I've been doing some research on horror games and have noticed that it's sort of split in the middle between first person and third person. But the 'horror' theme in game titles has also been split up into multiple types such as the action/horror in Dead Space or the fear/horror in Amnesia:TDD.

I think a good horror game addresses the 3 senses.
Sight - Limited/distorted vision or slow then quick movement
Sound - music at certain points or events and enviro sounds
Touch - physical interaction/camera movement etc...

But is that how it's split up?... third person horror games are action and first person get you scared. Would you be able to get the same experience as Amnesia if it was third person?

But my main question is what are peoples opinion in what makes a good horror game and what perspective do you prefer (first/third person)?
And does anyone have a favourite horror title?

I'd like to hear anyone's opinion on this, thanks!


UPDATE:

I finished my research project and put the results into a video.

Learning - Basic Design of Horror Games - YouTube

I'd say the execution is a bigger factor than the perspective, and a lot of it's down to atmosphere. Resident Evil 2 had some scary, or at least "I'm creeped playing with lights off---oh shit that thing just jumped through the window!!!" moments at the time. I honestly don't really notice the third person/first difference once I've been playing for a few minutes since I'm looking at the reticule/center screen and not the character.

Amnesia works because everything about the game is putting you into the mindset of the character. With the heavy breathing and screen effects, not being able to look at the monsters. The game makes you afraid. While Dead Space was often creepy it was never really scary because you never really feel like you are Isaac. Even though I'm not looking at him, I'm still watching things happen to him.

If that makes any sense?

Now that I read that back I suppose the 1st/3rd thing does effect it a bit.

hmmm....

It depends. One of the things often overlooked in horror games is space and distance. This is something that greatly changes how the horror works in third and first person games. How far away and how readable horrific things are as you interact with them matter a lot.

First person games lead your attention and make focusing on certain elements important and I believe this is very effective in games like Amnesia and fatal frame where you can't just snipe enemies, and how easily you can see them directly affects how horrific it is.

Third person games make effective use of space and interaction where the whole scene contributes to the horror. Being able to see yourself in relation to what scares you magnifies the horrific context. Silent Hill. Eternal Darkness, and Resident Evil games make excellent use of this as camera position, location and proximity of usually many enemies heightens tension.

Fear is a broad human emotion and most games only tap into certain aspects of it, it's strange because it is one of the few emotions more affected by a 'lack' of information than presence of emotion. Not knowing or understanding what is happening is half the whole solution.

There is a bit of a battle at the moment for horror fans between survival and action horror, with many claiming that too many games aren't scary because they provide the player with too much power. However I do believe it is possible to elicit fear even in powerful action games by careful design of enemies, environments and contexts.

Also look at the differences between survival horror and action horror games




And the classic

Haha that's great Ryswik thanks for linking. Now I'm genuinely terrified.

Every post is this thread is being saved.

I'm currently writing my research and development on this. It's 40% of my degree so this is actually rather perfect. In a broad sense I'll be covering Immersion, emotions and methodology (of creating the emotions).
Still got a few month's of work on it before I will be posting up Q&A's / professional opinions on it.

I am a big fan of the horror, psychological thrillers, and in my opinion it all comes down to understanding. If you don't understand you fear it. A game that is unpredictable is scary, and it goes into life as well. Take for example Eternal Darkness. You go into that game and the unexpected happens.... your memory slot for the game has been corrupted and its been deleted... or strange things happen in the game, and you are not sure how they will affect your gameplay... or signs that tell you that the game is demo and that you should expect the game to release soon after, so thanks for playing. I think that was brilliant! i never knew what to expect. They don't flash you with pop ups that tell you your sanity is low... it just starts to distort the reality of the game. I wish Amnesia did that.... I love that game, but at the very end it got repetitive and boring tbh. But thats where the concerns are at, no? How long can you maintain that tension and unpredictability in a game? In a movie it might be easier since its 2 hrs or less for a horror movie to keep you on your toes, and some movies can't even do that. In games you are expected to fullfill that time with quality work throughout what, 8 hrs at least? There is that game with the baby that looks phenomenal, i can't wait to see where they take it and how it wraps up.

Dead space had it going really nicely. I didn't know what was going on, the game left a lot of my imagination to interpret my character and the situations, and the music and atmosphere in the game help me immerse myself into the game, making it easier to get scared. The next games are more wise ass Issacc super hero, hunter and savior of mankind. Which to me is lame. The tone of the game changes radically once you have a nobody have a harsh personality. The only movie i've seen where i have liked the transition of a character like this is in Mad Max. He is quiet and he ends up going mad... which makes sense. Isaac is disturbed... and this should be reflected in his reaction and emotions and maybe psyche... but instead, he has a boost to his machoness by making him more of a hero.

So there are other games that tend to follow this same pattern. I've been watching lately playthroughs of games. I remember a lot of people saying Clock Tower 3 was one of the scariest games. I didn't really feel that scared of it. But seeing a playthrough of a mod for half life 2 called Cry of Terror, really spooked me, even if i was not playing.

I think its easy to nail the atmosphere and tension in a game easily with graphics... the hard part is to make the player to be immersed in the ocurrences and relate to the character enough, where they put themselves in the character shoes. If this happens, then the game starts to become really scary... throw a lot of unknowns and bam... a great horror title. That is just my opinion. I've been playing over 20 years of games, horror being my favorite... and that is just what i think would help.

I do like the thread tho. I can't wait to see what else people talk about in here.

Originally Posted by Lazerus Reborn

Every post is this thread is being saved.

I'm currently writing my research and development on this. It's 40% of my degree so this is actually rather perfect. In a broad sense I'll be covering Immersion, emotions and methodology (of creating the emotions).
Still got a few month's of work on it before I will be posting up Q&A's / professional opinions on it.

Awesome, I totally want to see how it goes. I absolutely love horror games and have a keen interest in how they work and how to design them. I'm a strange case though as I tend to keep my distance from horror movies.

HAWP: Fear 3 - YouTube

Oddly relevant. I feel like it comes down to empowerment and management of resources in the game. A game can go so far as to include weaponry, but if you only have limited amounts of ammunition you find yourself ina panic at the thought of using it. "Oh god, what if I need these 5 bullets later on...can I just run past this zombie?" Also, the sound design helps immensely. I remember loving the radio static in silent hill 2 and how it would immediately send me into a panic at 2am.

Also playing through Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth on Xbox, you didn't even get a gun until about 75% through the game I think? Up until then you're just running and hiding from enemies and trying to not go insane. The game literally had an "insanity meter" that would change the way the screen looked as well as the character would start muttering to himself and all inn all go crazy. it was awesome.

A game can go so far as to include weaponry, but if you only have limited amounts of ammunition you find yourself ina panic at the thought of using it. "Oh god, what if I need these 5 bullets later on...can I just run past this zombie?"

This is one of the reason that there's an awkward distinction between survival horror and action horror. Many people believe that restricted supplies in survival horror is the best system, but I don't like it so much as I become an absolute hoarder and even start to refer to guides in order to avoid being trapped without supply. The problem with a player reacting that way is that they end up never using systems the designers built for them to succeed, and miss out particular parts of the gameplay.

I personally believe it is possible to make a game where the play has complete capability to defend themselves, but remains horrific by using various other elements, be it visuals, sound, story, gameplay, or other contextual influences.

Someone mentioned it as well in a Cracked article: A subtle horror game. A game where everything seems reasonably normal except for a few creepy things, and then as the player further investigates, their horror slowly creeps in. Somehow, it must be done!

Thing is tho Action-Horror doesn't actually exist, that's just the average FPS. Shooting monsters doesn't make something a horror.

I'm all for the psychological horror game.. Just being overly cautious because your afraid of getting a game over from having limited resources or being un-armed doesn't make something scary or a horror.
healthbars should in a sense be irrelevant.
Clever use of sounds, atmosphere and direction. Not just running away from stuff.

Although I cannot think of a sufficiant example of a good horror game, truthfully I don't play many because they are so hard to find. Many may claim to be good genre makers but in reality most aren't.

I wouldn't say it comes down to our understanding per se Glottis, rather, I think that it's more down to a third parties manipulation of our understanding.

@mask_salesman:well true horror is about fear of what? Death is the answer and then games are about immersion. So the player would just have to be scared of dieing so becoming attached to your character and what happens to him creates that fear regardless of the "mood". If I don't want to lose my character and I don't want to die. I want to survive. Something comes along and threatens that longing for survival that creates fear regardless of its nature or intensity.


We as game developers have to stop comparing horror in film to horror in games. 2 completely different approaches based on limitations.

Film is about mood alot more that a game. A film has to be because the audience has no input or control. Games you can have complete control of the situation and know what you may or may not be into so your somewhat in that situation so it doesnt have to be any particular mood.

Example...dark,closed in,flashing lights. That really doesnt matter....

I've always found the Thief series to be particularly good with horror. During normal gameplay, you're hiding from normal people anyway, so when you add horrific monstrosities instead...

Originally Posted by glottis8

But seeing a playthrough of a mod for half life 2 called Cry of Terror, really spooked me, even if i was not playing.

Cry of Fear? Man, that game's overall design was pretty terrible... Unless it's a sequel that you're referring to.

Yep... the game looked very amateur... but the random occurrences in the game were pretty spooky to be listening to and watching while i worked. I have been watching or more listening to a play through of haunting grounds.

I don't know that Death is necessarily the answer to what is universally feared.
My observation is that in most games death is the primary loss condition, yes - be it Chess or Mario - so long as there is a theme that suggests the game piece as a person or life: King or Plumber.
So death should be avoided and so the game begins - don't die.
Most video games also thrive on inducing a flight or fight panic response. The same adrenaline pumps into my system during a particulary tense round in an arena shooter as the beasty that pounces on me as soon as the elevator door opens in Deadspace.

Panic is a human survival mechanism. fight or flight says that if i have the means to fight I will, if i lack those means i will run. either action is little more than a response to stimuli and situational factors - and not inherently scary. It is essentially the same mechanic in any theme of game from Assassins Creed to Silent Hill.

Fear is a survival mechanism as well - it is that voice in our head that measures risk to determine our response - fear is the cause of panic, not the other way around. If the risk is great then it should be avoided so fear tells us to avoid it. In doing it anyway either because we choose to or because there is no other choice we engage in "owning" our fear - being brave, and thus remove its power .this is the fight. By avoiding the risk we bow to the fear and escape or attempt it. this is the flight - and the fear is assuaged, removing its power. Here lies the first problem with using fear as a narrative. Forcing a player react to fear is the very thing that steels them against it.

HORROR is something completely different.
Horror is not a survival instinct, not a response mechanism, not rational. Horror is the thing that freezes a deer in the headlights. It stops the fight or flight response in it's tracks - it is the thing in a game that makes you pause the game because you're heart is beating too fast and you have to escape the moment to remind yourself that it's not real.
Here is where i think It follows more with Ryswick's post - the things we instictively recognize as dangerous without knowing why.

lots of things are scary to the "collective consciousness" - predators, darkness, hights - and the thematic suggestion of these things in the darkness or around the corner. They induce a heightened state of awareness, and readiness for panic response - a sudden or sustained rush of adrenaline.

But when things frighten us for no reason - that is where Horror lives. Why is pyramid head scary? what is it about the way a monster looks or moves or sounds that is frightening? if those questions arent immediately answered then you're approaching the mark. can i easily say it's because it has sharp teeth or is some sort of abomination that wants to eat my face? or is there something more that i can't quite pinpoint or won't look long enough to try.
A deer will run from a lion - that's fear. It freezes in front of a truck in the darkness - that's horror. It's light. light shouldn't be frightening in and of itself - but this one is and it doesn't know why.
it's beyond lack of information, but that is a large part of it. It's an instinctual response without reason or obvious cause that is sabotaging rather than survivalist.
fear of the unknown is survival instinct.
unexplainable but undeniable fear what you THOUGHT you understood goes beyond that

and ofcourse the success of all of this depends on the players investment in the character and the narrative - something that is well practiced in any genre.

my two cents...

Wow, some good responses.

Lazerus Reborn Still got a few month's of work on it before I will be posting up Q&A's / professional opinions on it.

Sounds good, I'd definitely check it out.

reverendK Here is where i think It follows more with Ryswick's post - the things we instictively recognize as dangerous without knowing why.

Completely agree, and I have yet to experience this in a game. All of them are either fighting or running and for the ones I've played there hasn't been a single part where I 'froze'. That's the main thing I'm wondering. For humans, what would scare us that much that we just froze? I know people have fears (spiders, heights etc...), but we react to them, we run or hide... Would it be a combination of many things? Example: A situation we are in that we've never experienced before and we know that no matter what we do, it's going to end bad.

For gaming specifically I think It HAS to be believable. By that I mean you are completely immersed into it, you don't realize it's a game, you are the player, and you believe what is happening to you. Although you might not understand it, you still believe it. That's what I think most horror games are missing.

Example: left 4 dead. It can have zombies, monsters etc...but can I really hold 300 rounds for an AK... and can I not be tired after beating 20+ zombies to death with a frying pan. Although it's a fun game and has good co-op, I don't really think it's classified as horror.

I still remember a bad dream I had of a girl screaming with the whole dark eyes, pale skin and long open mouth thing. I woke up really cold and just froze for a few seconds before realizing what happened. I'll never forget it. I know it's not possible to experience this while playing a game but I think it's possible to get really close to it. And for that to be possible I think it's not a game.

In real-life, we freeze all the time, we just don't notice it and blow it off as if seconds have passed or the event was too stressing and quick for us.

How many times did you see that one guy, from his body language and such, know they were going to fall, or you see them fall and don't help them up because "Oh, they got up too quickly for me to do anything", when infact you did have time to help them, it's simply that fact that your dilated the time on your accord, and faked the unwillingness to help.

In games on the other hand, you're allowed to experiment, so the entire Freeze don't move approach doesn't hold water, especially on gameplay level where the player is confronted with an element they need to tackle, all the time.

The only game I can genuinely say that forced me to 'stop and freeze' was Amnesia, but that usually included me hiding behind a door or in a closet and holding still so the enemies wouldn't notice due to the door swinging open due to the flimsy physics, so it was more of a gameplay mechanic that forced the player to approach things in a certain way.

Same with Metro 2033, in the game, there are sections where you have to stop and not move so Anomalies and Ghosts don't get you, but they're only shown once or twice, in scripted events, so again, it's becomes a routine thing, the one time they're part of the game, they don't explain how or why it needs to be done, and actually misplace the element idea behind it.

Games inherently don't allow you to freeze, and those few that do, force you do it, not give it as a alternative method of experiencing the game.

I however agree on one thing, almost every single iconic 'monster' in our ages, was almost always a pale human being, with sunken eyes, elongates mouth and emancipated but built body, with sharp teeth and fingers, and even if each one has their 'own' way of doing things, they all follow the same formula, hell, even Aliens did that in one of the movies, and it was freaky as fuck.

Slenderman, Rake, P-Head, all the way from movies, to game, to memes...

Makes you wonder what's so ominous about said design that has been passed from generation to generation, and still scares everyone...

The pale body and sunken eyes monsters are a reflection of our fear of death and/or dangers associated with what is dead. They are all symbols of a dead body, and so become even more horrific when activity associated with life are mixed in. Something that looks dead but moves like life sets off a basic instinctual danger alarm in our minds. It's even what the "uncanny valley" is based from, we notice when something that looks so lifelike just isn't, in the same way a dead body is exactly like a living human being, but dead.

Long time since I've seen this thread but I'm back into it. I've managed to convince my teacher that I can do a research+creative response project on the design of horror video games, so anyone, feel free to post your thoughts related to horror games and what gets you scared.

Originally Posted by Snacuum

It's even what the "uncanny valley" is based from

I've found a lot of stuff on the uncanny valley and I agree. In a horror game, the uncanny valley works very well. Take the silent hill monsters, human limbs deformed and mutated into weird creatures, but still reminds us of...us.

Another topic I want to bring up is suspense/terror. Without these reactions, could horror be possible? I'm leaning towards no. Many people have said that horror is the moment you confront the thing that you're afraid of. The unknown thing that's chasing you, the unknown events that are occurring. The thing about most AAA 'horror' games today are that mostly all are in-your-face shocks. Maximum entertainment for minimal effort, and I don't really think this works well for effective horror.

Cool thread! My theory is that a good horror game makes you (unconsciously) dread your own reaction to the enemies. There are lots of action/horror games on the action side of the spectrum with really scary enemy designs that don't really scare you because you know when you encounter them you'll just whip out your twin pistols and blow them away, or whatever. But in Amnesia, for instance, you know that a close-up encounter with an enemy will lead to an intense chase that (at least for me) is physically uncomfortable in real life as your heart rate spikes and you start to panic. I think this is induced by forcing the player into a position where they have to make a lot of choices really fast, and any misstep will result in a "losing" state - it makes you frantic, which is unpleasant. Next time you think you might meet an enemy in the game, you start to fear that this reaction is just around the corner. Conversely, if the game just played a chase/death animation every time a monster "saw" you, I don't think the monsters would be nearly as scary.

I think this is why in Amnesia the scariest monster in the game is the one you can't even see - you're not scared of the monster, you're scared of your own physical reaction to encountering it.

Likewise, I think this is why games become less scary as they give the player more power to cope with the enemies. You know that an enemy might be around the corner, but you know that you won't be in this frantic "I HAVE TO PUSH THE RIGHT BUTTON RIGHT FUCKING NOW BUT WHICH BUTTON IS IT OH GOD" state when you encounter it. It might be a tough fight but it will be on your terms.

So, I find Doom 3 less scary than, say, Dead Space, even though they are both action/horror. In Doom 3, there are plenty of jump scares and levels where you walk into dark rooms, but there's never any dread because the fights don't reliably induce that panic response. You've got lots of guns and most enemies aren't that much of a threat. But in Dead Space, even though it still relies a lot on jump scares and dark rooms, most fights are pretty panic-y because the enemies are very fast and dangerous, and fights often evolve in surprising ways as enemies are scripted to drop out of air ducts behind you, or whatever. So you're not going to have time to process the situation and deal with it ideally - instead you start to panic. Once you know that is going to happen during most fights, the idea of encountering more enemies becomes scarier and you dread it.

Also danpaz3d, this might help with your project:

http://unbirthgame.com/TheSelfPresenceStorytelling.pdf

It's a paper by the creative director of Amnesia (Frictional Games) that talks about some of his ideas on story-driven gameplay and encouraging a connection between the player and the player character.

Originally Posted by danpaz3d

Long time since I've seen this thread but I'm back into it. I've managed to convince my teacher that I can do a research+creative response project on the design of horror video games, so anyone, feel free to post your thoughts related to horror games and what gets you scared.

Another topic I want to bring up is suspense/terror. Without these reactions, could horror be possible? I'm leaning towards no. Many people have said that horror is the moment you confront the thing that you're afraid of. The unknown thing that's chasing you, the unknown events that are occurring. The thing about most AAA 'horror' games today are that mostly all are in-your-face shocks. Maximum entertainment for minimal effort, and I don't really think this works well for effective horror.

Glad to see this pop up again aha.

I have another 40 or so days till my final hand-in date for my three tier research paper, project and assets. I've actually been creating a short three challenge survival game in Udk based around the same premise of horror and immersion.

I highly recommend you look into these areas for your project/plus some observations I've made;

-Head mounted tracking, other peripheral interaction such as force feed back systems.

-For methodology/
Degrees of control, anticipation of events, degree of movement perception.

Isolation, interface awareness, consistency, the physical environment that the user plays in.

-My early test's showed the actual environment that the user plays in, affects greatly to the immersion level the user reaches.

-HMD's exponentially increase the immersive level with head tracking.

-You must test user vulnerability to immersion.

Anticipation and consistency is greater than realistic graphics, Look at slender man game for some worthwhile observations.

-Paul Cairns reports are a very good read.

I think that should be enough at any rate, i can't give away all the goodies and deprive you of work now! Hope it helps and all the best with it mate! I'm on final implementation, data gathering & testing
Keep us up-to-date on your progress/ research areas if you don't mind. Quite unique & interesting to run into someone else in the same field when no-one else in my University has any remote experience with it.

All the best.

Well well, I'd never thought to see the day that "Necro" could apply to a thread in more than one way at a time.

really dig the discussion in here ^_^

Stumbled upon this vid a while ago and its really really good imo, definitley recommend you check out some/all of the games listed.
Highlights some indie (mostly japanese) horror games that you've probably never heard of before and are pretty bizzarre (surreall/terrifying ^_^). But there's a good mix of games in there, SCP is pretty frightening too.

5 great horror games with bad graphics - YouTube

@Broadway Agree, not seeing the threat is key in creating tension. Also thanks for that link, I've been looking everywhere for it. ^_^

@LazerusReborn Good to hear your still working on it! Thanks for the tips and those Paul Cairns reports are really helpful for immersion. Your working on a small game? Be sure to share it when its done. I'm going to put together a 'presentation' type video and possibly an article as well as I only have about ~6 weeks for it.


Came across an interesting article today on Gamasutra called "Fight or Flight: The Neuroscience of Survival Horror" and on page 2, Maral Tajerian (Neuroscientist) starts talking about Mirror Neurons.

these neurons are argued to be the key in understanding other individuals' intentions and feelings, empathy, and even imitating the actions of others.

That last part really got me interested. This part of the brain apparently functions a lot when we are observing someone else doing something, (playing piano, running...). So I'm guessing this is emphasized when playing a game, it is the border between observing and doing. We are watching the character (we see what the character sees) but we also control them.

What I'm goin for is that the designer HAS to emphasize all key aspects of the game so the player can believe it. For example, we can't actually smell an old piece of cheese in a game, so we have to emphasize what the player sees and what the character does. Put flies around it, give it mould and a bad colour and have s small 'sniffing' sound and camera flinch of the character accidentally smelling it. Use all senses in the game to make the event/interaction believable. In regard to gameplay, As soon as something happens that the player doesn't like, it will throw off their thoughts about the character+environment and be back to 'what key do I press for this?'. I recently saw a video where someone was really into the game, then rage quit because picking up objects was ridiculously difficult.