Yes, what do you think about it? I think there mustn't be lots of action. A game which we kill lots of zombies in each room isn't scary.
That's a good question, although I lack time to express my views right now.
Squalman released some games which were quite scary in his time.
music plays a big part, imo.
Music and timing, it has to be
Surprise and suspense. Like in DOOM, how whenever you turn a corner you know there could be a bunch of monsters jumping out at you. Or the end of Monkey Island 2, where LeChuck randomly appears in the corridors.
Both of these examples are illustrated with creepy graphics and music, of course.
The first RE was fairly scary, lots of good "gotchas" and what not.
Also: there was this game I used to have on my PS1 called clocktower that did a good job being a "scary" game, untill I realized you could kick the badguy in the balls when he got too close.
C.
Hitchcocks classic statement that suspense is achieved by letting the viewer see what is about to happen to the character, while the char. itself is oblivious to it, is often quoted within film-theory, but does it also apply to games?
Well, in my opinion, no - Since in a game, you are both the viewer and the character at the same time, and therefore, if you were to see what was going to happen, you would be able to avoid the danger or event that is about to happen, thus eliminating the whole element of suspense all together.
So what can you do to create suspense/horror?
I'd say it's a lot about the mood, the atmosphere and the overall feeling of the game - And that includes many elements.
Music, as Puddin' said, is one of the most important parts - Even if your graphics are simplistic and perhaps "below the standards", some really haunting music can add a mood to the scene that wasn't there before.
AGS examples of this is for example Pleurghburg and the Byzantine demo - Both games feature great and suspenseful/haunting music, (And of course great storylines as well - I'm coming to that...) which definately heightened the atmosphere.
But - Just some scary music alone won't make a game. Story is as always, the most important element.
And when it comes to horror, there is one thing that makes a game/film/whatever-story scary - Uncertainty.
That single feeling of knowing that something has/is going to happen, but you don't really know what and when it's going to happen...
It's a sense of hopelessness in a way.
I don't really know if this here, my ramblings makes any sense, but hopefully they did... Feel free to point out my mistakes... :)
I'm with Lex, even though I'm not sure if he means the very first one for the Famicom (I beleive), or one of the three sequels. I have the game Clocktower for the PS1, and it was quite a thrill (despite the bad voice acting and crappy graphics). In the game, you never know where the killer is... and he either suddenly pops out at you from behind a door, or what ever, or when he's "coming for you", you hear this ambient drone kind of fade in (and turns into this thumping trance-like number), then you know when you hear that you're supposed to run and hide. Then you can hear his giant scissors sliding open and then snapping shut as he gets nearer.
Resident Evil was always a blast too. I recommend any one of the games to someone who wants to be scared, or likes suspense.
In my humble opinion, this is what makes anything scary (movies, games, etc):
1. Not knowing exactly what you're afraid of. Take the movie Alien for example... you never see the aliens in their entirety, you only see a few film cell's worth of them (their mouths, etc). Not enough to know what it is you're afraid of, but you have the general idea. I think it would be pretty damn scary, if you're running for your life from something, but you can't see it... you don't know where it is, you don't know what it's planning, you just know you want to live. Do you kind of get the general idea here? People are generally afraid of what they don't understand, and (no matter what anyone tells you...) what you can't see or don't know WILL hurt you.
2. Now, when it comes to horror, I say, silence is golden. Picture it: You're alone in the woods. All you can hear is your breathing, and the beating of your own heart. Then suddenly, you hear a twig snap... you quick glance around to see where it came from, but you see nothing... it's gonna freak you out. But it would be even scarier, if it was a sound you didn't expect, or couldn't recognize.
Music can add to the mood, something ambient, like a few solitary, echo-ey piano notes (in a very macabre arrangement... it's gotta sound scary), a shreiking violin stab, or a singular, droning cello note. But I think you should only add music if its a chase scene, or somethign similar. You just kinda have to know when and where to use music, I guess.
3. Location. You're more than likely to be scared if you're in an unfamiliar location, with minimal to no light. I mean, are you going to be as scared if you're in your front yard during the daytime? No. If that's the case, you know where to go if you want to get away, and you can see where you're going (dynamic camera angles also help out in the location department). A place that just looks scary, like an old graveyard, might help.
4. Lastly, weapons. I find a lack of weaponry to be the scariest... you've got nothing to defend yourself with, you're armed with only your wits (in which case I'd be screwed, I'm not a quick thinker...). Some games and movies insist on having weaponry available, but you're going to go this route, make sure it's sparse. Say that you're only armed with a little 4 inch hunting knife, that sucks because it's not going to be effective by any means. If you want to talk firearms, you can give the character all the guns in the world, but they're no damn good without ammo. So try to make ammunition limited. They don't know when or where they're going to find more bullets, so they have to try their best to make every shot count, and have to make sure they've got some rounds left over just in case they might need them later.
I hope this was helpful. I really enjoyed being able to toss in my two-cents worth into this thread, cuz I'm a sucker for horror.
~Sully
EDIT:
I realize I might have written things that others have already posted. I apologize... I only skimmed through the threads before I posted.
QuoteWhat makes a game scary?
Chrille Blomqvist.
Ir is difficult to say... so, let me analyze my fears, maybe you can get some conclussions...
Trapezoid defined it well... Unexpected frights are scary, I remember an "Alone in the dark" scene where a thunder lights the room where I was, and there were two zombies following me, a thing that I didn´t noticed before, aahhh!
But you can´t abuse... In the old movies even the music made you notice when there was going to be a fright, and people started to make fun about it... guessing where the frights were going to be.
Wes Craven used this and put thrilling music before something harmless (maybe the strange noise was made by a cat, for instance) and then, when the character and the spectator were relaxed, the monster attacked!
But the fright films are IMO dying... The genre can still accept innovations (I.E. the zombies are slow and silly? Let´s do them fucking fast and aggressive!!! I.E. 28 days after)
BTW,it seems that the films are aiming a more "psicological" fear. I can remember "The ring", "The house of the haunted Hill" and "The haunting"... As you can see, they keep the fright, but now the "frighting thingie" are ghosts...
I think that we´re quite unsensitive to death, we´re looking to it all the days in TV, so, the script writers use ghosts, because, if a ghost kills you, you don´t know whats going to happen. Ghosts films imply that we have a soul, which means that the suffering can continues after the death, whereas with the zombies, many times resurrected by a nuclear waste or a crazy scientist, the zombies "only" can kill you.
That´s why I prefer ghost movies, because death doesn´t scare me so much as what can happen after...
BTW, the only film that scared me in the sense that it stuck fear to the death itself was "Saving private Ryan".
CONLCUSSIONS:
I can´t imagine me being attacked by a zombie, because I know that they don´t exist.
See ghosts films make me to be a little scared because I can´t be sure that ghosts do no exist.
Seeing real situations where people die scare me a lot.
My advise: Try to make the reason that creates the "scary thingie" as realist as you can.
Anticipation.
If you want scarey!! Play Silent Hill 1 through 3 for the PS2. The atmosphere those games portray is in my opinion some of the scariest ever. The imagry alone is scarey, and downright disturbing. I say check them out for a good spook.
I'm almost 31 years old, and playing Silent Hill 2 in the dark scared the piss out of me. So, that must be saying something.
Shawn
atmosphere, building up just a spooky ass atmosphere
music, visuals, scripting events that occur when the gamer least expects. To this day I think the scariest moment in a game is Resident Evil when the dogs jump through the windows. The thing is, you have to tease more than you "Boo!" because eventually the player gets dysenthisized from all the "boos". Make him suspect something is coming, then let that suspicion pass, then "WAM!"
dramatic creepy music and haunting backgrounds helps lure the character into whatever feeling you wish.
and of course, lines of dialogue such as:
Barry: "What is it?"
Jill: "What is it?
Barry: "It's blood."
Barry: "Jill since you are the master at unlocking, here- take this lockpick."
As a Gamecube owner, I bought myself the Resident Evil Remake and I can give you a few pointers, because this game is downright disturbing.
Images of human flesh or 'raw meat' scattered throughout dimly lit places is a good start, with added flies or cockroaches crawling around. Rancid images just add to an unpleasant atmosphere, and create a scene where the character is uncomfortable.
Also suggested imagery plays an important part in the 'scary' experience. For example, human teeth and small locks of hair laying on a table next to pair of bloodstained pliers does wonders for the human imagination, bringing along such questions as "What the hell happened here?"
Also the entire RE series seems to do this quite well, ie making you jump. For example after completing a certain puzzle like finding the last key in a section of the game, the player would casually walk back to the door to advance to another part of the land or whatever. But on his/her way back, a window could shatter with a bunch of mutated Dobermans heading to maul the player.
Avoid cliches at all cost! No serial killers in silly outfits, no scary empty houses, etc. In other words, nothing that can relate to the typical teen horror movie. Try new settings, new outfits and new designs. This way, the player won't be able to say "oh, it's so obvious, he's in that closet". The player must not be ready for the scare. Example: Take Mulholland Drive's bum scene. It's daylight, the guy is obviouly a daydreaming lunatic. And *baaam*, it's there.
And, as the others said, atmosphere. The player must constantly be on the edge a mental breakdown. Example: This is not a horror movie, but the atmosphere at one moment was just right. "2001: A Space Odyssey", the scene when the austronauts are out in space. There is no sound but that of the astronauts' (who are slowly drifting in space) breath.
It seems a lot of scary parts (in games) is a chase part. By this I mean where the player is in a place with an approaching baddie. This in addition to a limited time is really scary. For example, the jaguar(??) appearing in pleurghburgh got me all jumpy. There was a jaguar running towards you and you are frantically clicking your inventory to see what to stop it. Another example is the randomly appearing wizard/dwarf/witch in Kq1. While I was on a certain screen, suddenly one of them appeared and started going towards you. That really used to get my heart beating fast and I was press the key to exit the screen as soon as possible. Even Resident Evil, with baddies suddenly appearing and walking in their weird limp used to get a jump out of me while I tried turning towards them and repeatedly firing at them. I don't think it really applies (at least for games) that I don't believe in zombies or ghosts. If you can sufficiently absorb the player into the game and then get them shocked with those they can get really scared. I guess a major part of this is the atmosphere created by the music and backgrounds, creating an "intense" feeling, followed by the (perhaps expected, but still scary) shock.
What makes a game scary?
Bad designers. :)
Seriously, I think that atmosphere, story, music are the most important keys to make a game scary.
Hey, this is a great thread.
Inspiring stuff.
Thinking about scary games... System Shock 2 comes to my mind as one of the scarriest. Also I think that unknown threat hidden somewhere inside a spaceship in deep space with no means of escaping creates one hell of a scary atmosphere. Think Alien...
As others have said before, suspension is very important too. Take Stephen King´s novels for example. Nothing quite unusual happens during first 400 pages or so... but the tension is building up. And when it comes, it smashes you right into the face and leave you breathless. I took King´s Bag of Bones novel to check out my statements as I write this. And what do you know? The breaking point comes at around page 600! But it gave me goosebumps all the way down.
The unknown! Why are kids scared of dark rooms? Because they can't see what's there. Never, ever, ever, EVER reveal the face of the alien (I'm looking at you, Independance Day); it just removes all mystique.
Alot of what's being said here seems to indicate that the capacity to startle the player is a scariness that should be attained. And that includes the anticipation of bein startled.
Sure it's fun, but it's still rather cheap.
But relatively I guess not that cheap, because it's becoming harder to scare an audience on a more fundamental level [with anything but reality]. Most horror classics don't seem scary.
So when the alternative is unattainable, perhaps not that cheap.
As EvenWolf has said, don't let the player think or know something is about to happen if something is indeed about to happen. Give them the feeling of dread with their surroundings, then calm them down. After that, scare the living crap out of them with something they were not expecting.
Someone stated a good example already. But let's reiterate it to death:
Typically in a game when you pass through a room once, you have the feeling that you have cleared it out of all possible threats. So it can be amazingly shocking to the player if you program an event to occur in a room he/she has already "cleared" - and especially after an event of relief (ie: attaining a key to a previously locked door). The player subconsciously says "But I've been thru here! It was safe before!"
In other words, the ultimate way to give the player a feeling a fear- is to first give the player a feeling of safety or relief.
Well, it is the easiest way to startle...
Well Las, you can imply that it's a given and I'll agree with you - but let's talk a little on the methods one could use to lull a player into a feeling of safety. Becuase I doubt you and I practice these on a daily basis.
In Resident Evil, Save Rooms are regarded by the player as zones free of enemies. I'm fairly sure at one point however- after numerous save rooms which contained no enemies, suddenly one appears. That would startle me and seem to break the "rules" of the game, despite rules never being assigned.
When a character walks into a room, the music could change pace to something peaceful. The room could have a lighter quality to it than the rest. Characters could exchange dialog and then a scripted event occurs and the walls of the room erupt- and a monster/enemy appears.
Somewhere in the game, your character can encounter another character (such as Barry in RE) who has saved you and fought by your side in the past. You approach him from behind as he appears to be tinkering with something. Suddenly he turns around from feasting on another human and his eyes are blood red, and it is apparent this is no longer the friend you once knew. Now you must fight him.
That's still a startle though, it's not fear. Fear is something more fundamental that lasts.
And startles are easy to achieve, so I don't see much point providing elaborate discussion on how to create them when it's more rewarding, if only from an academic viewpoint, to discuss how to create fear.
Thinking about a former friend that is now a zombie. He turns, he's a zombie, bang, startle. Now that's over he's a zombie like the rest of the game.
But an idea would to have that friend still in grasp of his cognitive abilities. He either can talk but can't control his actions, or is just giving in the the need to feed, but can taunt you and remind you that he is still there in some capacity. That has the ability to create fear, more carefully constructed and longer lasting. The Soufflé to startling's Big mac.
[crap, I wrote this and then saw your post at the top of this page 2. But I stand by it, because how else would you apply fear? Let's not get to intellectual that we cannot even apply the advice we give. If this guy wants to make a game with fear- I say AGSers have so far given sound APPLICABLE advice]
Alright, all examples of startles. But look at it this way- games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil may attribute their overall feelings of fear to both atmosphere AND startles. Exposure to the first startles in the game creates a collective fear in the players mind that "Oh shit, something can pop up at any time." I think establishing that mindset in a game- and early, while not fundamentally necessary, is what the most talked about scary games have in common.
I mean "Fear" isn't a condition with any certain requirement.
You may achieve fear without scary music, but rather happy music
You may achieve fear without any zombies, ghosts, or weapons
You may achieve fear without any startles
You may achieve fear without anything happening.
You may achieve fear while actually telling the player what is about to happen (example, when the Tyrant corners you on a catwalk in RE2 and you see him coming on the TV monitor)
But whereas you say its "cheap fear", I argue it takes some craft to instill the constant fear of being startled (anticipation) with a few well placed events. RE (1 and 2 for Playstation atleast) actually did not have too many startles. But those few instances had me on my feet for most of the game. Except of course, when I felt safe (which is when the next startle would most likely occur.) So, if you are saying "startles cause fear, only when used infrequently", I most certainly agree.
You will also find that most gamers enjoy startles. I'm fairly sure my brother and friends, while not being able to remember much else about RE1- will tell you their favorite or scariest part was when they were startled by _____. It's like arguing that more indy movies need to made when you certainly know the majority of audiences enjoy big dumb movies. Big dumb movies are written in a day, were not given as much consideration as the indy movies, but they get a huge happy audience and will continue to be made.
Fear is a lot more difficult to invoke. At least if you are talking about fear being atmospheric or chronic. I think that's why a lot more games go for the startles or shock (massively gory/disturbing scenes). If you fail at instilling a game with fear then it becomes laughable whereas an element of surprise nearly always works to some extent.
I don't believe I've seen any pure adventure games that have much element of fear. About the closest I've played is more creepy or disturbing. Harvester - disturbing, Gabriel Knight SotF - Creepy (in places). The most common way I've seen an aspect of fear done in an adventure is the "if I don't do this carefully/quickly/correctly I will die/have to do it again/view that horrid movie segment again" type.
As far as startle/fear goes, I think of the RE games as startlers. They seldom have much creepiness & the atmosphere can be a bit creepy until you get used to it. Silent Hill did a nice job with establishing a disturbing/creepy atmosphere both during gameplay and with movie segments, it just fell a little flat by not having the fear come to a peak at any point (at least for me). System Shock 2 had a great creepy/fear-inducing atmosphere with its share of startling moments, its downfall in the realm of fear, in my opinion, was that it wasn't able to suspend disbelief, mainly due to occasional over-the-top speech and enemies that could be a bit goofy. As far as Doom goes, I felt it was more of an "Oh, my god, there are 20,000 enemies and I've only got 6 shots" type of experience. I expect a good fear-factor in D3, however.
Atmosphere and being stalked by something unknown. Silent Hill 2 nailed both of these nicely. You're in a city and you don't know exactly what's going on. You can only see three feet in front of you and everywhere indoors is a dank environment. Add to that the mysterious, giant Pyramid Head monster chasing you, and its one scary game. Resident Evil: Nemesis also got the stalking thing down. You're constantly being chased by this huge monster whose intent is to kill you. It's just a huge rush.
MrAnonymous (if that's even your real name), haven't played either of 'em but from what I've heard the Nemesis stalking gets more annoying than terrifying.
For example when I was playing Tomb Raider (long time ago) then it was SCARY AS HELL. Everywhere you go some wolf or bear or something attack you behind and you don't see him coming. wooo...what was some scary stuff :o
Quote from: Eggie on Fri 16/01/2004 19:45:51
Hey, this is a great thread.
Inspiring stuff.
:) Thanks ;)
I think the player should see the "monster" in the end of the game. For example, there was a game named "Frankie Goes Hollywood" in C64. . We were in a big house and there was a killer. It was scary too see the message "The killer is in the next room!" !
oh yeah just remembered. There was this game, Resident Evil I. I think it was.
It was on PS 1. I used to play it all the time. The scariest things were the doors makign those scary sounds, and not knowing what is in the next room. SCARYIEST was when you could see 3 zombies blocking all your escape ways and you had no weapons or thing to kill them with :o
Or when you see some blood footprents on the floor. And when you follow them you discover some bunch of zombies. :o
I think fear should be possible to achieve in a game - in a situation such as one where the player knows that the evil bad guy is around somewhere, but not where - so every time they enter a different room he could be there.
Rather than being a sudden scary event, there you get a constant nervousness on the part of the player when they change rooms, unsure as to what they will find there.
A truly scary moment (in a truly scary game, IMHO) was the school belltower in Silent Hill 1. After running through this foggy abandoned city for hours you enter a small tunnel beneath the tower. The tunnel is pretty short and ends in steps leading up. When I popped my head out of the far end of the tunnel I got a nasty shock: you exit the tunnel in exactly the same place as where you enter it (only now in some ghastly Hellraiseresque travesty of a shadow dimension).
That little tunnel seems to warp space in a most disturbing way - you enter it, and walk out the entrance without turning around ... not a "doors-slam-open-and-hundreds-of-zombies-burst-in" kind of scary, but very, very unsettling. As was the cat in the locker. I actually screamed.
Yeah, but you're old. Lots of stuff scares you. ;)
I think the fear is more real if you find out what the Terrible Things(tm) are for yourself, rather than having the game explicitly telling you what's going on, or the player character letting you know that he's figured it out.
In System Shock 2, for example, you find out most things by listening to audio logs left by other crew members. They only hint at strange things happening (at least in the beginning), and with the logs combined with everything you see you can start to piece together the whole mystery for yourself. No NPCs approaching you saying "Goddamnit, you! Don't you get it? They're going to do Terrible Things(tm) to us unless we get out!". Good good.
Quote from: YakSpit on Sat 17/01/2004 12:33:53
Yeah, but you're old. Lots of stuff scares you. ;)
Argh! just you wait until I get my hands on you! young rascal! damn ... where's that walking stick? ... ;D
If you wanted, you could track down, rent, or buy cheap, and try any number of horror games and pick out peices from them that you think are the scariest:
1. Any Resident Evil Title
-Resident Evil
-Resident Evil 2
-Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
-Resident Evil Survivor
-Resident Evil Code Veronica
-Resident Evil Zero
-Resident Evil (remake for the GC)
-Resident Evil Dead Aim
-Resident Evil Gaiden (for the GBA)
-Resident Evil Outbreak (once it's released, I don't know the date)
-Resident Evil 4 (in the works I guess)
2. Any Silent Hill title. (these display every example I described in my above post, the silence, the lack of ammo, unfamilar surroundings with minimal lighting, NTM the fog and the snow, etc.)
-Silent Hill
-Silent Hill 2
-Silent Hill 3
3. Any Clock Tower title, although I haven't played 3 yet. There is one from back in the day for the famicom, like I said, there are two for the PS, althought the second on for the PS is kinda crappy...
-Clock Tower (Famicom)
-Clock Tower (PS)
-Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within
-Clock Tower 3
4. Any Dino Crisis Title. These aren't exactly scary, although I haven't played the third one, but they're suspensful. And they display how it feels to be stalked.
-Dino Crisis
-Dino Crisis 2
-Dino Crisis 3
-Dino Stalker (?) - I'm not sure if this is actually part of the series, but it's a first person shooter like RE Survivor and Dead Aim.
5. Koudelka. This stab at Survival Horror/RPG for the playstation wasn't horribly scary, but it had some very disturbing enemies designs, a good soundtrack, and a very creepy atmosphere.
6. Alone In The Dark. The second game for the PS was great in the beginning, but towards the end it felt like it was slapped together half-assed, like the developers were in a crunch to get the game finished. This one displays a lot of examples from my first post too. There also is another very old, very rare Alone in the Dark title for the PS called One Eyed Jack's revenge, that I really can't tell you too much about, because I didn't have it for too long. But more Alone in the Dark games are available for the PC, you just have to find them (I don't know the titles)...
-Alone in the Dark: One Eyed Jack's Revenge
-Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
7. Countdown Vampires. The only reason why I listed this one, is because I want to warn you: STAY AWAY FROM IT! IT'S FUKKIN TERRIBLE! It's got good character designs, decent music, but it's got terrible voice acting that will make the original RE look like a literary masterpeice, not to mention a very shitty plot.
8. Fear Effect. These weren't horribly scary either, but maybe they're worth a look.
- Fear Effect 1
- Fear Effect 2
...hmm... I coulda swore I had more than that... well, if anyone can think of any horror games for any platform that I forgot, add them.
Can I just mention that when all is said and done, the scariest thing I've found in a game was a startle, and it was in Loom, when the shepherds come out of the trees at you.
But I don't seem to get scared by fiction, and I don't know why. I'm certainly no badass mother who's afraid of nothing, and I am willingly suspending disbelief.
It's my loss I guess.
Startles are really boring..
They might make you jump, but lets say you saw the film at the cinema (or friend's house)..
What you want is something that continues to eat at you on the way home and when you try to sleep that night..
Not the quick slap of fright, but the slow injection of it will be more effective i believe. The what-if's..
Monsters can't deliver this unless they actually exist, or could possibly exist..
On the other hand, the apprehension of adiscovery i believe, especially if it involves a personal belief is also fear inducing.
For example, the slumber party game called 'Bloody Mary' (which has somewhat been adapted in the clive barker story - candyman).
Bloody mary is a game which girls often speak about where one of the group is dared into going into their bathroom alone with only a candle for light (at night), and speaking "bloody mary" 3 times with the effect of the bloody mary character appearing behind the person in the mirror and stealing their soul (or killing them depending on the variant).
There have actually been cases concerning this particular slumber party game where people have had to undergo psychiatric councelling because their friends trapped them in the bathroom until they completed the dare..
Being foreced to put oneself at risk of harm - kinda :)
Well, startles are best for immediate results butr they won't last wrong, sometimes movies/games can even be more scary for a prolonged time due to their contexts.
One thing about startles was that, I think they only work with sound, without good sound effect they can be just unscary craps, the dogs bursting out of windows scenes in the Bio Hazard games are good examples of startles (I think they're not that frequently used in the original AITD games).
P.S. I never played the original floppy/HDD EGA version of LOOM, I am quite curious to know whether the startling scene would still be as scary if the sound output was set to PC speaker.
Silent Hill! When you back back to that game (Especially one and two, not sure about the new one as I haven't played it) a lot of the scary factor was about the possibility of something being behind that door. What IF something is further on in that mist.
That's why the crackling radio was an excellent idea. Sometimes it would go off and you'd feel your heart start to beat harder in anticipation of whatever you were going to find around that next corner. And the radio cackling presented a lonely and eerie sound that reminded you how cut off from the world you were.
I always have this one nightmare (here is an insight into my soul) where I am the only person in the world, or where I'm in an alternate universe or SOMETHING, and I can't find anybody else, just empty cars and houses... and I want to know where everybody else is...
THAT kind of shit is scary. Not monsters leaping through windows.
One of the staples in horror movies is the "enemy within" - it's not the hordes of zombies/werewolves/other beasties that is the most dangerous threat, it's the people you're holed up with - with the threat outside, and tensions running high, can you really trust the people you're taking refuge with? "Night of the Living Dead" is possibly the best example.
The third Melt and Drake game is a tribute to horror movie/games, and we tried to get as many of the classic "themes" in as we could.
http://ron.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=135
wish we'd done more with the tensions in the house, now, though...
Davy
Gilbert. Bio Hazard = Resident Evil
So to summarize this thread:
Fear can be:
Atmosphere- Music & images
Backstory- Characters and events revealed (or not) to the player
Anticipation- Knowing there is something, but not what or when it will appear.
Startlement- Immediate release of built anticipation
Belief/Empathy- Connection between the player and the character
I remember seeing a short clip on the original 'Ring' on Channel four during halloween.
One of the random celebrities they'd got to contribute said somthing like "Now in a hollywood film they'd probably have had the girls hand burst through the TV set or somthing. But y'see in THIS film she just crawls out a doesn't stop"
I watched the clip and I thought 'THAT is genius!'
She didn't stop, the camera didn't cut away. That movie have so much talent put into it to be able create somthing that stays scary for so long.
They showed a hundred clips from various horror movies in that program. They were all taken out of context and so, wern't very scary.
EXCEPT that freaky TV girl. That was the only clip they showed that geniunely frightened me. Not frightended in an "Oh my god I will never, ever watch another video again!!" way. Just frightenend of the imagiary itself, on it's own. I wasn't even too clear on the plot.
So, if you can come up with somthing as spooky, disturbing and royally fucked-up as the freaky TV girl, I shall worship you and your game.
Quote from: Eggie on Mon 19/01/2004 16:06:16
So, if you can come up with somthing as spooky, disturbing and royally fucked-up as the freaky TV girl, I shall worship you and your game.
For a moment I had a flashback to a flatmate of mine. She watched TV all the time, and fitted pretty well into that description.
Quote from: EvenWolf on Mon 19/01/2004 14:47:01
Gilbert. Bio Hazard = Resident Evil
Yes of course, BH is the original title for the non-western versions, nonetheless, they're shameless copycats of the original AITD games.
What always scares me is: What you can hear but can't see.
And of course atmospheric music (when needed) and dark scenery.
And don't forget that 28 Days Later, though an awesome fucking movie, was not the first to make dead people chase your ass. Don't forget about The Return of the Living Dead way back in '84. Not sure wether it was the first or not, but one of the first anyway.
--Snake
Quote from: Las Naranjas on Sat 17/01/2004 22:09:03
Can I just mention that when all is said and done, the scariest thing I've found in a game was a startle, and it was in Loom, when the shepherds come out of the trees at you.
You know, for some reason that gave me a start as well the first time.
28 days later was good because it provided some sense of reality (however far away and distant it might have seemed). I mean, it was about a REAL guy, with a real backstory (Even though they didn't show it. The most we know is he was in hospital). None of this aliens from another planet who mutated our nucleotides and screwed with our gene pool crap. The disease was 'real', and was released by 'real' causes. And the rape scenes were fairly disturbing as well and I thought they were scary because I know there ARE people like that out there, and it struck a chord with me.
The other scary bit I found (which wasn't scary, but made me feel pity and fear at the same time for some reason) was when that infected drop of blood fell into the girl's father's eye. To know that he had to be killed was upsetting and disturbing for me.
But now I'm rambling...
I'm with Las (I think??) who said that fiction isn't scary. I didn't think RE was scary AT ALL, and not because I'm an invincable tough-arse. I just know that zombies won't be hiding in my wardrobe tonight, waiting to jump me, so there's nothing to make me THINK!!
If they can make a game with a REALISTIC plot that will actually get me to THINK about things, then I don't care what graphics are like. Hell, they can do Bugs-Bunny-esque art if they want. I just want mental stimulation
I have to concur with Peter, as 28 days has been the film which has scared me most in many time. And there is a scene which spoils all the plot:
Spoiler
The taxi in the tunnel... and how the taxi crawls all that pile of broken cars... It´s so stupid, and impossible according to the most elemental laws of the motion...
Maybe it´s because of the stupidity of the situation which totally spoiled that part.
But well... I totally agree with the "realism strikes fear" sentence. As I said, saving private Ryan scared me a lot...
*fixed your hide tags, farl
Well, I'm not saying Fiction isn't scary, just that it isn't scaring me for some reason. There's no reason why it shouldn't. Ficition can make me happy, it can make me angry, it can make me cry and be depressed. I immerse and suspened belief for all of them. Fear is something that hasn't been imparted since I was 12 though [that was about the two blokes in Return Of The Living Dead that they lock in the chapel. The ones that become zombies slowly and have full grasp of their mental faculties throughout. I can't get over how exquisitly that film is scripted]
I scare easily. Silent Hill freaked me out. There's the being freaked out factor and the being scared (and jumping factor). I remember Quake used to freak me out. I don't like it when you can hear monsters but not see them, the same with that damn radio in Silent Hill.
I remember The Dig scared me, and was probably the only adventure game that ever did. There was this weird ghost spirit thingie near the start on the planet. I remember I had the sound turned up quite loud so I could hear the ambient music and then all of a sudden there was this screech. Loud, abrupt noises make me jump outta my pants. Even the weird spirit at the end of FoA startled me.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not someone who enjoys being scared. Not that I'm that much of a wimp but I'd rather be laughing and stuff :p I don't jump easily in films (altho, I do jump sometimes!) and I don't like being scared when watching a film. It's not a particularly nice feeling of being scared so I don't know why I want to pay £6 for it.
Things like theme park rides are a different type of scary because they're a "thrill" at the same time. People being stabbed on screen or in games isn't much of a thrill to me.
So I think games are scary when sounds are used appropriatley and abruptly. Atmosphere is also a deffinate but you can still add in jumps and scares in almost any fairly normal location. The mole guy in Sam & Max freaked me out simply because I thought about it when I was a kid and was on a fair ride, I remember not wanting to go round a corner in the ghost train and see the mole man. :p
I remember playing Tomb Raider for the first time and parts of that scared me. Well, I don't know if it was being scared or was just "fear". Random tigers and things kept me on the edge of my seat, but I don't think I was scared. Just ph33ring.
Written things don't scare me at all. I might find them gross or sickening but never scary. I've never been emersed in a book like it seems many other people are. Sadly I don't feel any emotions when I read a book. I need to see a film or a game if I want to be scared or shocked, etc.
28 Days Later didn't scare me, which is poo, because I wanted to be scared for that movie! It got me thinking, but then at the end of the day I realised it was just a movie and the plot was still fairly far-fetched. It was creepy, deffinatley.
The one movie that scares me right up to this day is Carpenters' "The Thing", simply because it's so fucked up. They don't make movies today like they did back then. Music adds to how scary a film is, deffinatley, and also a game. Pleurghburg is a great example, the music kept the mood brilliantly.
Anyway, must sleep!
I forgot to mention a movie called The Fog, which i first saw when i was a kid. That movie really frightened me, and when i think about it now i get that same feeling.
The one part i vaguely remember is when the fog was rolling up to the shore, and this old lady who was the babysitter (if i remember correctly) wandered outside, only never to be seen again. That was scarey.
Maybe games with alot of fog are truly scary. I think thats one reason why games that include heavy, dense fog are too me, frightening. Fog hides the unknown, and who knows what creatures lurk in the fog.
Does anybody here remember that movie. Didn't the creatures in the fog have glowing red eyes or something? I can vaugly recall.
In my opinion, heavy doses of fog, and the uncertainty that comes with it, is what makes games and movies extremely frightful and scary.
BG
I'd have to say Poltergeist, in it's masterfulness, is one of the scariest movie series ever made. Regardless of the fact that the special effects were magnificent for its time, it truly instills a sense of chronic fear in you for the duration of each movie. THAT'S what makes a movie scary...not just if there's a few parts where you jump (and possibly scream) during the movie, but if just watching it makes you feel sick to your stomach, because the overall theme is so frightening.
And that demonstrates another point. Not everybody is scared by the same things. I didn't find any of the poltergeist movies frightening in the least. I think the most fear I experienced from a movie was probably in Alien & Aliens. I haven't thought the Halloween series was frightening with one exception. In h20, when he's lowering himself from a beam by one arm, and doing so silently and slowly, for some reason that's creepy as hell.
I had a friend who swore that People Under the Stairs was the scariest movie around. I watched it and found that hard to believe. The special effects, acting and plotline made it seem like it was meant to be a comedy. I've experienced more sheer terror than that while watching some of Trap's animutations.
I kinda agree with Yufster's idea. Being all alone is a pretty scary thing... until you get used to it though...
I thought the movie the Sixth Sense was pretty scary too. But the reason why I bring that movie up, is because of the ending. Irony can be a pretty scary thing too, if used correctly.
Signs kinda scared me too... so I guess you could take examples from any M. Night Shyamalan movie if you wanted to get ideas for "scary".
Unbreakable kind of let me down... don't get me wrong... it was a good movie, in my opinion, but coming from the director of the Sixth Sense, I was hoping for another good suspense movie.
I'm kind curious as to what he's up to now, if he's going to make another movie or not...
Quote from: m0ds on Wed 21/01/2004 00:30:35
I remember playing Tomb Raider for the first time and parts of that scared me. Well, I don't know if it was being scared or was just "fear". Random tigers and things kept me on the edge of my seat, but I don't think I was scared. Just ph33ring.
Ah yes - forgot that one. I was watching a friend of mine play Tombraider (1) and when he entered that lost valley, heard the thundering footsteps (making the whole screen shake) and then saw that gargantuan t-rex I almost pissed myself. Them's some scary polygons.
Oh wait, I just thought of the perfect word to sum up what scares me most in games.
Anticipation.
That's one scary word huh? But think about it. Think, of a dark corridor with a turn at the end. You have a dim light. You're dreading the corner, because you can't see what is around it. You hear a vague dragging sound beyond that corner. You don't want to go forward because you're going to have to look around that corner, but you don't want to go back because you're afraid of turning around.
Now imagine that fear of anticipation for the entire length of a game. It's like a scream in the back of your head, or a string that gets tauter and tauter. And then, when something finally does jump out at you, or when you do meet a disturbing scene, it's that much worse, because you're already freaked out and being irrational.
I think that to get the best of fear in games, you have to play off human natural instinct. We're much like birds in that we close our eyes and hope our enemy won't see us. As kids, we hide under blankets because we're safe under there. As adults we still retain much of this childishness. We're afraid of turning around if there is something behind us because if we don't see it, maybe it's not there.
Anticipation!!!
Also, music can have a deep psychological effect. I mean, I remember this one part of The 7th Guest, where this ambient music was playing, and you were looking at this painting. And all of a sudden you'd feel like the painting was moving, and then you'd look closer and you'd get a shock because you'd realize the painting WAS moving. It was an old mother in bed with a white sheet, and a child leaning at her side, and the child would begin to stab the mother, again and again and again until all this blood was pouring down the sheets. And all to this ambient tune. It confuses the player and sends chills down their spine. Imagine nursery rhymes being played alongside gruesome murders, or disorientating sounds being played in rooms. There was one room in Resident Evil that was just an average room, but when you went in there these drums started doing a panic beat as though something was chasing you. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest, and then I felt really dumb because it was just an empty room.
If I remember correctly, just after you'd realized you'd been tricked, you walked back outside and something leapt at you in a corridor that had previously been 'safe'. This kind of thing confuses that player and confusion heightens the terror.
Heh.. I had an idea for a movie once where this redneck would cut people up with a chainsaw while a Don Ho song (Tiny Bubbles :)) played on a turntable in the background. Sometimes contrast between something innocent and something gruesone can be scarey, or at least disconcerting. Ever notice how lots of people are afraid of clowns and dolls? It bothers people when something that seems safe and familiar turns out to be something much different.
Subtle things are usually more frightening than graphic depictions of violence. Show a room that looks completely normal.. Until you see something move in your perehperal vision. Nothing direct. Just enough to show that not everything is as it seems.
Something tells me this will be one of those threads that gets so long and detailed that the same things will be repeated over and over. And eventually we will all have to agree:
We may never truely know the secret of monkey island
MONKEY ROBOT!!!!111
Quote from: m0ds on Wed 21/01/2004 00:30:35
I've never been emersed in a book like it seems many other people are. Sadly I don't feel any emotions when I read a book. I need to see a film or a game if I want to be scared or shocked, etc.
No, books sometimes can be scary. I've read a short story named "The Judge's House" by Bram Stoker. It was rather scary.
I'm not sure about scary but your avatar reminded me of Max Payne's nightmares where he follows the blood with his baby crying in the background. then you hear his wife screm "No Max No! It wasn't my fault! Stop it Max STOP IT!" and you wonder why is she screaming that? did Max do something to her? was he blaming himself for their murders?
that was disturbing like the dream in pleurberg I loved that!
Also just to note, children's lullabys in movies are scary. In nightmare on Elm Street I was pissing myself laughing at Freddy he is hilarious but when those three ghostly girls with the skipping rope start chanting that song I soon changed my tune.
"One Two: Freddy's coming for you"
"Three Four: Freddy's at your door"
"Five Six: Freddy's up to his tricks"
"Seven Eight: Going to stay up late"
"Nine Ten: Never sleep again"
man I still remember that tune and I will never forget it.
In Freddy vs. Jason the dream that the girl had in the police station was disturbing, not scary because i wasn't really scard but it was really weird. The one with the little girl with no eyes and tears of blood streaming down her face.
i have never really been scared during a movie but the ones that I remember that had an "after-shock" were:
the excorcist, that demon face was a great effect that made me nervous after watching the movie
the ring (American version and Japanese version) the creepy girl was really disturbing but if you've seen it once it is less and less disturbing each time you see it.
some of my fav scary movies are:
the exorcist
the ring
the bunker
pet semetary 2
some of the nightmare on elm street movies are ok
Halloween (either ressurection or H20)
Yufster ius right about anticipation. And the people who have said about the unknown... SO many movies are great and scary up until the bit where they try and show you the monster: The Fog included...
Powerlessness is scary, too. Its when you know that the character is about to be gutted/sliced/eaten but you can't stop it. That's why people withou mouths are scary, and being buried alive, suffocated in transparent polythene, etc.
When I've had nightmares, its not being able to escape which has sacred me most. I realy hate the movie DeTox (I've only seen up to the bit where Sly's wife gets killed) becuase he is powerless to stop the killer who phones him from outside his home where he is about to kill the wife...
Maybe a game in which the mouse cursor slows down as the bad guy gets close, so you are desperately trying to stop him but your cursor is like stuck in the mud...
EDIT: On the other hand, Nelly Furtado's Powerless rocks...
SSH,
The very thought of that just scared me so goddamn much.
I'm actually taking note of it and I'm going to use it. Except it won't be the mouse slowing down since I'm using keyboard control. So the character would be slowing down. And a slowly shaking screen (Shaking with the distant-but-gaining-quickly-shudders-of-an-approaching-monster) with a blood red tint... O_O ... And you don't know WHAT it is that's coming for you, how how far away it is, but the shudders are getting louder and more violent and you're getting slower and ...
O_O
Also, not being able to escape in nightmares is the worst, you're right. And not knowing whats coming for you, but that SOMEthing is. I once had a really bad nightmare that involved some sort of weird demon that looked like that guy from that musical episode of Buffy, Once More with Feeling (Not the scary part yet). Anyway, it sounds ridiculous, right... but the worst part of the dream was that he somehow buried me alive in this hole, I forget how... but I was a hundred feet underground and could barely move, and I was going to be like that for all eternity.
Jeeze.
I'm beginning to bite my nails and hyperventilate and now people are staring at me. Thanks a bunch, SSH.