How do we fix horror genre?
You can start by playing games in it.
Make them more scary
stop trying to merge it with action
>>345242339
Making them all jumpscare hallway simulators isn't "fixing."
>>345242339
Making the entire genre a strategy game or walking simulator doesn't elicit fear, nor does it propagate any sensory reactions in that area.
Stop cramming using the action/shooter genre to compensate for lack of ambiance and a compelling plot.
make scarier monsters
>>345242107
The AVP games marine story is a step in the right direction.
You can fight the monsters, to a degree, but you can get killed fairly quickly.
And the motion tracker is perfect, a constant steady sound reminding you of the potential danger, and it picking up something moving you get put on edge, since you don't know what the thing is, just that something is moving.
>>345242160
I C E C O L D
>>345242107
That's some nice Assasin Creed fanart
Lots of ambient growling and creaking.
You start it by fixing the people. Horror movies are just as "dead" as horror games.
>And because the filmmakers know that the audience is made up of closeted paranormal believers, they play with the typical paranormal movie tropes by piling on paranormal action. It used to be the rule that you never show the ghost or the monster. Now they all do it. We’re beyond the idea that horror is “the thing not seen.” If everyone already believes it’s there, seeing it doesn’t matter. Is your inky-haired ghoulish woman in a nightgown and/or psycho in black really all that different from the hundreds we saw earlier this year? No. So by all means, show us the Red Demon in Insidious, the psycho death metal frontman in Sinister, the masked douchebag in The Purge. Because the fact that a creepy thing is haunting the house isn’t scary, because every dim-witted organ donor in the audience already believes in it. The horror now is in being unable to get rid of it (in the same way one can’t get rid of the fear in your own head.) The way to deal with a haunting in the older movies was to leave the house. You have two acts of all the adult men laughing about how hysterical their women are, and in the third act they realize the place is haunted, and they split, usually leaving the hysterical women behind. Now, Insidious and the Conjuring start with a family that had already left one house where bad stuff happened to a new one (we now start movies by setting up prequels). See, moving doesn’t get rid of it. The scary bit now is that the thing sticks to you.
The horror genre of the video game industry is less broken than that of the film industry.
>>345242107
It will never work with the mainstream and it will never earn those millions of sales publishers want, so stop trying to do that and bring back to enthusiast audience it was meant for.
>>345242107
stop making them first person hallway jumpscare shit. Bring back forced camera angles. Focus way less on dying in spectacular gory ways and more on the less is more kind of spooks. No more breakable weapons.
All I know is if the majority of the time the character isn't in actual danger of getting killed, it's worse than some cheap haunted house attraction.
Players are going to learn when they aren't in actual danger. That RE7 demo is not at all scary when you know this.
>>345242107
Remove combat
you can't save what was never good in the first place
VR + headphones
>>345244905
Wrong. That brief moment of having to consider "fight or flight" is far more intense than "100% flight." Even if you only have a peashooter or weak ass melee.
>>345244905
>i wuz so scrred fo pewdipy wan he pla amenesar so dat meen all spooby gaem shud hab no faytan!
V R headset and earphones
>>345242107
Stop trying to fix it.
>>345242107
Alien Isolation did pretty well for balancing combat in a Horror game.
>Humans that you can easily fight but can still be shot down by
>Androids are strong as balls and takes a lot of effort, noise, and danger to take out
>Alien is smart, learns the ways you fight it, and is an ever present danger hunting you
Mix that with the top tier atmosphere and all around writing that encapsulates the original movies and you have not only one of the best horror games in years but also one of the best Alien games.
>>345244113
>It used to be the rule that you never show the ghost or the monster. Now they all do it.
This is complete and utter crap.
They always showed the ghosts and monsters, going all the way back to the beginning of films.
Where did that quote even come from? Whoever said it knows absolutely fucking nothing and yet arrogantly considers themselves to be so much more enlightened than the "stupid masses".
>>345244807
The only problem I see with going back to the older Resident Evil style games is that they're mechanically frustrating to play. It's a buzzkill to play a game which has shitty "tank" controls, unmovable camera, etc. because modern games don't do this anymore.
>>345245636
What's it like to be 13?
>>345242107
By not making them action shooters.
There needs to be more psychological horror and less zombie mobs to mow down with assault rifles and grenade launcher.
More meta horror. Like shit talking through your headset or the game glitching out.
>>345244905
this killed horror games
>>345245212
what
>>345245634
I actually hated that the fucking alien is 100% aware of the exact sector you are in and patrols something like a 2-room perimeter at all times. Was it intense? Sure. But it got to be irritating how small the window for moving to the next spot got to be.
The overall length of the game overstayed its welcome too. It's going to be a long time before I crave playing it again. I won't claim it didn't do some neat things in that time though.
>>345244905
>keep combat
>doesn't work on 90% of enemies
This works so much better, though.
>>345243948
Underrated post
>>345245990
Fuck off.
I've spent 30 years watching horror movies spanning more than half a century. The notion that they used to be good or used to be subtle or whatever is utter bullshit.
Horror, like most genres, is and always was 99% crap. It's not suddenly "dead", all that has changed is the production budget.
>>345246305
I hear this complaint quite often of A:I. I didn't get to finish it cause my copy would crash often but for the most part I can tell you that I really did like all the things the game did well, and it did a lot.
Maybe if they release a sequel that fixes all the problems from the first and adds new things it'll be GOAT. At the very least A:I is a good example of a modern horror game I think.
>>345245990
You haven't gotten there yet?
Make more games like this
>>345242107
>tfw found that image last night and added it to the collection of /v/ spoop pictures
>>345242107
i see you were on /x/ yesterday
>>345246874
could you post some /v/ spoop pictures?
Remove the overall focus on jumpscares
Remove the overall focus on actual combat and make the player character quite weak
Make dying an actual punishment that holds actual weight to progression and not just a minor setback
Pour a fuckton of money into sound design and visual design
>>345246975
I don't really have any, but we collectively discovered that disorder last night and that picture was the result
>>345246059
THIS
>>345246695
I'm curious what they could do differently, or how they could change the setting enough to make it feel fresh. Because as much as I love Isolation, I'll tell you right now I have no need to buy a sequel that is just like it, even if they smooth over some roughness. They need to innovate their asses off if I'm not just going to pop the old one back in to replay. A $60 price tag warrants some night and day differences, in my opinion.
>>345246843
When will the PT meme die
>>345243532
no shit
>>345246305
I half agree on this. I really liked that they tried to go 1:1 with the movie's logic, i.e. that the Xenomorph is highly intelligent and has the abilities of any slasher villain to pop out of nowhere to attack, but playing through that for hours and then getting to the last parts with all the damn extra Aliens and facehuggers was annoying.
>>345242107
horror games don't work because games aren't realistic enough to be scary and developers are all manchildren so they don't understand subtlety
>>345246975
Not that faggot but i saved this last horror thread
>>345246843
>game
That was an ad, anon.
It was an ad that had no substance, no story, no beginning, no middle, no end, fucking nothing. It's was a ghost train ride at a theme park.
>>345243948
Bretty gud
>>345246537
What's it like to be 13?
>>345246059
Couldn't this come across as gimmicky if done poorly?
>>345247427
As long as you have the flamethrower, and knew what crevices you could safely hide in during patrols, the late part of the game is actually some of the easiest.
Sure you gotta manage your ammo, but one poof was usually enough to get them to retreat.
>>345247448
it's not about realism you shithead. especially older graphic styles are creepier for me since it adds to the imagination
>>345242107
Play The Evil Within. The pinnacle of horror games. True patricians would affirm.
>>345242107
Just get Valve to make it
Gaben makes everything better.
>>345247702
The evil within is bretty gud anon. It had a good blend of horror and action.
>>345246059
Like Eternal Darkness then?
>>345242549
>Making the entire genre a strategy game or walking simulator
Nowhere does he say this. Just tone down the action elements, more games like Silent Hill less RE4. It doesn't mean you need to get rid of combat altogether, just don't incentivize it like so many "horror" games do.
>>345247192
>>345246874
That thread kept me up another hour last night imagining the skinwalker from that one anon's story.
stop hating on jump scares, they are fun and they work, period.
>>345248132
Jump scares in general aren't bad, but a complete reliance on them makes them feel boring, the scares lose their edge.
>>345247598
Yes, as it did in Eternal Darkness.
The first time you think it's kind of cool, not really scary, but after a while it just gets irritating.
It's like Amnesia's thing about not looking at the monsters or you'll go insane and get wobbly blur-o-vision™. Ultimately that wasn't making the game any scarier, it was just an annoying game mechanic you have to work around.
>>345247487
That's fuckin radical, I hope to one day fuck everything I am afraid of.
>>345247798
>Valve
>make games
>>345242415
>limited ammo
>limited healing items and no auto regen bullshit
>make puzzles actually matter and not just randomly shoehorned in to act as a roadblock
>no stealth sections
>no qtes
>no rambo gun blazing bad ass segments
Basically, all of that shit is what plagues all current horror type games. The evil within was the closest survival horror we had until the stealth, action, and time travel/warp shit happened
Less focus on making the games scary and more focus on making them good so that shit like Outlast doesn't happen.
>>345242107
Stop doing the Amnesia "cowardly helpless MC hiding in closets" shit. That's lame as fuck and not scary. The weaker the player character is, the dumber and less dangerous the monsters or whatever other antagonist must become so that the character can actually progress.
>>345247487
>tfw you spook the spooker
>>345242339
This
I love the tension, storrytelling and athmosphere but then comes the inevitable durr shoot/run stage
fuck that
>>345246059
Fucking this!
Have more fuckable women in it.
>>345248625
Not only that but also it removes a layer of decision making. You never have to consider your resources, the enemy threat level and make a decision on whether you want to fight them or run away.
>>345247497
And yet it was still a better interactive experience than 90% of all horror games made in history
>>345248950
This.
Nothing was more scary than when i saw the Silent hill nurses and then looked down at my monster boner
It was then i knew i was destined for /d/
>>345246435
>combat can temporarily stun or repel the monster
>everytime you use it, it becomes slightly less effective
>>345242107
Stop copying other games, and go back to giving weapons to the player. Also introduce new things to get scared of by approaching them in a new way. Also to stop using the stereotypical settings (hospital, school, spooky abandoned house).
>>345248625
>The weaker the player character is, the dumber and less dangerous the monsters or whatever other antagonist must become so that the character can actually progress.
This is a good point, I remember this especially being true for Outlast, you could outsmart the enemies by basically running circles around them, it was total garbage. Same thing with Penumbra Black Plague, pretty much just ran right past the retarded enemies whenever they got close to me, it's pathetic and not scary at all when you feel like it's impossible to actually lose as long as you keep pressing a movement key.
>>345248384
i aslo saved this
>>345242107
Horror games by default are only one time deals.
Alma ladder was scary once
Resident Evil zombie dogs + window made me jump once
Being chased by a ghost as a defenseless little girl in Corpse Party was creepy three times because it was a trial and error type deal
The Calling dead kids molesting you all the time and interrupting your phone calls was creepy once
Amnesia: The Dark Decent only puckered my anus the first time through
Creepy little things like the rabbit pointing at you, eyes through a crack in the something, fog image in a window that disappears when you get too close.. etc
Games nowadays need replay value to stay strong and survive generations.. whereas DOOM3 kinda meh'ed out after you learned something always spawns behind you when a noise was made.
I love me some horror games, but replaying them without a 4-5 year break in between them to "forget" what happens kinda defeats the purpose of playing horror games.
>>345249102
nurses aren't even that bad.
It's like if you wanted to jerk off to a woman scantily clad, wearing a gas mask and covered in mud. Vaguely out-there but still pretty tame.
>>345249106
>that alien isolation flamethrower
>that point when he stops being afraid of it and starts just chilling in front of you until you run out of ammo
>that shit in my pants
>>345249214
that video is now available
More unique and varied areas.
>>345249546
where?
>>345249546
not* I can't access that video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6oBOPFWI5A
>>345249014
You don't do anything but walk forward through the same halfway over and over again and look at things.
I can't believe you are seriously arguing that the smallest walking simulator ever made is a better "interactive experience" than ANY horror game made in history, much less that it's better than 90% of them.
Just go watch a horror film if PT is what you are looking for in horror games.
H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, and David Cronenberg could not make it tonight, but they all had sex and are proud to announce the birth of their two headed baby, Scorn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlBtP3-x_w
STOP THE FUCKING JUMP SCARES
That shit in enraging, it's cheap, it's not even scary it's just annoying.
>>345242339
it real fucking easy too.
take away the gun, the weapon and the only thing you can do is run and investigate.
bam, fixed it.
I miss horror games with combat. The tension of trying to juke through a hallway full of enemies with four bullets left and no healing items, desperately looking for the next puzzle piece or save point is something I really miss from early survival horror games.
If the modern trend of horror games tried to implement more actual game mechanics, with developed stealth and smart inventory usage, I would be way more involved. I think the superb Alien: Isolation was a wonderful throwback to an older style of horror, and I would be thrilled for another game that tries its own spin on those ideas.
>>345249808
>>345249914
you tard its an l not an I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6oBOPFWl5A
look at a destitute ccrab
>>345249808
>>345249546
>>345249214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6oBOPFWl5A
It's a lowercase L, not an uppercase i
>>345249935
Used sparingly they're fine.
>>345249893
neat
>>345242107
Atmosphere.
Dread.
Not making the player completely godlike, but not completely defenseless.
>>345242107
Horror in the past:
>Tone was important
>Story pulled us in
>Psychological horror that screwed with your mind
>Nerve wrecking enviroments
>Tense gameplay
>Concepts like rape, child abuse all explored subtly
Horror now
>Indie jump scare game #1
>Indie jump scare game #2
>Indie jump scare game #3
>Indie jump scare game #4
>Indie jump scare game #5
>Japanese horror game that is only available on a dead Nintendo console that was also censored and butchered in the West
>Indie jump scare game #5 sequel
>Indie jump scare game #5 triquel
>>345249935
Sometimes they're okay, but my favorite moments aren't the sudden scares but rather the dawning, encroaching horror as you see something and realize you must go towards it in order to progress, but it gets worse and worse as it comes into focus but you have no choice.
Being attacked is scary but slowly mounting fear is utterly horrifying.
>>345246435
>>345249106
>Combat exists in the game
>Engaging in combat unreasonably or willy nilly or without any planning will almost certainly end with your death
>Game has combat that briefly allows you to feel powerful after feeling powerless all game, elevates the stakes to balance it while still making you feel strong
>Proceeds to take that away from you by countering it perfectly, making you feel 100% more powerless than before
Alien Isolation was really the perfect horror game.They really need to add a co-op mode.
>>345242107
It's simple, really. An emphasis on subtl look behind you
>still no alien encounter horror game
>>345250021
>>345250095
The sound he heard was probably a jet fighter sonic boom.
>>345242107
atmospheric horror done right is a leprechaun
jump scares are not horror, they're glorified peek-a-boo
>>345249893
where can I find more about this game? I heard about it a month ago and didn't see anything new
>>345250620
ay lmao
>>345250720
http://www.scorn-game.com/
As far as I know the links here have the most up to date info, recently it got greenlit on steam, besides that I can't tell you much.
>>345250620
What, like an alien abduction? Or investigating an alien abduction?
>>345250978
Thanks, I really like unsettling concepts on horror games, it makes me feel more into it
>>345250620
What is Prey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isA9LvU5GKI
>>345250021
>>345250095
i heard that before
>>345242339
I think a horror/wrestling game could work
>AssassinsCreedUnity.jpg
>>345251057
not him, but have you seen Signs?
this could make a good horror game i think
also
https://youtu.be/6MdWNK_vWFw
scariest game I've played wan't even a horror game. It was just really good at creating very tense scenarios and leaving the player just helpless enough.
Remove stealth forever
Always combat
Half the point of horror games is fighting abominations with rusty pipes, and the other half is appreciating the atmosphere without having constantly be hiding or on the run for no other reason than forced stealth while also conveniently ignoring a ton of random items you could improvise as weapons along the way
>>345251806
Oh look another game where you spin stuff in your hands in first person while walking in a house.
Wow.
It's like an amusement park ride.
Wow.
It's just like our favorite horror movies.
Wow.
All we need is a let's player screaming their lungs out at every tiny little non-scary jump scare sound.
Woooow.
>>345249160
What is it with people making MUH WEAPONS the go-to for how to improve horror games.
SOMA wouldn't have been any less shit with a gun.
>>345252127
>scariest game I've played wan't even a horror game
THIS
You just have to make a regular game and it gets only spooky 50% in
Like stalker or some shit like that
![skeleton[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/bQsNWxL.png "skeleton[1].png")
Devs need to remember that the goal of "horror" is to elicit a negative emotional reaction from the audience by playing on their primal fears.
"Getting spooked by a sudden loud noise" isn't exactly a primal fear. You gotta think about what is at the root of human fear in the primal sense, i.e, as creatures who can still fit in the food chain... first things that come to mind: death and the threat of death, obviously; but what tends to cause that? From animal POV, predators. Predators often operate in darkness and from concealment -- they can chase, they can stalk, they can ambush, they can even work in teams to fuck your shit up. Or you could fall from a high place, or drown, or hurt yourself in whatever way.
Good horror typically makes use of all that. Know what's scary? The thought of something that you can't see following you around... waiting.. to fuck your shit up.. it'll just be a matter of time. Might not happen that day, but soon... Or maybe you're just like that guy who got stuck between the boulders and had to cut his own arm off --- or you waded out onto a reef and the tide came in, and now you're fucking stuck out in the water with no rescue.
Additionally, consider what else makes us balk or be wary, if not outright afraid. Things that look completely foreign to us, and shit we don't understand. It's why insects often have the effects that they do (hyper-venomous australia tier ones notwithstanding for this discussion). It's what makes Ayy Lmao abductions easily fit the bill.
Just gotta sit and think about what really makes people truly scared, not startled. You could just as well make a horror game with absolutely 0 monsters or jumpscares and still have it be scary as fuck. If you have guns and shit, you're more into the "horror-THEMED" territory than straight up horror -- the point is to be scared shitless and know you're basically defenseless.
Go VR. I played my first VR horror game the other day. Graphics were mediocre, plot didn't really exist, gameplay was basically walking simulator but even with all those problems... it was the most legitimately scared I've ever been in a videogame. My brain couldn't handle the sudden appearance of monsters. I physically jumped in a way I never have in my life. I thought I was immune to horror in games but I just about pissed myself and quit playing because I couldn't do it. And this game was garbage. If a garbage game can do that, imagine what a masterful horror game in VR could do. It would give people PTSD for life.
Do I play cry of fear or afraid of monsters?
>>345252435
cry of fear is shit
>>345252127
>tfw the spooky shit starts to happen in that game
It was all good until the bitchass zombies and ghosts started showing up. I spent the latter half of the game just OH MY FUCKING GOD AWIJRAHAEHGAGRGHG running through levels at top speed half-looking at the screen
Stop making every game a fucking walking simulator with an Amnesia style monster. Holy shit, Devs have been so lazy since that game came out.
You have insanely cool, original, high production value shit like Cold Fear, coming from a bunch of 22 year olds in Eastern Europe, releasing for FREE with three different modes, a 20-hour campaign, and a fuck ton of one-off side missions, then you have Stairs. A four hour game that costs 13 bucks, and starts off promising enough, before devolving into another "you're in a maze and a monster is chasing you, so get to the witch before it gets to you!" fest.
WHAT THE FUCK.
>>345252331
yeah, i didn't say it looks good
it'll be another shitty indie "horror"
You need to make the enemies look utterly repulsive, vile and disgusting. That looking at them makes your skin crawl.
>>345252368
A game where you're a mouse and have to evade owls. How about that?
And no, not some anime mouse with powers, either. Just a mouse.
>>345252405
It will give people heart attacks.
![owl[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/42YZNvX.jpg "owl[1].jpg")
>>345252768
Das it mane; that's what I'm talking about. Flying death machine like 20x your size that can be completely fucking silent while swooping in on you? Pretty spooky m8.
>>345252768
This kind of exists. There's a game called Shelter where you play as a mother badger that has to protect her young from a hawk that hunts you throughout the game. It involves running for cover in brush and under rocks and shit.
It was actually pretty good. Not scary in the least, but a fun, original game,. Check it. There's a sequel too where you play as Bobcats, but I haven't checked it out yet
>>345252368
This anon gets it
Also, there's a lot of fear to be milked from lack of knowledge and powerlessness. Imagine a game that is designed to make you feel like on of the people in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I
Other things: action isn't necessarily something to completely avoid. If anything, a game where a lot of action is demanded of you can be made really intense by having a lack of resources, and going up against foes that simply more powerful than you.
>>345252748
>utterly repulsive, vile and disgusting
I don't like that kind of horror. Doesn't scare me. The xenomorph in Aliens isn't any of those things, it's kind of sexy and sleek yet it's far more scary than some flesh blob with blood and gore. Gross out horror is more comical than scary.
>>345252405
It's only a matter of time before you get jaded to them as well and try to seek a more deeper games.
Most of us don't play horror games to get jump scared you fucking idiot brainless monkey. We play them for the concepts that they can surface and the more depth like horror. Shit that makes you pause and think how horrific the place you're trapped in really is. If the game play is good that's just a bonus.
What you're seeking is another ear screaming jump scare shit fest and you're literally selling the idea that VR saves these shitty games. It's like being afraid of an alarm clock every morning and calling it an amazing horror game, because it's actually a game in VR.
You're a retard anon. Go jump off a bridge.
>>345252405
Last time I was in a thread about fixing horror, we discussed the idea of a VR game that had a heart monitor and could learn from player reactions. So a monster or a scenario that made the player look around quickly or avoid or fixate on sights while their hearts raced would be used in place of one that elicited no reaction.
And the more the player looked at or for something, the less visual the game would get, adding more auditory cues.
For some reason a certain arc in the Yugioh show is sticking out to me. When they're trapped in that virtual reality, and they have to duel themselves out, or they're trapped there forever.
I know this will sound dumb, but being underground in Minecraft and coming across the enemies always gave me a great feeling of being scared than most horror games. I don't really know why.
>>345253168
i really like this video, very spooky
>>345253219
Guess what moron? VR can do what you're talking about even better. Being trapped in a deeply horrific environment in VR is going to be infinitely more scary in VR than in front of a tiny 2D monitor. The game I played was a jump scare low tier garbage. I just said that you fucking retard idiot. And I'm saying that if the technology can make that low tier garbage that scary, imagine what real horror will be in VR... It's going to be absolutely mindbogling. People will go insane literally.
>>345242107
Dying takes a lot of tension out of the game. Especially when you just repeat parts you died on. So I don't know, but it's hard to make a true "game" out of horror when dying is a mechanic in my opinion. I think a better scenario would be that if you die, you're trapped in a world that is worse.
>>345252368
So Alien Isolation?
Most what made Eternal Darkness so fucking scary is that you don't control well, you don't know if the room will stay real, its sparse with its horror, and there is a lot of larger things outside of your control.
>>345253474
Me too, its an all around great short film.
Do you know about the extra videos on the website? The Sculptor's Clayground?Visitor Information?
>>345245636
>I've never watched a horror movie before 2001: the post
>>345252748
There's much more to horror than aesthetics.
Question: did anyone else find the Hunters in Halo scary? Big brutes that are just as fast as you, they outnumber you and are nearly invincible?
Utilize more varied settings and eras.
>>345253537
Did you feel any nausea when you played the game?
I know that one big drawback of VR is how it can sometimes induce nausea, but what if devs used that to their advantage when making a horror game? It could make things more visceral if you're terrified and nauseous on account of unnatural movement.
>>345253734
No because Hunters can be easily beat by circle strafing around behind them to hit the weak point. I like fighting Hunters because they're easy when you know their weakness. I'm way more scared of sniper jackals in Halo 2.
>>345253652
yes i do it would have been better as just the video though, or strictly paranormal, no "deep meaning" stuff
>>345253589
in theory -- didn't the game end up being some buggy bullshit?
>>345253868
I haven't yet experience any nausea in VR except once when something went wrong and things started lagging. So my viewpoints was always two seconds behind my current head position. That was really disorienting and didn't feel good. But I don't get sea sick or car sick so I might be more resistant than most people.
>>345242107
It's dead, get over it
The only ones that make any sort of profit now are shitty jump scare ones that your favorite let's player can make funny faces at
>>345252368
>"Getting spooked by a sudden loud noise" isn't exactly a primal fear. You gotta think about what is at the root of human fear in the primal sense, i.e, as creatures who can still fit in the food chain...
"Jump scares" are a primal fear and they have everything to do with where humans fit in the food chain.
Personally, I think the best horror is horror that makes the utterly mundane terrifying. This was what Japan was onto with movies like The Ring, One Missed Call and The Grudge, they took everyday things like videotapes, mobile phones and an ordinary suburban house and made then things to fear. Mirrors are a big one too. How many different versions of the "appears in the mirror behind you and kills you" stories have we all heard?
You want to make a good horror story? Think of something ordinary we all don't give much thought to and make us afraid of it.
>>345254029
Hmmm, well, that could still work for deliberately glitchy sections of the game, if it's going for something meta.
Basically working with and using the drawbacks of the medium as an element of gameplay.
>>345242107
less screamers
>>345253927
I'm pretty certain that a disease that spreads through knowledge, with side effects causing phasing through matter, is pretty damn paranormal.
Sound design. Sound design. Sound design. Sound design. Sound design. Sound design.
>>345253703
I bet you can't name 5 horror movies made before 2001 where you never see the ghost or monster.
Shit, I bet you will struggle to even come up with one.
![emoji_6[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/zpGHHvs.jpg "emoji_6[1].jpg")
>>345253537
ppl getting scared by a tv on their face like lmao take ur damn goggles off senpai
>>345252368
Basically the fear of the unknown
>>345254205
I mean how other people interpret it, not the story itself
>>345254151
I think my issue with movies like that is that it feels strange to bring the supernatural into the modern world, and it's that strangeness that detracts from my ability to feel fear.
A killer video tape just seems silly to me. A killer house that was built in the 1800s or earlier is less so.
It's precisely because it's so ordinary that I can't be afraid of it when it comes to the supernatural because I have far too much experience with it, but it works just fine for human terrors.
>>345253537
No they won't. Games like that will never come to VR because if cheap ass fucking jump scares with date graphics from 2002 is good enough for the VR audience then it will never improve.
If people don't ask for better, the developers won't make better. They will ship 100x different jump scare titles with the same fucking idea and that's all we get and nothing else.
You're a moron anon.
More stuff like the screen glitch in Arkham Asylum would be cool.
Disempower players. Give them a means to defend themselves. Force them into situations where they defend themselves. Never allow them to remove a threat, only incapacitate, if that, long enough for them to proceed. It's not enough to scare them then let them do a thing. Scare them, beat them up, make them fight for survival but never allow them to feel safe.
In Silent Hill, once you learn how many bullets it takes to kill a dog, dogs are no longer scary. Same with every enemy. Learn how many hits it takes to kill it and suddenly you're counting how many hits it takes until you're safe.
Why allow the dangers to be eliminated at all?
This isn't to say that players should only be able to run away. In that scenario, running, the default action, has to be good enough to allow players to escape. This isn't good because it means A.) Players are always equipped to deal with a situation and B.) Players are encouraged to avoid engaging with horror.
Force players TO engage. Force them outside of their comfort zone.
>>345254807
I'm calling it --- there will quickly be some "rule" that developers of spooky VR games will have to put explicit warnings on the games, because VR experiences will fuck with too many people.
Horror is a theme, not a genre.
We dont need to fix the Carnival genre, because there is no Carnival genre.
You can have action horror, survival horror, party horror, sport horror, shooters horror games.
>>345254964
That's what games in the 90's and early 00's did. Go look at the warnings on every early RE title.
Epilepsy warnings won't make a game good anon.
>>345253168
>so much effort just for a placebo metaphor
>>345254807
>Never
We're in the first couple of years of VR. Give it time. Early 3D games on Playstation were gimmicks but now all games are 3D. VR is definitely the future of gaming and especially horror gaming. It's just too real, too deep brain visceral. It triggers the most primal parts of your brain. We won't see a truly great VR horror game in the next couple of years. But 5-8 years from now? VR will be the best choice for gaming horror.
>>345252368
I can kind of a agree to that. Use sounds that are naturally offensive to humans.
Fear of predators. Crying children. Tornado/flood/nuke sirens and klaxons.
>>345242107
Add fucking elements that are a slow burn, rather than constant instant scares.
>Enter a home, gradually realize it was abandoned for a reason through stuff in different rooms, begin to hear more sound effects (footsteps, rattling) as you stay in there longer
>See a monster slowly shambling at you, turn around to run, turn back and its too close for the speed it was going at
>Enter somewhere with a group, group members gradually begin to either vanish or become unstable or suspicious
Really just a small kind of game with tons of flag-triggers or something would work well.
>>345252368
>You gotta think about what is at the root of human fear in the primal sense
That's a good point, like how we fear the deep ocean because of the unknown shit lying down there. As knowledgeable as humanity is, we don't know much what covers 70% of the planet. Reminds me of this thread on /tg/ about lighthouses as a horror setting.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/47925720/#p47962807
>ITT; /v/tards explain how the horror games they played as young, impressionable children were 'true' horror while nearly identical horror games that came out today are not 'true' horror
>>345254964
>Warning: This game is designed to frighten and terrify the user. Virtual reality can seem incredibly real. Play at your own discretion.
>This game is rated ___________
There. The audience has been warned without being spoiled. If someone needs more than that I'm sure that websites will pop up detailing specifically what issues there are.
Movies are not required to tell us what "minor violence" and "sexual content" means explicitly, so there is no reason that video games should have to do the same.
Treadmills will tell you to consult your doctor before using them, this is no different than a quick warning that most won't need to even glance at.
>>345254651
>A killer video tape just seems silly to me. A killer house that was built in the 1800s or earlier is less so.
Funny, the idea that older things are more scary than newer things just seems silly to me.
I don't think of history as some sort of alternate fantasy world, it's just stuff that happened before I was around.
For some reason every single bit of horror has been awful as of late.
When's the late time some form of entertainment has actually scared you?
>>345255189
>>345254345
this tbvh imho. Shit that always gets me are like, sounds (or visuals for that matter) that start off slow or low volume but start increasing to their full volume and shit ---- paralyzes me.
In the visual form, those scenes in that Twin Peaks show with le Bob devil man coming at the camera and shit always got me good.
>>345255145
I'd say it goes way beyond just a placebo metaphor
There's stuff about human perception, surveillance, how disease (real or imagined) can affect a family, mental illness, and so on
>>345242339
last decent horror since FEAR and Condemned is Dying Light though
>>345255410
It's not fantasy, but it's not the world that I'm used to, so it's much easier to fit supernatural elements into it.
I just can't get into a killer video tape. I'd just press Eject.
>>345255321
No man, you don't understand. Classic horror games had their roots in psychological horror. Nowadays they're all either action or jump scares.
https://youtu.be/4eTjMjehifY
![06-bob-twin-peaks.w750.h560.2x[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/6qHhFdy.jpg "06-bob-twin-peaks.w750.h560.2x[1].jpg")
>>345255512
>>345255410
The unfamiliar and unknown are scary. An iPhone isn't really scary because everyone has one. But an old phonograph playing eerie music is scary because it's old and unfamiliar.
>>345255642
the old RE games were horror because the shit controls made you helpless, lmao
>>345255486
It's been a long, long time since something scared me. I've been repulsed plenty of times but I can't remember the last time I was actually scared.
But I think it has more to do with me growing up than horror getting shit. When I go back and take another look at all the old "classics" I find they aren't really as good as I remember and they usually use all the same tricks modern horror does.
I liked Until Dawn. I hope they fix the major problems the first one had in the sequel.
>>345255843
RE can fuck off. I hate that shit, and I hate that horror vidya is forever tainted by its presence.
>>345255843
kek
>>345255642
Resident Evil was barely horror. It was a puzzle game with horrible controls and camera locations a jump scare.
It was all about the combat without giving you the controls for combat, despite the characters being SWAT level.
Eternal Darkness did horror much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CeoLK0hybs
>>345249214
Sounds like something you'd hear used in Killing Floor's soundtrack.
>>345255742
I'm not saying an iPhone is inherently scary, I'm saying if you can effectively make it scary that will linger with me in the real world when I use it. If I had one.
>But an old phonograph playing eerie music is scary because it's old and unfamiliar.
See, I don't get that mentality. It's just a phonograph. Old shit is not inherently scary to me anymore than new shit is. You have to do something to make it scary and just being something I don't use myself everyday is not enough.
>Get rid of everything a youtuber eceleb would want in a horror game (shitty jump scares, memes, etc.)
>replace action sequences that break the tension completely
>write something that would actually psych players the fuck out and make them nervous walking around their own house at night
>>345255642
>Giant snake, giant shark, zombie humans and dogs
>Deep, evocative, rooted in psychological horror
>Modern day creature; Ghost tortured by its existence that will drag you with it to also suffer forever
>Wow indie jumpscare trash, get some 'real' horror
You faggots are all the same. Just admit the reason why you like old horror games is because of muh old games are better then new ones elitism and fuck off so the adults can talk.
>>345255880
would fuck that ghost mom desu
>>345255880
Holy shit, that's scary than it should be.
>no saving or loading
>first person
>start off the player comfortably and then begin ramping up the difficulty like mad the moment he is starting to feel ready
>have occasional lulls that give players time to scrape up enough equipment to push onwards
>all equipment is scarce besides melee weapons
>strong element of stealth or planning, failure to do so can result in untenable situations
>the player has to make massive sacrifices in the spur of the moment should things go to shit, strong sense of risk vs. reward
>allies exist and are incredibly valuable, but the player has to pay in some sense to keep them alive and it won't always be realistic to save them if you fuck up bad enough
![MvY5tNaA[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/zHLJrZ9.jpg "MvY5tNaA[1].jpg")
>>345256419
this pmuch.
>think about what makes SCP tier shit and /x/ threads spoopy to you
>makes games that embody the concept, whose gameplay revolves around why the shit scared you
Tada.
What kind of game would he make?
Scary? Psychologically creepy? 2deep4u?
>>345256416
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, then.
>>345256917
David Lynch doesn't really do horror.
He does thrillers with a bit of nonsense thrown in to make them interesting.
Unless I'm actually in the mood to be scared, I can just power through a "horror" game by speedrunning it. Removing the objective seems to be fine, have it be about exploring rather than following a story.
Actual scary games I think are LSD, SCP Foundation, and a few levels from Siren.
Or, for true horror, have aPC game that publishes all of your lewd search history or downloaded porn to all social media sites if you finish a very hard game in one life.
>>345257160
Eraserhead was creepy as fuck
Fuck with the player directly.
>Pausing the game doesn't put any special screen or filter up, just the typical text
>Later in game
>Spook attacks
>Pussy players pause the game like always
>Pause screen comes up but the spook still moves around anyway, waiting for you to unpause
Like change the rules as you play without warning or have the game "learn" how the player acts so pausing often will remove that safety net and do the same with other shit too.
>Other spook with big eyes hates light and wont enter light
>Player keeps hiding in light
>Later same spook has different eyes
>Now it's immune to light
Something like that anyway.
>>345249941
but then you get mediocre games like Amnesia and Silent Hill shattered memories where you lose any sense of tension because pre-determined spawn monsters and nothing is threatening you for large amounts of time.
>>345257481
Inland Empire was also fucky
>>345257481
Eraserhead was stupid. It was an anti-pregnancy fearmongering video. Shit sucked.
>>345257375
I can't handle that, anoni wouldn't want people i know to find out that i want to be a cute whale girl's oral accessory
>>345253934
You're thinking of Aliens: Colonial Marines
Alien Isolation was GOTY
only weapon a pistol with 10 ammo
not even a knife
>>345257706
The first Amnesia is a fucking great game tho
>>345256917
>tfw Twin Peaks Season 3 soon
>>345258015
...you want to be a toothbrush? Or a retainer?
>>345245636
This so much. FFS Nosferatu is a horror movie made in the 20's and it still shows Nosferatu.
Good horror games force you to do something but take the control out of it. So basically, it's like a theme park ride. If you're faced with your true fears in a room right in front of you, you'd either not go in the room or go through the room while doing something to lessen the effects of the horror.
I feel this way when I'm playing White Day, I start it up with the intention of playing it, but as soon as it starts I shut it off cause I'm too scared. Kind of the same effect with SCP Containment Breach. Games like Outlast let me run through the entire game and treat everything like a joke.
The Thing is a successful horror film because it plays on the idea of paranoia and mistrust. You don't know who the enemy is and that in itself is an uneasy premise - a faceless/ interchangeable monster.
Horror films often reflect current events. The main threat we seem to be facing today is Islamic terrorism. Like the thing, Islamic terrorism is scary because it can happen at anytime, anywhere, by people who look normal but have ulterior motives and can pounce whenever they choose.
A game which reflects this would be cool
>>345255880
What the fuck?
>>345243532
you literally don't even need monsters
its all atmosphere
>>345258729
I was thinking more like a non piercing tongue stud, and when she shows it off to her friends she has to open her mouth and lift up her truck sized tongue
but being tasked to keep her baleen even is good too
Stop giving main characters weapons that actually do something other then by time
Less jump scares, more spooky atmosphere with monsters and events spread out between long, dark pathways.
No instant death mechanics, if you get swiped it just slows you, but you can keep running and hiding, but there is no healing
No saves, everything is done by checkpoint.
>>345242107
Make more Japanese-style horror games.
Like Forbidden Siren, The Grude, Silent Hills and other shit.
All Western devs these days think that "scary" is a jumpscare and some indie 4th wall breaking shit that tries to "immerse" you.
It's a fucking joke.
You need to set up and atmosphere, a theme, an environment that feel genuinely uncomfortable (or comfy to lure the player into a false sense of security).
Jump scares are for people who don't know how to make a horror game, so they turn it into a cheap thrill amusement park ride.
Horror games need to stop being walking simulators.
The thing about horror games being walking simulators is that they aren't scary anymore. Once you realize nothing is a threat to you, there's literally no reason to be afraid, you can just keep walking and ignore everything that happens.
Horror games like Silent Hill, Resident evil, Amnesia, etc. Are successful in scaring the player because there's that constant threat of dying. You NEED that fail state in the game to create tension, to know that your actions have consequences and failure will result in demise.
But you also need to be careful about how you go about it. Games like alien Isolation or the evil within, while good games, focus entirely too much on the "gameplay" portion of this. Needing to hide from enemies or fight them so often kinda kills the horror. Just like how the enemies in silent hill aren't exactly scary, and some of the more memorable scares are the scenes that don't actually hurt you, such as the mirror scene in silent hill.
But these scenes wouldn't be half as tense or scary if you knew that you couldn't be hurt.
TL;DR: Stop making walking simulator horror games and start having fail states.
Now that I think about, a game like No Man's Sky could be absolutely terrifying if you pulled it off right:
>complete isolation
>as in, only-person-within-lightyears isolation
>exploring unknown planets, if your equipment gets ruined, you're fucked
>have to build everything yourself with finite resources
too bad they went the happy-bright direction instead
>>345259702
How finite are resources in a universe that's entirely devoid of life? Run out of nickel? Look for a planet that has some. It's not like someone else is going to take it.
It wouldn't be terrifying, it would just be frustrating as you limp towards the next planet.
Oregon Trail wasn't scary, but you had limited resources and if things broke, you died.
>>345252748
>>345253720
This is a major part of it.
You can nail the sound design, the atmosphere and all that stuff, but if the monster is some goofy looking shit the effect will be instantly lost.
Something that really makes you reel, want to look away, close your eyes, etc is going to have a huge effect into the final equation.
You wouldn't want the monster to find you, just one reason being you don't want to look at it
>>345254345
this is really the major thing though.
People don't realize how powerful sound is in getting the right atmosphere, tone and mood going on.
>>345255486
reading horror always without fail manages me to get me not instantly scared, but leaves me incredibly paranoid and scared of anything spooky happening afterwards, which is just my luck as I tend to always end up reading spooky shit while it's night.
>>345257160
This unfortunately.
It's always disappointed me how Lynch's movies teeter on the edge of otherwordly happenings and crazy stuff, but it still stays too tethered to reality.
>>345259085
never found The Thing to be scary, body horror doesn't do it for me.
The only freaky part of the movie is in your image, because of the uncanny valley resulting from him not being fully changed, and that spine chilling scream
>>345259107
>>345256629
>>345256649
It's a better Five Night at Freddies.
make another Siren game
Stop making it walking simulators down spooky hallways with jumpscares
>>345255880
This has to be the most retarded thing posted in this thread.
>>345255880
>ghost comes out of TV
>leaves by breaking the window
I love silly things like that.
>>345260623
Well it's not a ghost. It's your mom. She want to make sure you dont play video games when you are supposed to be sleeping.
I'm playing silent hill 3 for the first time and I'm not that scared. You juke through most of the enemies and barely get hit unless you face the ground crawling monsters. What can I play that will give me a real spook.
>>345260535
What I liked about Siren was that you could die at any moment and it was kinda hard to make some of the missions, maybe what we need for future horror games are harder gameplay
>>345259982
well I'm assuming that these planets have deadly wildlife
...they did say there would be wildlife, right?
>>345260867
Well it depend, if you are a psychological horror guy or a threat guy.
Amnesia is good if you like Psycholoical horror.
Dead Space is good if you like Threats.
Some people are scared of Slashers like Friday the 13th or Halloween
Some people are scared of invisible stuff like Paranormal activity or Nightmare on Elm Street.
>>345260535
Why do people keep posting this fucking picture?
>>345259702
Minecraft is pretty scary too for the first times you play. Cave exploring can be really scary.
>>345242107
Is true psychological horror even possible anymore?
>>345261321
it's scary
>>345253575
What if when you die the game crashes and your save gets deleted?
>>345251590
>is it still chasing us?
>I'm not sure; I can't see h—
>THIS SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE WWE SUPERSLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
>>345250021
sounds like arcing electricity
>>345242107
Horror is unintutive for most game design. Most game design is about making the player more powerful. Needs to play more like the pen and paper call of cthulhu where the player characters become progressively more damaged over time. The moment you feel you are in control is the moment the horror ends.
>>345261670
I'm so hungry even that looks good right now. I've been craving a pizza forever.
>>345262026
>even
This looks good for me anytime. Everything I usually eat is damn boring.
>Demon monsters chasing you throughout game
>Find notes about your past
>You did some bad shit
>End of the game
>Turns out you were running from the demons of your past all along, the TRUE horror
IT'S SYMBOLISM. It's just to deep for you if you don't understand it.
>>345249014
this
Good horror relies on the imagination and gives you just enough to drive your mind wild. A good horror game will give you the illusion of safety either in hiding in a spot, or feeling like your "weapon" can be used to deter the "monster" or whatever. The end result must ALWAYS be that the player-character does not escape, or if they do, that they are forever haunted by the experience. Some ideas:
>Use jump-scares sparingly
>Keep the monster/ghost/etc at a distance and when it comes close, make it FELT and not SEEN
>Don't be afraid to use vibrant colors and bright settings, but don't over-saturate the world with them. If it's a room with bright colors and bright lights, have our specter break the lights or cut off the light.
>On that note, when there is a sliver of light or an open door, have them peek through or run across the small area of exposure. When the pc is hiding in a closet or behind a curtain, have the spectre close in. Players that do nothing are punished while players who react are given the illusion of escape and safety.
>Allow weapons, but make them feel ineffective and ultimately pointless as a long-term solution.
>NEVER do close-up jump-scares. If the specter isn't kept out of sight or their appearance isn't being kept to a minimal, then the player adjusts and the "enemy" becomes more of a nuisance than an actual entity to be afraid of.
>Don't have set scripts for when the specter appears/does things. Not knowing when to expect shit to happen is part of keeps your player from getting bored.
>>345255530
>Dying Light
How is that horror?
