that scares

I say.. it's the weird shit that scares!

[Ghost]

Ah, if we are already passing around youtube links, this one is pretty good. No translation though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giSsxjJVRIo

[an Urpney]

If anybody's after Slender-like scares (good atmosphere with no\very little plot), this one is worth checking out.

[Furwerkstudio]

"Horror is easy, just show someone a horrible picture." - John Landis.

Horror to me is, well, whatever it is. I cannot tell you or anyone else what is it but I can point out this out, if a Slender Bunny man knock off game can be dubbed a horror game then the bar is really low so go nuts. You cannot do any worse.

Hopefully.

[Crimson Wizard]

Along with "unknown", horror game may benefit from "unexpected", a broken faith.
Breaking feeling of safety is one of such things. Make player feel he is safe when in certain room, or carrying certain item for given period of time, then suddenly prove he is wrong at some point.
Make player believe he knows where danger comes from, and then make it come from different direction.
Make player expect certain type of monster, and display another.

The "sudden monster attack" which is usually considered "cheap", may yet cause great and prolonged disturbance if occurs when player does not expect it at all (when no tension was built whatsoever). It will make player expect the same all the time and keep scaring himself with those expectations.

Absurd and surrealism may be pretty frightening too, but there's a thin edge between scaring and funny (perhaps defined by an overall atmosphere).

Make player doubt in his senses. Make him feel a confusion, uncertainty about what's going on. Play with his expectations, make him wonder if the "signs" he witness are warning him of something dangerous, or just random life/natural events. A creepy sentence said by NPC (which turns out to be a silly and irrelevant joke); a random sound, a slight change in the room which means nothing but feels ominous.
Again: make player scare himself. People are quite good at that.

[an Urpney]

Along with "unknown", horror game may benefit from "unexpected", a broken faith.
(...)
Make player doubt in his senses. Make him feel a confusion, uncertainty about what's going on. Play with his expectations, make him wonder if the "signs" he witness are warning him of something dangerous, or just random life/natural events. A creepy sentence said by NPC (which turns out to be a silly and irrelevant joke); a random sound, a slight change in the room which means nothing but feels ominous.
Again: make player scare himself. People are quite good at that.

A nice illustration of what you say.