scary things

[Mr_Inzaino]

hey I currently working a project and just curious about what scares people

My aim is to create the design for a scary game.

So what is your most scary game/film or other media and what was about it that scared you?

and what other things in real life scare you?

THANKS! :D

[Zipfinator]

Spiders. Spooky snappers. People's knees. Mysterious drops of blood.

[Mr.Mint]

In Thief 3 the cradle-Mission seemed to have scared a lot of people.

[dfacto]

Don't show anyone anything, but heavily imply that it is there. Sound cues, shadows, images and situations that hint at a monster or whatever you want, but don't show it until you have to and don't overuse it. Nothing is less scary than facing a monster 10 times and figuring out it's AI routines.

[Walrus]

This is a big topic and there are numerous academic papers on the subject of fear in video games, so you may want to look into that.

[Nitewalkr]

Admins,

Jokes aside, Play games like, F.E.A.R, Doom 3 and Doom 3 ROE, and also Thief 3. In Thief 3 Deadly Shadow: The Shalebridge Cradle and Abysmal Gale were the scariest.

Play them to figure out which scares people the most.

[EDIT: Boo!]

[dfacto]

Play D3 to figure out what doesn't scare people. When you make your "scary thing" tied to environmental cues, it just doesn't work. See room -> know zombie will come out of closets ->go in and kill zombie. See room with slits near floor ->know spiders will come out ->rush in and jump on a barrel ->spiders can't do anything. You need to make things unpredictable, because only the unknown is scary in a game. If it's known it can be challenging, but definitely loses it's scare value. The scary part of D3 was the beginning when you didn't notice the AI routines and obvious spawn locations and the world was unpredictable and dangerous.

[[HP]]

I actually found Doom3 really fucking scary when I played it... Probably because the environment were so well made and moody.

[Alberto Rdrgz]

Play dead space 2... after chapter 8 or 9 it started getting real serial! spooky as hell.

[JohnnyRaptor]

hairy armpits

[Nitewalkr]

Sorry, I forgot to add, Silent Hill series.

[SnowInChina]

things jumping in your face and trying to eat it

[JacqueChoi]

Stuff jumping out is considered a very cheap scaring tactic.

F.E.A.R. had some absolutely brilliant scripted events.

Download and play the F.E.A.R. 2 Demo. It shows you how scripted events are done right. (And stands as one of the best game demo's I've ever played).


Amnesia was a great indy game that just gave you a feeling of complete terror.

[Jackablade]

Claustrophobic spaces are what get me more than anything. It's not just about being in a small space. There are certain shapes particular curvatures to the level geometry and the like that exacerbate the feeling. Adding water to the equation usually makes things worse too.

As far as monsters and such go, all you need is good audio. The most frightening enemies I've ever dealt with were the Cybernetic Nursemaids in Systemshock 2 and the Hammerhaunts in Thief, both of which were built from around 200 polys with a fairly unremarkable texture stretched over it. The sound though was utterly terrifying like nothing else I've ever come across. A few others games have come along that have managed to generate some pretty high levels of fear and apprehension (notably Amnesia and Thief 3), but nothing has quite that sheer heart pounding, finger dislocating terror that those two enemies had.

[Fuse]

Scariest game I've ever played was System Shock 2. So tense.

[Oniram]

to me the scariest thing is when you dont know whats going on and you have no control over it. Doom 3 was one of the scariest experiences for me, since i never knew where enemies were until just before i got attacked, and i was constantly having to find/conserve ammo.

[arrangemonk]

dead space thought us that suicidal people who appear to have seen gruesome things are scary, but more spallter scary no "there be ghosts there" scary

the there be gosts there is mostly lighting and weird things that pop up from time to time with music like that Top 5 Horror Movies theme songs - YouTube

[tharle]

seriously 16 posts and only one mention of amnesia? that game was such a fantastic example of proper psychological horror, rather than the make-you-jump type more commonly found in things like dead space. the tangible use of the hand to open things directly made you feel really connected with the world but with no way to fight back against he monsters. seriously play it in the dark with headphones on late and night and you'll know exactly what makes an awesomely scary horror game.

[Bigjohn]

Are we talking about something being scary? Or something being startling?

Cause most of these examples are things that are startling.

Something that is scary is something that will make you afraid. It's like when we were kids, and we'd watch a horror movie, anything really, and then couldn't get any sleep that night. Doesn't really happen to me anymore. I don't really know if it's possible to scare adults, other than religious phobia or economic woes or what have you.

[ErichWK]

Anyone ever playe Haunting Ground?? That game stressed me the hell out.

Haunting Ground - Death Scenes - YouTube

[Tigerfeet]

The two games that have scared me the most are Amnesia and Minecraft.

Things they have in common:
- Darkness
- Disorientation
- Randomness

Minecraft
- You have something to lose. When you're down spelunking and you're down deep, your inventory is full of treasure it takes one creeper, or one slip and you're in lava, or you've fallen down a ravine. There's stress between cost/benefit. Do you continue across the chasm to that diamond you espied, or do you play it safe and head back to the surface to deposit your loot?
- Monsters are completely random, as is the terrain. You DO NOT KNOW what is around the corner.

Amnesia
- Empathy. When the character gets scared, by his breathing, by other cues, I get scared.
- Being chased and afraid to look back. In Amnesia, if you look at the monsters you start to go crazy, which warps your viewport, which in turn makes the game more difficult and disorienting. The most terrifying thing I have been through in that game was (spoiler, highlight to read), the water area when to get to the next box, I had to jump in the water and I could hear the thing splashing behind me (I play with surround headphones), it was gaining, I could hear it, but it was invisible. I think I was actually gibbering by the end of this encounter.
- Audio. The audio in Amnesia is amazing, so much is communicated with a quickened breath, a far-off, haunting scream. Where this falls short is unpredictability. After playing for a little I know the difference between audio ambience and the sound of something that's actually dangerous. If an ambient sound SOMETIMES meant something dangerous, and a monster roar SOMETIMES turned out to be nothing at all, the player has nothing to rely on and uncertainty enters into the experience.

Uncertainty breeds fear.

Nothing you can put on screen can be scarier than what a player will conjure up in his or her own mind. Your monster must not only hide in the darkness, it must be the darkness.

[glottis8]

The people from Amnesia have a blog, and they discuss their points of views on this matter. This is something that has been references a lot in this thread, so you should check out the blog. I read it all the time as they update, and a lot of what they talk about rings a bell with me.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/

[poopipe]

dead space and doom 3 did not scare me for reasons detailed above

system shock 2 scared the living shit out of me - that was a lot to do with the sound

if there's one film that got to me it's the grudge - that was largely down to sound

basically it's all down to sound - if you build up tension using sound you can scare people by simply stopping it, or showing them a monster, or blowing something up, or making a louder noise

[JDinges]

This comic strip.

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

[Gmanx]

System Shock 2, Amnesia and Condemned(1) get my vote.

[Nitewalkr]

Admins,

Jokes aside, Play games like, F.E.A.R, Doom 3 and Doom 3 ROE, and also Thief 3. In Thief 3 Deadly Shadow: The Shalebridge Cradle and Abysmal Gale were the scariest.

Play them to figure out which scares people the most.

[EDIT: Boo!]

AHHHH!! D:

Did you see that? Scared the fuck out of me!! :(

[tyddynroger]

this creepy dude from pans labyrinth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=n9YD2PFF31E#t=145s

siren:blood curse was a very creepy game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4VXouaScN00

[HAL]

Anything ingame that makes you feel beeing hunted. Bonus points for not beeing able to do anything against it.

e.g. that regenerator thingy in dead space. I hate such things.

[Vrav]

Sound gets me the most, but it has to be actually coming from something in the environment... or convincing enough to make you think it could be out there.

[Stinger88]

Scariest thing in games. Being in water. Especially water you can't see below the surface. I think my fear of this started in the original tomb raider. The panic to get out of a pool when a croc is swimming about was quite frantic. But the worst game for it I think was Morrowind. Seems silly now but I just hate being in water. The start of Bioshock kills me as well because I cant see below the surface. I love swimming underwater in real life though.

Scariest moment in games... The Zombie dog jumping through the window in the first Resident Evil. Near shat myself. Silent Hill pyramid head. Realms of the Haunting gets an honourable mention for scariness as well.

Scary films. Nightmare on elm street 1, Evil Dead, IT, Killer klowns from outer space.

[McGreed]

Scariest game I've ever played was System Shock 2. So tense.

Amen to that, freaking hate the sound of monkeys now! :( I had SO many shock moments in that game, it was great.

The first FEAR was great as well for me because of the damn ladder...if you played it, you know what I mean...
And Aliens vs Predator 2 I think it was, the first 10 minutes where you never saw an alien, but it was only cues about it and when the pipe came down...freaking empties a clip then. lol.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Amnesia, totally forgot that, the freaking water levels...damn they were freaky.

[matthewjvia]

Most of the things that scare me are moments of suspense when you don't know if something is coming, but you feel unsafe. Amnesia does that a lot, as did a lot of older games and movies. Sadly, a lot of people seem to think that gore is horror, but it's just disgusting, not scary. A lot of horror also depends on a sudden adrenaline rush, but that only lasts as long as the surprises stay unexpected and it depends heavily on pacing. Primal fear is the worst because it's natural, it lingers, and it easily pulls someone into the game. The more easily the scenario could translate into the real world, the more likely it is to scare the hell out of someone.

-being helpless, you can only run or hide because fighting back isn't an option
-feelings of unfamiliarity, like being lost, strange sounds, or the loss of senses
-hearing an enemy you can't see
-being hunted
-the feeling of being watched

[Alberto Rdrgz]

OH, fatal frame 2!

[Marshal Banana]

I'd made a similar thread a long while back, if you'd like to have a look:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47639

To add to this conversation, I'd say proper use of the Uncanny Valley. Something that seems to be normal, but is subtly just... Wrong. You can't put your finger on it, but it's there.