What makes a Horror successful?

[frenzykitty]

I've been watching a lot of horror movies and playing a lot of horror games recently, and have decided I'd like to take a stab at the genre. I have a few theories of my own, but what, in your opinion, makes a horror game (PnC adventure in particular) successful? 

[Armageddon]

Define success. Slender, while being an awful terrible game and barely feigns horror, is considered successful because popular Face Cam Face Screamers made the game popular by playing it.

Or there's Silent Hill 2 success, standing the test of time and delivering some of the best psychological horror ever made. Maybe you're just asking what makes a game scary?

Also what happened to that AGS horror game with the film grain and the people crawling through walls. I think it was at AdventureX two years ago and the demo was really cool.

[Crimson Wizard]

Well, it's either financial success, or popularity (number of fans), or success in scaring people?

[frenzykitty]

Success in scaring people Apologies for the unclarity

[Crimson Wizard]

There should be this hideous BZING!! sound and a monster face flashing for a half of second. Makes people jump. At least, for the first time.

[an Urpney]

Also what happened to that AGS horror game with the film grain and the people crawling through walls. I think it was at AdventureX two years ago and the demo was really cool.

This one? I'm looking forward to it too. Seems still in production.

[Armageddon]

There should be this hideous BZING!! sound and a monster face flashing for a half of second. Makes people jump. At least, for the first time.

I am of the opinion that this should never, ever, be done. It's a jump scare, and once it happens it just breaks immersion for me, I'm just slowly going around each corner waiting to walk into a trigger the devs placed that will start another jump scare after that. It's cheap and can seriously break the rest of the game unless used right. There are very few games where jump scares don't feel forced. Metro: Last Light is the most recent, that game is pure adrenalin horror.

To make a game scary you have to figure out what you want, you can't cater to all horror fans, that's what Siren: Blood Curse did and look how it turned out. A lot of my favourite horror games take inspiration from David Lynch, mainly Eraserhead. The weird lighting, and low buzz sound throughout is easy to make something unsettling. I've always liked random things disappearing or changing, like a picture frame.

This is a great thread on the subject: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22123.0

Along with these videos: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/where-did-survival-horror-go http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/horror-protagonists http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/symbolism-101

Hope this helps a little.

Also yes, Wretcher, that is it! But I also remember a different one with VERY heavy film grain.

[waheela]

I can only speak for myself, but I think the things that scare me the most are the things I don't fully see that are left ambiguous. For example, by hiding a monster in the shadows where the player can't fully see, you allow the player's mind to wonder what the monster looks like, and the unknown will probably scare the player more than the monster itself. On the same vein, creepy noises in other rooms, chase scenes where you're not sure what's chasing you, sometimes shock scares (although it is kind of cheap)... all this stuff adds urgency and dread to a game. These are the types of things that scare the crap out of me.

[LimpingFish]

I'm more about psychological horror. And, like Armageddon says, trying to make things seem unsettling or off-kilter.

Jump scares aren't really scares at all, just shock reactions. They have very little to do with actual horror. You could get the same reaction from unexpectedly tapping someone on the shoulder.

[Igor Hardy]

Atmosphere, suspense, carefully built tension.

There are few well done horror games in my opinion.

[Khris]

Just put lots of unskipable cutscenes in the game, and make me watch them over and over whenever I die. It can't get much more horrible than that

On a more serious note: an unknown, powerful enemy that slowly closes in on me is what keeps me on the edge of my seat.

[Ghost]

Horror that is personal, up close, or even directly related to the player character. Getting chased by Slendy or being mauled by zombies gets a bit old rather fast. Being posessed/corrupted/changed by something makes the horror there to stay.

I really think that is a very useful concept. The horror genre has often been described as offering a relief from real horror: No matter how scary your monster, it's nothing compared to personal fears (losing someone, getting sick, being alone). So fictional horror, no matter how good the effects, has a simple "counter"- it will not happen.
Linking a fictional horror to something that could happen- as some sort of metaphor or extension- makes the setup instantly more threatening (again, I think this is the main reason why Cronenberg's The Fly works so well, because the whole transformation to a monster is a) irreversible and b) mostly shown through the eyes of the monster's lover who sees her beloved fall to pieces).

Extra points for vagueness- usually it's "show don't tell", but a lot of suspense can be build by hinting at stuff and never really showing it. The xenomorph in Alien? Scary as hell - until we finally see it in all its rubber glory.

[edit]
Oh and spiders. Man, spiders are creepy.

[Secret Fawful]

But Siren: Blood Curse is the best horror game this gen.

[st.]

Just to confirm what has already been said here: it is the unknown that scares - the most you keep your dangers in the unknown, the more tension you create in the player's mind; of course, you have to keep the main character continuously involved in some way in order to link the danger in the unknown to the goal in the game. If you incline towards more scares per minute then simply make your dangers unexpected.

[Narushima]

Lovecraft wrote a "commonplace book" about that very subject, how to write horror. It's also full of basic ideas you could use.

[Lewis]

Take something safe. Gradually 'corrupt' it. Be David Lynch.

[kaput]

By making the protagonist utterly useless and dumping him/ her in a hopeless situation - don't forget the demonic abominations from hell. Facial expressions of said abominations should resemble (if human, characteristically in form) a severely drunken person with blood pouring from every orifice.

Voilà , Horror 101.

[Armageddon]

By making the protagonist utterly useless and dumping him/ her in a hopeless situation - don't forget the demonic abominations from hell. Facial expressions of said abominations should resemble (if human, characteristically in form) a severely drunken person with blood pouring from every orifice.

Voilà , Horror 101.

Then send it to Facecam dudes like Pewdiepie and have them scream at it. Mad money yo.

[Grim]

Am I the only one who got really scared by Slender?... ;(

I know it's cheap, I know there's hardly anything to that game... and yet, played in 15 minutes weekly sessions it makes me incredibly tense (that music, dear God!)! I don't recall feeling like this with any other game (maybe Amnesia, but then I got stuck on that valves puzzle and never played it again ) I'd say the idea of the Slender Man is ace, even if the game's graphics are super bad and there's hardly any interaction with the world. It's just a different kind of game, a new sub-genre, and it suits me just fine.

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

But to add my two cents to the discussion about horror I'd say that it's also important to show some stuff. People always say it's what you can't see that's most frightening, and for the most part it's true... But if you never show anything at all... I don't know, it always makes me feel disappointed somehow when games or films do that. I'm not saying you should show every detail. Just enough to feed the imagination.

I've never liked Lovecraft for that very reason- what I read of him as a kid never sparked up my imagination, never made me scared. It just told me that some people saw something creepy and shat their pants, but why? No idea. At least that's what I remember- it's been a while. Then I found Stephen King and he satisfied my cravings for a good scare and a good story. Sure, he wrote some bad books too... But the ones that were good I will remember forever.

What is also scary in games:

-visions.

[kaput]

Am I the only one who got really scared by Slender?

Am I the only one who hasn't played Slender?? 

I should really make a point of playing that game. I often find myself actually procrastinating over playing games. I think I'm doing it wrong, shouldn't I be playing games whilst procrastinating? Ah well.