Watching these Squirty Plays videos has become a very ritualistic, zen-like experience for me. It's a guaranteed 20-or-so minutes in my day where it's dark and absolutely nothing happens while a kindly man's voice softly ponders the meaning of existence.
Here's the thing. Horror, as a concept, is actually rather easy to do, so long as you follow the footsteps of the great horror games. Both the Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series, at least the original trilogies of both, all followed a very basic, but effective formula. *1)* Present the idea of danger before any real danger occurs. Example: in both Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame 2, the *world* is immediately presented as VERY hostile, while using the build-up to establish a mood. Devs can also use this time to introduce the basic story characteristics, such as character hopelessness, depression, and, yes, even amnesia. In short, place your world at the forefront and NEVER expect the player to immediately be interested in the main character. In a horror game, the world IS the main character. Also, in Fatal Frame 2, you have the chance to see an enemy LONG before you actually fight them, should you wonder down a hallway at the right time, and see their face looking at you from the wall. *2)* There's little more frightening than enemies that AREN'T interested in you, making the player feel as if they're not the object of focus, bringing on paranoia as to when they WILL be the object of focus and WHAT the current object of focus actually is. This allows the world to speak for itself, as if you are merely a new arrival as opposed to the guest of honor. Despite them not necessarily being horror games, BioShock 1 and Infinite do this rather well. You show up, and discover what's going on. Granted, BS1 had you stumble into a greater war, whereas BInfinite sort of kicks off after you arrive. That said, you still don't arrive as the object of focus. *3)* Hold off on enemies, both in first sighting and in numbers. Let me ask you this, which is a more frightening concept, three enemies with advanced intelligence, a unique aesthetic, and with no indication as to when you'll see them, or a bunch of dunderheads milling about and constantly haggling you? Yeah, I thought so. This is something Amnesia and Penumbra did so well. You never really got that good a look at your enemies until it was too late. That said, Silent Hill 2 used large mobsets to its advantage, allowing for the continued disinterest in the player. The player felt completely alone in a crowd of funky chickens and mannequin legs. Not something so easy to pull off. Fatal Frame gets away with a lot of enemies because all but the most basic of ghosts have a name, back story, and cause of death. An absolutely fascinating look into the game world, as presented by your enemies. *4)* Story, story, story! FILL your horror game with information about the environment. Keep it short, simple, too the point, and don't try to be "scary." Normal, calm writing in a host of abnormal, panicked horror can amplify just how alien the situation actually is. If you're going to have "scary" writing, VERY RARELY address the player. Don't try to tell the player something is all their fault, when they have no idea what it is they supposedly did. Silent Hill 2 and 3 are masterworks of this kind of thing, having dozens upon dozens of papers addressing dozens of people, only to have that one come up that addresses the player-character by name, which sticks out so much more. Fatal Frame 2 created an interesting dynamic between the main characters Mio and Mayu, who, in addition to being twin sisters, both have some... interesting details surrounding their actions and mental states, making blaming the player-character part of the intrigue, as opposed to part of the annoyance. *5)* Carefully monitor the pacing, and avoid jumpscares. Dread can produce great horror, but if it goes on too long, then the illusion is broken. Allow quieter moments to carefully sink in, letting the player immerse themselves deeper into the world, while also knowing the proverbial poop is going skyward, directly into the nearest fan... eventually. Avoiding jumpscares is an amazing tactic, allowing the player to *trust* the developer to deliver a smart and frightening experience. That said, injecting just that one little jumpscare can really push someone over the edge, especially in a circumstance they wouldn't expect, and in a game that never did it before or does it again. Games like Outlast found a good way to present jumpscares without being overtly cheap. Jumpscares have a tricky art to them, and I've not studied them long enough to come up with a conclusive formula yet. *6)* NEVER forget about the villain! Whether the villain is the world, the player, the player-character, Sei Kurasawa, or any number of other things, make sure your villain has a direct tie to the world, as well as the real world. Make them something recognizable, yet something to be feared. Give them a tell-tale sign, or some sort of telegraph to the player, letting the player know they're near the villain. Fatal Frame 2 used crimson butterflies, and, to this day, I'm scared of crimson butterflies. Good job, Tecmo! *7)* Break the rules. Fatal Frame 2 established a set of rules. One rule was "Hear this kind of noise, there's a ghost nearby." Later on, they took that rule and completely shattered it, leaving the player petrified and helpless. There's a reason why FF2 is my favorite horror game ever. _____ There's more to this than what I've written, but my fingers are tired, so I'm just going to do something else for a bit. I'm pretty sure anyone studying game design can sort of figure out the rest, if need be. Horror games are so easy to screw up, but so easy to actually accomplish, given the right instruction. Just play the best ones, and deconstruct them, from sound design to random and scripted events. You'll learn a lot. That said, once you know the "rules," you can break them.
Fantastic information you got there. As an indie horror developer who wants nothing but to make a great horror game like Silent Hill 1 or 2, this is extremely helpful. Thanks!
CRAZYFISH Gaming + Reviews | Vince, David and Jack! u don't even need that resolution see how shit game is, even at 480 even 360 its total ASS, 60 frames that shit isn't 60 frames, lucky its hitting 30.
Isn't this developer going to give us at least a jump scare? Come on, this isn't foreplay, this is just standing there with your clothes on thinking you look sexy!
Oh god, it looks like they couldn't do the lighting how they wanted in the vents, so a black cube is placed on every corner and rotates away as you turn the corner. You can see it clip through the wall every time! Quality! Actually, the shadows are weird on everything, so maybe it's actually just the lighting... somehow. It's as though it projects a black version of the shape backwards, and it clips through everything.
***** I've actually noticed that stuff in some AAA games even, cant remember which ones though,, this is the most horrible use of it i've seen though haha
skullmaster511 hands are pretty amazing -- use them to cover your eyes during this video, for example, so that you can listen to the wisdom of Jim Sterling without having to watch the... ah, "gameplay"
D347Hza Thanks for being here to point that out, considering the rest of his/her comment they were obviously going for a grammatically perfect sentence.
You know, a game that actually used light, and lack thereof, as an element of gameplay, like how bright light heals Alan in American Nightmare, rather than simply having it as a shortcut for 'scary', might actually be interesting. I could even forgive such a game for having absolute-and-complete darkness This does not appear to be that game.
I love Greenlight, not for the shitty games, but for the entertainment provided when Jim Sterling rips them apart (and often times provides very informative commentary).
ShootingStarNeo Then you need to see this kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1099018907/mean-peanut?ref=nav_search Basically 3 people dropped out of college and made an unsuccessful kickstarter and right now they're fucked.
while watching this, I was just thinking about the creepiest moment that I had ever experienced in a video game, and settled on one of those moments in dead space where you're wandering through deserted corridors, lights flickering, indecipherable whispers fading in and out, and tension mounting as you wait for necromorphs to flood the room. Granted, once they actually do show up, the effect is lost, but still.
From the steam store page... About This Game «Despair» - indie-horror video game. "The main character wakes up in a tunnel of the subway and tries to find out that happened to it and other passengers of the train. To understand that after all it happened to the gone passengers, the player should investigate strange catacombs being deeply underground. At himself the player has only a small lamp batteries to which very quickly come to an end. As the player has to collect notes left other people to understand that happened. Purpose: Wandering about subway tunnels the player has to find all notes the subway scattered in frightening catacombs and try that after all it happened to passengers and to him... And can be anybody the answer and isn't present..."
You talking about Silent Hill 2, I totally get you there. I was amazed by just how paranoid I became just walking down the road by the lake from the car to the graveyard, even though nothing happened and, at the end I discovered, there was in fact nothing there. That was awesome. A game scared me with nothing. Thumbs up. Of course, the problem with a scare like that is you can only pull it off once and on the second playthrough you know what's going on, so it doesn't work. But that's just the way it happens.
This gave me an idea, Edgar Alan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum: The Game. You are in a dark, silent room, and if you walk too far, you fall off a ledge and die. If you stay in the same spot, the pendulum kills you.
I finished this game and it took me around 30 minutes to beat and guess what happens at the end. Nothing. Nothing scary happens. There's this one part where you're being chased by this girl but it's automatically controlled and the girl is not scary at all so you're confused as to why you're running away from her. There's nothing scary in this horror game at all.
This wouldn't have helped with the last part, but for the vent section: Almost every 2-D maze in video games can be solved quickly (almost as quickly as any other strategy) and straightforwardly by simply tracing the left wall (or right wall) the whole way to the exit. The only time this won't work is if the exit is in the center (topologically) rather than along the edge, but people who are terrible at making games tend to not know enough about games to realize this, so they never put in the effort to make the exit be in the center, and so their maze "puzzles" are never more than a linear corridor or two in practice.
"I've got a GREAT idea! Let's make a game that is almost entirely set in dark rooms and then have a flashlight with limited battery use!" Brilliant guys. A wind-up flashlight would have been a lot more plausible and infinitely more usable. Maybe I should post *THAT* in your "Suggestions" section on the Steam forums. Because apparently you can't figure out the basics of game mechanics yourselves and need to rely on free help from fans to correct your "rectal cranial inversion".
You know, I almost wish that a dev for Unity would *pretend* to make a crud horror game, Jim would do what he does and then when he actually get into it, it blows your mind away. Just saying, it would be awesome to see Jim *pleasantly* surprised for once in a decade.
They weren't kidding when they said they had no ideas for this game! We should go to that idea page and write "put a monster in the game!" They'll be happy for the suggestion, they obviously didn't thought of that!
The loading screen on this is probably the best part of it. ...And honestly, that is by virtue of it being pretty good, not just because the rest of the game is shit (though that helps). I was watching this in full screen and it felt genuinely uncomfortable and disorienting, in the good way you get when games do atmosphere correctly. And then I suffered mood whiplash from how bad the rest of it was. Blurgh.
This game looks almost promising, but the neon light system for items that you can pick up has to be the most tonally dissonant thing that could be in a horror game. "I'm so scared, alone, and vulnerable--ooo a GLOWING YELLOW Flashlight"
I think Amnesia worked for the long pretty much half-hour to an hour without seeing an enemy because it had events happening along the way - you felt like you were in or could easily be in danger pretty much the whole time. That, and, you know, it was a 9 hour game. Also, let's not forget, Amnesia mostly took place in the morning.
I would say that to make a truly good horror game is really hard. Silent Hill 2 and 3 are still the pinnacle of horror and those games are over 10 years old.
I agree, I really hope that some of the original members of Team Silent get to together and try and make something great again. Hopefully they'll be inspired by the likes of Iga and Inafune.
Bless you Jim! If you read this, I'd be curious to know what you think is killing the survival/horror genre more...flooding of poor games, or the previous (and relative) lack of any entries at all. Do you think the genre is currently mummified? What do you feel is necessary to right the ship (one breakthrough title vs a shift in trends altogether, or whatnot)?
Kickstarter-initiated Silent Hill-like game from members of Team Silent ? O_O I just came through my eyeballs. This is so ridiculously awesome and simple at the same time :O
Devs should look to PT as an excellent example of how to start off a horror game. It is a beautifully paced intro sequence, though it does drag on too long as an intro, something it did to make itself work as, well, PT. Oh wait they can't do that now, can they?
Captain Ferox If by 'emotional' you mean it looks like iv'e constantly got tears in my eyes, the devs have done a good job. Fucks with my eyes whilst watching this video.
FreeFireGamer That's not a product of Unity. In fact, more AAA games than most people realize are Unity-based, but that's because those people know something about game design, coding, sound design, animation and modelling. It is really easy to get to a part where you have some form of interaction with Unity with very little or no coding experience and you can use the free stuff asset store or just steal stuff off the Internet to fill it with. That is what makes Unity such big target for people who wants more than they can and bundled with Steam's different problems, it is easy to get really low quality stuff on there. A few years back it was RPG Maker and Game Maker, today it's Unity.
FreeFireGamer That's not a Unity issue, the devs who make these games just have no idea how to do anything with the engine themselves. For example, Hearthstone was made with Unity and the game looks great.
Why do they always make flashlight batteries run out in like 5 minutes? A modern LED flashlight lasts hours, if not days on a set of batteries, and all these devs do it! If you're going to make the flashlight essential to progressing in the game, just remove the bloody battery mechanic, it's more realistic that way anyway.
lol Classic. "What's that? Is that a doorway?" I squint and look closer on the completely pitch black screen and wonder what in the hell you are referring to. That game looks like a bit of a chore to drudge through. Some good laughs though at least, thanks to JFS.
Moscow metro is an amazing setting for a horror game. Unfortunately, all the devs can come up with is vents and dark corridors. Man, I really hope some talented devs will make a AAA game set in current day metro (besides Metro 2033 and Last Light, of course).
Despite all the vents, this game doesn't seem very eventful.
No
erlendht Sales pitch suggestion:
"DESPAIR: All Vents. No Events.":
I'll make my own vents! With horror and stunning 3d assets!
erlendht Yeah, John McClane should have been the protagonist.
Jesus Christ loves you. God bless heal save and forgive you.
Watching these Squirty Plays videos has become a very ritualistic, zen-like experience for me. It's a guaranteed 20-or-so minutes in my day where it's dark and absolutely nothing happens while a kindly man's voice softly ponders the meaning of existence.
HXBF And occasionally yet legitimately gets pissed at how pointless our existence is.
Jesus Christ loves you. God bless heal save and forgive you.
The dev was right about the despair part at least
Objurgo. The despair of:
"OMFG, i can't believe i spent money on this shit!".
Ain't that profilepic from Elfenlied?
Objurgo. I dunno, I don't see any Monokumas.
massivepileup of course not. It's to dark to see him.
Objurgo. despair is why does shit like this exist
That game was so dark I was basically looking at my reflection in the monitor most of this video.
SolidGoldCEO I know, a lot of games do that! I like looking at my reflection but this sucks...
Here's the thing. Horror, as a concept, is actually rather easy to do, so long as you follow the footsteps of the great horror games. Both the Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series, at least the original trilogies of both, all followed a very basic, but effective formula.
*1)* Present the idea of danger before any real danger occurs. Example: in both Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame 2, the *world* is immediately presented as VERY hostile, while using the build-up to establish a mood. Devs can also use this time to introduce the basic story characteristics, such as character hopelessness, depression, and, yes, even amnesia. In short, place your world at the forefront and NEVER expect the player to immediately be interested in the main character. In a horror game, the world IS the main character. Also, in Fatal Frame 2, you have the chance to see an enemy LONG before you actually fight them, should you wonder down a hallway at the right time, and see their face looking at you from the wall.
*2)* There's little more frightening than enemies that AREN'T interested in you, making the player feel as if they're not the object of focus, bringing on paranoia as to when they WILL be the object of focus and WHAT the current object of focus actually is. This allows the world to speak for itself, as if you are merely a new arrival as opposed to the guest of honor. Despite them not necessarily being horror games, BioShock 1 and Infinite do this rather well. You show up, and discover what's going on. Granted, BS1 had you stumble into a greater war, whereas BInfinite sort of kicks off after you arrive. That said, you still don't arrive as the object of focus.
*3)* Hold off on enemies, both in first sighting and in numbers. Let me ask you this, which is a more frightening concept, three enemies with advanced intelligence, a unique aesthetic, and with no indication as to when you'll see them, or a bunch of dunderheads milling about and constantly haggling you? Yeah, I thought so. This is something Amnesia and Penumbra did so well. You never really got that good a look at your enemies until it was too late. That said, Silent Hill 2 used large mobsets to its advantage, allowing for the continued disinterest in the player. The player felt completely alone in a crowd of funky chickens and mannequin legs. Not something so easy to pull off. Fatal Frame gets away with a lot of enemies because all but the most basic of ghosts have a name, back story, and cause of death. An absolutely fascinating look into the game world, as presented by your enemies.
*4)* Story, story, story! FILL your horror game with information about the environment. Keep it short, simple, too the point, and don't try to be "scary." Normal, calm writing in a host of abnormal, panicked horror can amplify just how alien the situation actually is. If you're going to have "scary" writing, VERY RARELY address the player. Don't try to tell the player something is all their fault, when they have no idea what it is they supposedly did. Silent Hill 2 and 3 are masterworks of this kind of thing, having dozens upon dozens of papers addressing dozens of people, only to have that one come up that addresses the player-character by name, which sticks out so much more. Fatal Frame 2 created an interesting dynamic between the main characters Mio and Mayu, who, in addition to being twin sisters, both have some... interesting details surrounding their actions and mental states, making blaming the player-character part of the intrigue, as opposed to part of the annoyance.
*5)* Carefully monitor the pacing, and avoid jumpscares. Dread can produce great horror, but if it goes on too long, then the illusion is broken. Allow quieter moments to carefully sink in, letting the player immerse themselves deeper into the world, while also knowing the proverbial poop is going skyward, directly into the nearest fan... eventually. Avoiding jumpscares is an amazing tactic, allowing the player to *trust* the developer to deliver a smart and frightening experience. That said, injecting just that one little jumpscare can really push someone over the edge, especially in a circumstance they wouldn't expect, and in a game that never did it before or does it again. Games like Outlast found a good way to present jumpscares without being overtly cheap. Jumpscares have a tricky art to them, and I've not studied them long enough to come up with a conclusive formula yet.
*6)* NEVER forget about the villain! Whether the villain is the world, the player, the player-character, Sei Kurasawa, or any number of other things, make sure your villain has a direct tie to the world, as well as the real world. Make them something recognizable, yet something to be feared. Give them a tell-tale sign, or some sort of telegraph to the player, letting the player know they're near the villain. Fatal Frame 2 used crimson butterflies, and, to this day, I'm scared of crimson butterflies. Good job, Tecmo!
*7)* Break the rules. Fatal Frame 2 established a set of rules. One rule was "Hear this kind of noise, there's a ghost nearby." Later on, they took that rule and completely shattered it, leaving the player petrified and helpless. There's a reason why FF2 is my favorite horror game ever.
_____
There's more to this than what I've written, but my fingers are tired, so I'm just going to do something else for a bit. I'm pretty sure anyone studying game design can sort of figure out the rest, if need be. Horror games are so easy to screw up, but so easy to actually accomplish, given the right instruction. Just play the best ones, and deconstruct them, from sound design to random and scripted events. You'll learn a lot.
That said, once you know the "rules," you can break them.
WTF?
Fantastic information you got there. As an indie horror developer who wants nothing but to make a great horror game like Silent Hill 1 or 2, this is extremely helpful. Thanks!
TDUShelby This is what I call doing your homework. Great notes.
Great points man, pt was amazing cause of it's atmosphere not the main character. I agree with you completely.
Easier said than done. Also, you're INSANE.
I have a recommendation for this dev. Add horror.
My recommendation for this dev. Do something you can fucking do, making horror games isn't one of them.
XajakXx Or even better, add any kind of playability.
XajakXx i recommend he takes his crappy game off of steam
XajakXx Add Game.
Add reason
I'm glad 1080p60 exists so I can see this game in full shittish.
CRAZYFISH Gaming + Reviews | Vince, David and Jack! I'll need a different monitor to see more than two shades of black in this.
CRAZYFISH Gaming + Reviews | Vince, David and Jack! u don't even need that resolution see how shit game is, even at 480 even 360 its total ASS, 60 frames that shit isn't 60 frames, lucky its hitting 30.
Well, despite Jim's delightful, saucy commentary, I totally fell asleep during the video. Boring game + late night = sleepy nerd.
Decaying Reverie Yeah, I totally love Jim but I admit that I zoned out for some time, and only God knows how long my mind been wandering...
Jesus Christ loves you. God bless heal save and forgive you.
That flashlight has a worse battery than my laptop.
Dark Darkness: The Darkening : Dark Edition
Isn't this developer going to give us at least a jump scare? Come on, this isn't foreplay, this is just standing there with your clothes on thinking you look sexy!
Scrotal caricatures. I think that's my favourite so far.
At least the girl facepalming on the title screen is very appropriate.
Oh god, it looks like they couldn't do the lighting how they wanted in the vents, so a black cube is placed on every corner and rotates away as you turn the corner. You can see it clip through the wall every time!
Quality!
Actually, the shadows are weird on everything, so maybe it's actually just the lighting... somehow. It's as though it projects a black version of the shape backwards, and it clips through everything.
***** I've actually noticed that stuff in some AAA games even, cant remember which ones though,, this is the most horrible use of it i've seen though haha
***** That just looks like a high shadow bias combined with very thin vent walls.
*****
I don't think there's any janky workarounds on show here. I think that's real dynamic lighting that just happens to look terrible.
Thats the shadow not a black cube that rotates.
The fact that the producer's name is "Assets Games Company" is slightly amusing.
The woman, at the start, looks as if she's amazed by her own hand
skullmaster511 hands are pretty amazing -- use them to cover your eyes during this video, for example, so that you can listen to the wisdom of Jim Sterling without having to watch the... ah, "gameplay"
skullmaster511 It's more like she's facepalming in advance, knowing what lies ahead.
skullmaster511 I thought she was face-palming due to the crappiness of the "game" she was in. :p
***** She was happy to see her hand because in 10 minutes she wouldn´t be able to do so :P
Bartoc
Ahhh, that's another good reason. ;)
Walking Simulator: Black Edition
Mostafa Shahin No
Mostafa Shahin That's Walking Simulator: Boring Jungle Planet Edition.
I like how the vents have shadows ONLY on the right
As a wandering in the dark simulator, this is not that bad.
Just to note, the blood on the paper pieces is a readily available add-on blood brush for GIMP...
Sleep Mode Simulator. Because the screen is so dark it looks like your computer has gone to sleep and switched the screen off.
Seeing Jim pick apart this game made me feel really nervous for some reason. It's similar to watching your dad scold your brother.
I skipped through the video and everytime I saw darkness and the insides of vents. What is this? A cockroach simulator?
No absolutely not......cockroaches can see in the dark
I just looked at a black screen for 18 minutes. What am i doing with my life?
This only makes me want to play Amnesia again if only to remind myself what a real horror game is like
Oh the horror!!! THE HORROR!!!
...
Isn't there... XD
you have more patience then I do Jim... i would have given up after the flashlight battery ran out rather then wander around in the dark
Adam Poole *Than
D347Hza Thanks for being here to point that out, considering the rest of his/her comment they were obviously going for a grammatically perfect sentence.
Most of the grammar can be forgiven, but messing up then and than is the cancer of the internet.
D347Hza Actually, I believe the 'Grammar Nazi' is considered to be considerably more annoying throughout the internet.
If they were going to give it a one word description, I think regret would also be apt.
I bought this game for myself, and my two friends as revenge for getting me Temper Tantrum and Bad Rats. total cost 27 cents. totally worth it
Before Jim said anything I thought that bluebar was something wrong with my player.
About as scary as the dark room in gm_construct.
You know, a game that actually used light, and lack thereof, as an element of gameplay, like how bright light heals Alan in American Nightmare, rather than simply having it as a shortcut for 'scary', might actually be interesting. I could even forgive such a game for having absolute-and-complete darkness
This does not appear to be that game.
Oh, wow the vents look excactly like the vents from the penumbra series. I wonder why that is.
I love Greenlight, not for the shitty games, but for the entertainment provided when Jim Sterling rips them apart (and often times provides very informative commentary).
Jim's PC noise brings more background ambiance than what I'm not hearing from the game.
I didn't know you got to play as a celebrity as the protagonist for a simple Steam game. Stevie Wonder really conveyed that feeling of Despair well.
I love when people make a career move or creative endeavor without a plan or a single shitting idea of what they're doing.
ShootingStarNeo Then you need to see this kickstarter:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1099018907/mean-peanut?ref=nav_search
Basically 3 people dropped out of college and made an unsuccessful kickstarter and right now they're fucked.
Brandon MacLeod That's so tragically hilarious and I love it
while watching this, I was just thinking about the creepiest moment that I had ever experienced in a video game, and settled on one of those moments in dead space where you're wandering through deserted corridors, lights flickering, indecipherable whispers fading in and out, and tension mounting as you wait for necromorphs to flood the room. Granted, once they actually do show up, the effect is lost, but still.
Not enough Airvents. 1/10 - IGN
From the steam store page...
About This Game
«Despair» - indie-horror video game.
"The main character wakes up in a tunnel of the subway and tries to find out that happened to it and other passengers of the train. To understand that after all it happened to the gone passengers, the player should investigate strange catacombs being deeply underground.
At himself the player has only a small lamp batteries to which very quickly come to an end.
As the player has to collect notes left other people to understand that happened.
Purpose:
Wandering about subway tunnels the player has to find all notes the subway scattered in frightening catacombs and try that after all it happened to passengers and to him...
And can be anybody the answer and isn't present..."
Please adjust the slider until the game is barely visible.
All the horror of falling asleep. Truly an inspiring milestone for the Unity engine.
You'd think that developers would take a hint.
_Think_
You talking about Silent Hill 2, I totally get you there. I was amazed by just how paranoid I became just walking down the road by the lake from the car to the graveyard, even though nothing happened and, at the end I discovered, there was in fact nothing there. That was awesome. A game scared me with nothing. Thumbs up.
Of course, the problem with a scare like that is you can only pull it off once and on the second playthrough you know what's going on, so it doesn't work. But that's just the way it happens.
This gave me an idea, Edgar Alan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum: The Game. You are in a dark, silent room, and if you walk too far, you fall off a ledge and die. If you stay in the same spot, the pendulum kills you.
I finished this game and it took me around 30 minutes to beat and guess what happens at the end. Nothing. Nothing scary happens. There's this one part where you're being chased by this girl but it's automatically controlled and the girl is not scary at all so you're confused as to why you're running away from her. There's nothing scary in this horror game at all.
I feel like "Generic Banging Noises" should be the name of a cover band...
This wouldn't have helped with the last part, but for the vent section: Almost every 2-D maze in video games can be solved quickly (almost as quickly as any other strategy) and straightforwardly by simply tracing the left wall (or right wall) the whole way to the exit. The only time this won't work is if the exit is in the center (topologically) rather than along the edge, but people who are terrible at making games tend to not know enough about games to realize this, so they never put in the effort to make the exit be in the center, and so their maze "puzzles" are never more than a linear corridor or two in practice.
Maybe the despair that they are going for is the soul crushing boredom that you are feeling.
"I've got a GREAT idea! Let's make a game that is almost entirely set in dark rooms and then have a flashlight with limited battery use!"
Brilliant guys. A wind-up flashlight would have been a lot more plausible and infinitely more usable. Maybe I should post *THAT* in your "Suggestions" section on the Steam forums. Because apparently you can't figure out the basics of game mechanics yourselves and need to rely on free help from fans to correct your "rectal cranial inversion".
I got a fever... And the prescription is more Horror!
I thought the blue bar at the button of my screen was a problem with my monitor. Than Jim pointed out it was the stamina bar.....
First person horror? What's one of those? On Steam, you say? Hmmm, unprecedented. O.o
And why WOULDN'T the flashlight drain a full battery within minutes. They get horror.
Boredom is Despair and danger wrapped in darkness and silence!
My game has decent lighting, then again I also stopped lying to myself and removed the horror tag, so...
Jim, don't discourage (even if you're joking) bug and idea threads, It's a good thing. Especially bug threads. Bad Jim, BAD!!! è_é
You know, I almost wish that a dev for Unity would *pretend* to make a crud horror game, Jim would do what he does and then when he actually get into it, it blows your mind away. Just saying, it would be awesome to see Jim *pleasantly* surprised for once in a decade.
Presenting Jim Sterling singing the wonder song 'I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas'.
Despair... despair of hands is all i've got to live.
press any key...what about the power off key?
They weren't kidding when they said they had no ideas for this game! We should go to that idea page and write "put a monster in the game!" They'll be happy for the suggestion, they obviously didn't thought of that!
The loading screen on this is probably the best part of it.
...And honestly, that is by virtue of it being pretty good, not just because the rest of the game is shit (though that helps). I was watching this in full screen and it felt genuinely uncomfortable and disorienting, in the good way you get when games do atmosphere correctly.
And then I suffered mood whiplash from how bad the rest of it was. Blurgh.
The stamina bar is about the size of the youtube proression bar when it is idle and shrinks down, and it's tripping me out
You actually made Jim angry, congrats devs. X)
If you don't know the score, you don't know THE TRUTH!
Shit, wrong video.
Did you notice that the "company" that made the game is called "Assets Game Company"? Pretty cool with the fact that they work with Unity.
i figured it out. the blue bar is telling you how far or close you are to something. not that it matters but thought i would say it
Holy crap. We are over 17 mins in...and nothing. Is this a record for build up?
From the video's description, it seems that Jim's a bit pissed off.
I don't know. Just a guess.
Ironically, when it's so dark in a game, it really expose how bad the lighting engine is.
This game is so dark that I'm surprised the main character wasn't eaten by a grue.
This game looks almost promising, but the neon light system for items that you can pick up has to be the most tonally dissonant thing that could be in a horror game. "I'm so scared, alone, and vulnerable--ooo a GLOWING YELLOW Flashlight"
I think Amnesia worked for the long pretty much half-hour to an hour without seeing an enemy because it had events happening along the way - you felt like you were in or could easily be in danger pretty much the whole time. That, and, you know, it was a 9 hour game.
Also, let's not forget, Amnesia mostly took place in the morning.
This is how I felt playing silent hill 1.
Didn't even watch the video yet, but just by the title... the first things that popped in my head was Resident Evil 5 and 6. Mostly 5.
So basically the darkness is there to try and conceal the lack of content.
I would say that to make a truly good horror game is really hard. Silent Hill 2 and 3 are still the pinnacle of horror and those games are over 10 years old.
Has anyone ever crawled through a vent to get somewhere else? I'd love to know.
I agree, I really hope that some of the original members of Team Silent get to together and try and make something great again. Hopefully they'll be inspired by the likes of Iga and Inafune.
Bless you Jim! If you read this, I'd be curious to know what you think is killing the survival/horror genre more...flooding of poor games, or the previous (and relative) lack of any entries at all.
Do you think the genre is currently mummified? What do you feel is necessary to right the ship (one breakthrough title vs a shift in trends altogether, or whatnot)?
This game really goats me down to see this is the direction horror is goating.
I feel like they're have been a lot less games using Unreal as of late. Thoughts anyone?
Sir You Are Being Hunted is scarier than these games. Sir scares the crap out of me
If I don't use examples like this to make my game more fun, I don't deserve to earn from it.
Lol when the most tense part of the game is wondering if it's about to crash
Kickstarter-initiated Silent Hill-like game from members of Team Silent ? O_O
I just came through my eyeballs. This is so ridiculously awesome and simple at the same time :O
Devs should look to PT as an excellent example of how to start off a horror game. It is a beautifully paced intro sequence, though it does drag on too long as an intro, something it did to make itself work as, well, PT.
Oh wait they can't do that now, can they?
I kinda wish steam had a place for new devs to put stuff like this up for free and have people play test and critique it.
why do all unity made games look so god damn fucking blurry. Especially the 'horror' ones.
FreeFireGamer Cinematically emotional inovation.
Captain Ferox If by 'emotional' you mean it looks like iv'e constantly got tears in my eyes, the devs have done a good job. Fucks with my eyes whilst watching this video.
FreeFireGamer That's not a product of Unity. In fact, more AAA games than most people realize are Unity-based, but that's because those people know something about game design, coding, sound design, animation and modelling.
It is really easy to get to a part where you have some form of interaction with Unity with very little or no coding experience and you can use the free stuff asset store or just steal stuff off the Internet to fill it with.
That is what makes Unity such big target for people who wants more than they can and bundled with Steam's different problems, it is easy to get really low quality stuff on there.
A few years back it was RPG Maker and Game Maker, today it's Unity.
FreeFireGamer That's not a Unity issue, the devs who make these games just have no idea how to do anything with the engine themselves.
For example, Hearthstone was made with Unity and the game looks great.
FreeFireGamer Pretty sure there's a basic free post-process effect included that everyone thinks 'this will be cool and unique !'
Why do they always make flashlight batteries run out in like 5 minutes? A modern LED flashlight lasts hours, if not days on a set of batteries, and all these devs do it! If you're going to make the flashlight essential to progressing in the game, just remove the bloody battery mechanic, it's more realistic that way anyway.
lol Classic. "What's that? Is that a doorway?" I squint and look closer on the completely pitch black screen and wonder what in the hell you are referring to.
That game looks like a bit of a chore to drudge through. Some good laughs though at least, thanks to JFS.
See, even the character face palming herself and knowing well of the game.
A working flashlight!?
This game must be really hard on 4:3 monitors.
Well he wants idea. adding light to make the game playable is an idea.
Moscow metro is an amazing setting for a horror game. Unfortunately, all the devs can come up with is vents and dark corridors. Man, I really hope some talented devs will make a AAA game set in current day metro (besides Metro 2033 and Last Light, of course).
I am despairingly despaired by the lack of Monokuma and/or Junko Enshima in the game named "Despair".
Yo dawg, I heard you liked vents, so I put vents in your vents so you can vent while you vent vents.
Well at least its what it says it is on the tin, this game is a complete despair.