Thank you much for the comment…and the link I’m reading it now…I love the genre…
I’m looking for someone to work with on a horror project. You can see a test level I put together of course using basic assets from Epic but the flashlight and sounds of course I’ve . I took interest in another project and it came to a halt. Would love to create a horror title though. Hit me up on Twitter @xHaVoK87 if you are interested.
PS: Here is what I put together. ?v=P7ko11aeOhg
I want to say this. And I know this is a WIP Project.
I think alot of people and devs are getting horror genre wrong.
Almost all the horror footages i see from indie-devs has been of a very dark room and a flash light with loud noise in the background.
That isn’t horror. I’m not speaking specifically to you or your project.
Just trying to point out some fallacies going around in the horror indie community.
And hoping my two cents could help further your development in any way.
Horror isn’t about darkness. It has nothing to do with it.
A dark level isn’t what makes people scared or react to events in the game.
Infact if you condition someone with a dark room, they wouldn’t be scared of it later on in your game.
Just look at all the successful horror games from AAA and indie- alike.
None of them portray this overly dark room with flash light mantra.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have dark areas. These dark areas are transitional objectives.
These are the room where you hear a gamer or movie goer say “omg i don’t want to go there, its dark”.
it won’t have that when your game is predominately dominated by the dark.
Or look at P.T for example. It wasn’t compromised of a dark hallway with a flashlight and loud noises.
It was a very clear and visible room with props that brought the story to life, contributing to it. Distant but distinct sounds like the sound of the light bulb swinging back and forth.
I heard a user saying they will be hunted by that swing sound forever (lol).
The eerie sound of the radio. vEven the sound of opening and closing door were scary. why? because it was realistically accurate and distinct.
When you have a level where a player can hear the sound of a pin dropping to the floor and respond to it in fear.
then you have true horror.
not whats being paraded around as horror nowadays.
Again you have a great game here.
I see a bright future for it.
I noticed you commented that the sound system was a priority and that you will work on it.
Fantastic.
But i also suggest that you don’t neglect research.
research research research. a hallway can be scary. its not the darkness or the noise but the small details.
Lol… I agree with you for the most part.
PT is a great example, I love that “game”…horror/suspense is about expectations, so you start off in a dark room, move into a bright hallway, everything is well lit but still creepy, as you loop, small things change, you start questioning where or not those things were there before, it establishes comfort, than breaks that comfort, also has confusing rules, and uses jump scares sparingly but super effectively. At some point does go all black except where you are pointing your flashlight. but if the whole thing was dark the whole time and you always had the flashlight would have been ineffective
So I agree, I plan on making players comfortable, establishing rules, than breaking those rules. There have been games made successfully that haven’t really been too much like that, Outlast(good game but very cliche), Slender actually pretty successful(though I not a big fan). There are a lot of games that don’t get it right…
I like your points, if all goes well though this game will be a Hitchcockesque psychological horror. And also complete agreement of the research aspect.
Thanks for the complement I hope you continue to follow the progress… 