How to Make Horror Games Scary

[Lazy]

With many horror franchises having either lost their way (Resident Evil, Silent Hill) or having never been that scary to begin with (Dead Space) we're sort of short on chills in the AAA market. Part of it might be that what makes a horror game scary can be a bit hard to pin down. How do you create something truly pants-shittingly terrifying? Something that really gets under your skin?

No, really, I'm asking. What do you think it takes to make a good horror game?

Personally, I think it's important to emphasize avoidance of the game's threats rather than confrontation. One thing I noticed about Dead Space is that it's pretty much impossible to run away from the necromorphs. They can move faster than Isaac does and are generally in the way of your progress, so fighting is your only option.

That might sound kind of scary at first, but the thing is that once you've been forced to face your fears and subsequently overcome them about a dozen times, they cease to be scary. Even giving the player limited ammo and supplies is just going to force them to become a more efficient killer who thus has even less reason to be afraid.

So instead, encourage the player to avoid the monsters. Fighting them should be a last resort, rather than our first and only approach. We're going to be a lot more scared of a creature we're desperately trying to sneak past/run away from than one we're gunning down.

 

[Luca72]

To me the quickest way to make a game scary is to provide a real threat. Not a perceived one, I mean the game needs to threaten to take away something that will be hard to get back. XCOM is scary because you can lose a soldier forever. The early RE's were scary because you didn't know what was around the corner and had limited ammunition and even SAVES.

That's actually why Amnesia becomes less scary the more you play it, and the more exposed you are to the danger. But early on, when you see an enemy, the lack of weapons gives you this immediate adrenaline twitch response. It's like when a spider lands on you and after a few seconds you don't even have a plan for getting rid of it, you're just spazzing until it's gone. So that's the other element - providing an enemy you might not be able to fight. You hit it perfectly with Dead Space, and that's why I see Dead Space as much more of an action game than about horror.

Think about stealth games. If you've just made your way through the perimeter of a building unseen, and are only 20 feet from your goal, those last few seconds are really tense. Doesn't matter what the enemies are, or what they look like, just the notion of sneaking carefully around is suspenseful. That same element comes into play when you're running or hiding from enemies.

 

[Rylot]

That's some pretty good points. I see a parallel between horror movies that have the main characters over come whatever is attacking them and killing all the different monsters in a game. Extra Credits did a pretty good episode on horror protagonists a while back.

It's a shame more stealth games are action oriented than horror. In fact the only stealth/horror I can think of is a few levels in Thief.

 

[Pink Gregory]

n.

That might sound kind of scary at first, but the thing is that once you've been forced to face your fears and subsequently overcome them about a dozen times, they cease to be scary. Even giving the player limited ammo and supplies is just going to force them to become a more efficient killer who thus has even less reason to be afraid.

I think that's more an issue of the entire notion of becoming acclimatised to a certain condition or a certain environment; only way I can think of avoiding that would be to completely switch up the game mechanics mid-game, or have quite a few mechanics that are either very gradually introduced or become obsolete. A game that hinges it's atmosphere on disorientation could certainly be interesting, but would probably end up being more frustrating than fun; after all you're always going to be choosing to subject yourself to a 'horror' game, so there's got to be something compelling there.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, the short answer would be 'making the player feel uneasy'.

How to accomplish this is the long answer.

Resident Evil 4 was very much an action game, but it still had moments that played with your nerves. Like when you first enter the sewer/dungeon in the castle, and were told just before that you're about to face a new enemy type. You jump into the sewer and after the first few steps you hear a metal grate fall to the ground followed by the pitter patter of monstrous feet coming straight toward you. But then nothing's there. This immediately puts you on edge for what's to come.

Also the ambiance music did wonders to unsettle you.

 

[Savagezion]

That might sound kind of scary at first, but the thing is that once you've been forced to face your fears and subsequently overcome them about a dozen times, they cease to be scary. Even giving the player limited ammo and supplies is just going to force them to become a more efficient killer who thus has even less reason to be afraid.

I think that's more an issue of the entire notion of becoming acclimatised to a certain condition or a certain environment; only way I can think of avoiding that would be to completely switch up the game mechanics mid-game, or have quite a few mechanics that are either very gradually introduced or become obsolete. A game that hinges it's atmosphere on disorientation could certainly be interesting, but would probably end up being more frustrating than fun; after all you're always going to be choosing to subject yourself to a 'horror' game, so there's got to be something compelling there.

That's an interesting idea, I like it. You could amp up the difficulty by pulling away firearms and making the game entirely melee dependant during the last half of the game. I personally don't like the idea of offering an enemy the player CANT defeat. I much prefer offering one a player can, but holy hell, good luck. Think of facing mutons/berzerkers early on in Xcom. Think back to Silent Hill 1 if a mob of 5-6 those little people with knives came at you and all you had was a crowbar. These are both certainly obstacles that can be overcame, but they are crappy situations where you consider "abort/run away" as a valid tactic and maybe the best choice. This makes it scarier because it isn't the ONLY option, but merely only one of them. When faced with the choices of "kill it" or "run away" and you as the player feel running away is the best option or choose to run for whatever reason, you were just scared by a game. You can use the word "intimidated" or even "logical" or whatever. But you ran away, thus you felt threatened and caution IS fear.

 

[Pulse]

The enemies should be largely unseen, unpredictable, and powerful. To this end I don't think you should ever be capable of killing one until maybe the game climax. You kill one you can go up and examine the corpse and see that it is kill able, it is knowable, it's now just a foe rather than a force. The player should just catch glimpses of it, and it should be vastly overpowered compared to the player, the player should never feel in control.

Weapons should just be time buying measures. Weather they are tripwires/alarms/radars to alert you of their presence or single shot weapons to cause them to flinch..and give the player time to run/hide, which should be the primary strategy.

I actually think a first person perspective with advanced ai friendlies for companions (1-3) would be best. Imagine the terror seeing your only companion being dragged off, or be fleeing together only to hear them scream out in pain and have to continue alone or one of them becomes posseseed, and now they chant your name when they hunt you...

 

[King Billi]

Honestly some flickering lights and seeing something disappear around the corner whenever I enter a room is all it takes to scare me.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Just the horror feel is enough for me, it doesn't have to be scary. Short of Amnesia, there aren't really any scary games. They've all become pretty predictable. Oh, look! A long, poorly lit hallway with a door at the other end which I need to get to! I wonder if the monster is going to come from behind me or if some weird paranormal thing is going to happen half way down?

 

[Albino Boo]

How to make games scary again? Simple, make the monsters naked G W Bush and Greg Tito, I'd run screaming.

 

[Popadoo]

Definitely don't show too much of the monster. The more you see of it, the less scary it becomes.
Music and ambient also does a great deal in a horror game, imagine playing Amnesia with the sound turned off. Much less intimidating.
Also, I've met people that disagree with this, but I think the scariest games are when you cannot kill the enemy. It leaves you feeling helpless, and makes you want to just flee like a child when you hear it.

 

[Mikejames]

I know it's been said multiple times, but atmospheric pacing. Striving for moments of calm give the actual thrills more impact. Excessive gore, or just throwing in more monsters doesn't make it work.

Variety can be another factor. If you only have one thing to be scary, i.e. Slenderman popping up or necromorphs jumping out of vents, then you'll probably become used to it. You need to shake things up.

 

[Korenith]

To me the quickest way to make a game scary is to provide a real threat. Not a perceived one, I mean the game needs to threaten to take away something that will be hard to get back. XCOM is scary because you can lose a soldier forever. The early RE's were scary because you didn't know what was around the corner and had limited ammunition and even SAVES.

This is pretty much what I came into this thread to say and Resident Evil was exactly the example I was going to use as well. The moment of pure relief when you heard the save room music when hunting through the mansion in the first game was a seriously incredible feeling.

There is a problem with this model though. It's very hard to avoid this kind of approach becoming frustrating, especially if you have to go through loads of easy enemies and unskipable cutscenes just to get back to where you died. After a few attempts a lot of players will just give up whereas if you can load up and have another go straight away it's not as annoying. Think back to the NES and SNES days. Most of the games I had I never beat simply because it took ages to get to the bit I couldn't do and those early levels became really tedious. It's tough to get the balance right.

 

[Project_Xii]

Hmm. Reading this thread, it seems like people want a scary movie, not a scary game. If they'd made Dead Space in the fashion some of you guys want, you wouldn't shoot a single thing until the end! It'd be 12 hours of walking around in super atmospheric, ambient musiced, "just catch a glimpse of the monster" on edge terror!

Or not. Cause, you know, that would get super boring and tiresome, and would never warrant more then a single playthrough. Scary games are definitely a mixture of all these things, but these features exclusively do not a good game make. And certainly not game after game after game. Sequels needs to evolve, or they very quickly become stale, ESPECIALLY the survival horror style.

Developers can't win nowadays. If they don't change things enough, people say they're not innovating (Uncharted 3, Assassins Creed everything, every single CoD game since 4). But if they do change things, people say they've "ruined what the game was about". I loved Dead Space 1, it's one of my all time favourite horror games. It's not scary. None of them are. But it's tense, and creepy, and enjoyable. Which is fine by me. However, I wouldn't want to be stuck in another dead ship, clumping along slowly in Dead Space 2. It just wouldn't have been as interesting. "We've done all this before". The developers recognise this, and so they evolved it, and in a way that was fitting for the character and story. Isaac is experienced, stronger, and better able to handle the Necromorphs. Naturally he's going to be better at fighting them. Also you're in a bigger location, with far, far more meat for the Necros to generate from. There's going to be more things to fight. It's all logical, and even if we kinda wish it didn't have to be that way, it was the only way it really could be.

Dead Space 3 has taken a new direction again, upping the action, having amazing set pieces to the point where it should be called "Uncharted Space" now, and even allowing us some free roam aspect. Is it scary? Nope. Is it even the same game? Not really. Does that make it bad? Nope! It's still tense at times, there's still plenty of clumping around on your lonesome, and massive amounts of awesome enemies and bosses to fight. It's the same universe and same concept, but the gameplay and settings are shaken up enough to make it feel like an evolution yet again, and not a full step back.

Really I think the next opportunity for them to have a proper crack at a true scary horror game again would be a next-gen Dead Space series, not starring Isaac but with a whole new story arc. Better lighting, bigger graphics... man the things that could be done! But until that happens I'll continue enjoying DS3 for what it is, and that is a damn enjoyable game to play.

 

[Blunderboy]

Hmm. Reading this thread, it seems like people want a scary movie, not a scary game. If they'd made Dead Space in the fashion some of you guys want, you wouldn't shoot a single thing until the end! It'd be 12 hours of walking around in super atmospheric, ambient musiced, "just catch a glimpse of the monster" on edge terror!

Well that's the tricky thing.
The vast majority of games are about empowering the power.
Horror generally is about stripping the power away and exposing the all too weak and vulnerable centre.
That?s why it?s such a hard thing to do.

 

[Yopaz]

I know I am in the minority here, but a good jump scare can do wonders.

Now you're walking through a poorly lit hallway and you know at the end of it there's going to be a monster jumping out at you. However there isn't one. You were sure that there would be one, but it wasn't there, it's got to be somewhere, you know it has to be somewhere, you've got a gun for a reason. You hear a loud sound behind you, but there's nothing there? You walk for a while, thinking the monster will jump out at you, but you don't know where it will strike.

This creates tension and makes it more likely that when the monster actually jumps out you will we on edge. It has to be done right, but it works on me.

 

[Rastien]

I guess the conflict comes from being to powerful or having to much action orientated, if the character you are playing as is a precision marksman wielding a machine gun the tension goes away alot.

Personally i would like to see a horror game where you really pressed into making snap decisions is it better to try and defend myself with this piece of wood i found lying around or run the fuck away from this creature that has spawned.

A good example of a more recent horror game is Lone Survivor the graphics are 2-D and pixelated not scary at all right?

Well play through the demo, the music and noise is enough to put you on edge you are also defenseless for a fair bit of the game your options are limited to hiding or distracting enemys with rotting meat.

Funnily enough the pixaleated graphics work in the games favour, why is this? well the way i figure it because the creatures you fear so much are hard to imagine in a real life context this becomes unsettling coupled with the fact the creatures themselves move in a human but not quite way creates very unsettling mental imagery.

The other REALLY tricky balance is not getting killed to often, the fear of your character dying has to be there! but when the difficulty is to high and you have to repeat the same thing over and over the fear goes away. Repetition is atmosphere and fears greatest weakness.

Also perhaps base the game in a country where fire arms are not easily accessible so when you finally do find a hand gun or rifle you treasure that ***** and feel so much safer for having it. Then remove it some how so you feel paniced and scared even worse now you are un-armed once more.

I dunno i like horror games and havn't found a decent AAA one in a long time

 

[Fwee]

Vulnerability is key, in my book. Loud screams and jump scares only go so far. Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Amnesia, and Pandorum all leave the player almost completely helpless aside from their own quick wits.
Isolation helps, but even with multiplayer you can get the players nervous by keeping them aware that they could go down any second, around any corner. Left 4 Dead is a great example. Even though you have a pipe bomb, a shotgun, and a fire axe you're still peeking around every corner and turning off your flashlight because you never know when the next wave will arrive, or where. Or even if your friends will be around when you need them most.