The mechanics of fear

[Pussycat669]

I can feel another breeze of death whirling through this forum. Let's see if a thread can reanimate it again for a bit by collecting notes about horror effects in video games.
I’ll write about concrete in-games situations specifically, so there won't be any involvement of complicated psychological studies, comparisons to books or movies and other fuel for intellectual trash talk. I'll also try to keep it as straightforward as possible and split the examples into three overarching threat stages that should be well established and general enough to get something out of it.


Stage 1: There is a monster in the closet

There is an indication of danger although it might not be apparent at the time. It comes with the undeniably knowledge that something bad is going to happen soon. Most commonly used techniques at this stage are noises. Scratching and pounding at the door, screams, footsteps but there are other alternatives.

What can be very effective at this point is to take away the feeling of safety. The ways to do it are:

Reducing the space to manoeuvre
Example (Alone in the Dark): The player enters a dinner hall and must realize that there are several zombies sitting at the table, waiting for a meal. As she's about to back away, the door behind her suddenly falls shut and can't be opened again. She only got a limited amount of time to find a way out before the first zombie stands up from his chair.

Using the player's confidence against him
Example (Cold Fear): There is an armory in the first half of the game that the player can frequently visit to resupply. At a later stage, if the player tries to return to get ammo for the final act of this chapter, there is an explosion and the protagonist is almost hit and killed by the door leading to said armory. A bruise and a ton of debris is all that remains. The player is on her own again. It could be argued that this scene is clearly a shock momentum which would belong to stage 2 below but I was more thinking of the uncertainty/insecurity that this situation produces. For the player, the explosion happens at a random stage of the game and she can't be sure (depending on how often she frequented the armory) at what point this catastrophe is supposed to be happening. Does she have enough ammo for the rest of this level? What if this will happen again later or, even worse, that there won't be another armory? It’s an healthy mix of broken trust and unanswered questions.

The losing battle approach
Example (It came from the Desert): The player finds himself in a spiral of failure or ever decreasing odds to win. In this example, she is confronted with an invasion of giant ants that start to attack more and more frequently. She won't succeed by simply fending them off but doing anything else will sooner or later result with the ants destroying the neighbourhood and therefore cutting her off from much needed supplies.


Stage 2: The monster jumps out of the closet

This is the climax that may or may not follow stage 1. Either the monster appears or there is just a loud bang. Although I don't believe that a direct a confrontation should (or can) be the highpoint of a good horror moment (for me they always boil down to either a dull exchange of blows or following some strict set-in-stone patterns) there are some ways to spice up a battle between the player and creatures of unspeakable somethingness. The element of surprise can be very efficient to create the right mood, repulsive visuals or sound effects. At this stage the scenes work first and foremost with shock effects. It is unlikely that they will work more than once or twice and the potential fear it creates wears off rather quickly (in case your nerves aren't made out of glass). Frankly, I got a hard time to find an example that would stand out since I'm jumpy in general so such things always work for me (ignoring if there's a quality to it). Alone in the Dark was again a pioneer on this field as far as I know. It included creatures that would suddenly burst through windows (even multiple times) and invincible enemies. Like the ghost in the library or a giant worm beneath the house. I can't think of any particular moment in my experience as a gamer that truly sticks in my mind though.


Stage 3: You are the closet

Yeah, yeah it's the 'enemy within' thing again. The premise may vary and can range from mind possession and curses to psychological/biological problems of the protagonist maybe even simple starvation. It is the most drastic approach to make the player feel that she’s loosing control since her avatar is directly affected without (or at least only indirect) involvement of outside threats. This has also its downside however. Most noticeable is the danger of loosing the possibility to make conscious decisions within the game which in return may hurt interactivity. This is often ignored by either making the ‘kink’ of the character unnoticeable in gameplay terms (take Manhunt 2 as an example where your protagonist suffers under multiple personality disorder. No matter if you are his good or evil personality the game will play exactly the same) or part of the great scheme on which the player has no influence (another person that is torn between his good and bad side is Torque from The Suffering 2. In his game however the second personality is handled as the main villain and is therefore untouchable until the end). Both strategies are completely non interactive and boring from my point of view. The first cautious step into the more entertaining direction is to slightly hamper or alter the perception and controls of the player character and therefore force her to adapt to the new situation. Call of Cthulhu featured some (albeit rare) highlights. Escaping over the rooftop of a rundown hotel while under constant fire and fighting vertigo at the same time can add fun and challenge to a horror game without destroying atmosphere.
Lastly there is the ‘Hulk Syndrome’ meaning that one or several formerly productive units (which could be anything. Items, weapons, player characters) belonging to the player are corrupted and set against her. Much like it was practised in Baldur’s Gate 2.
Your PC would turn into a demon at one point that aimlessly attacks anything in range. While you want to keep your NPCs alive you also don’t want to kill your own character since this would mean a game over. A very unpleasant situation and more tied in into the narrative than a PC that is randomly bewitched during combat.

Anything good that I’ve missed?

 

[Section8]

I can feel another breeze of death whirling through this forum. Let's see if a thread can reanimate it again for a bit by collecting notes about horror effects in video games.

It does get awful quiet in here, so I appreciate someone trying to stir something up, though I should make more of an effort myself.

Stage 1: There is a monster in the closet

That's basically what I'd consider to be "foreshadowing narrative", and is really the guts of psychological horror. At this point, even the mundane can become horrific. In reality, that scratching on the window is more likely to be a neighbour's cat than creeping death, and of course in Synaesthesia's gameworld, the opposite is true.

What can be very effective at this point is to take away the feeling of safety. The ways to do it are:

Reducing the space to manoeuvre (Panic)
Using the player's confidence against him (Misdirection)
The losing battle approach (Anxiety)

* Italicised notes are mine - just to generalise a bit more

I like the examples and aside from Cold Fear which I haven't played, remember them fairly vividly. As a quick aside - with the first, I'm pretty sure you can put the pot of soup on the table to keep the zombies seated. So let me give a (less concrete) example of my own that's been stewing away inside my head:

Over My Dead Body - A dead body has been found in the morgue, and it's identical to one of us. Either somebody has lost a twin, or something very strange is going on.

With this example, there's no clear path to resolution, or for that matter any kind of climax or explanation. But that's half the point. Something fucked up is clearly happening, and this is a good solid piece of evidence. From here, the imagination runs wild with a lot of questions and hypotheses. So in design terms, rather than NPCs telling life stories or rambling about mudcrabs, events like this is become a central point of discussion for the early game. For starters, it means a lot of conversations - "Have you heard about The Body? ..." - as well as group discussions - "So what are we going to do with the body?" - and also some immediate autopsy gameplay for medically skilled characters.

In addition to such scripted events, there's also the core concept of the gameworld steadily conspiring against the players, most commonly by manifesting strange beasts and critters. The difficult part is going to be ensuring that the creatures all leave their indelible stamp on the gameworld, so the characters see evidence of the creatures before the creatures themselves appear. There's also the concept of second hand information and a small "chinese whispers" effect. I really like Fallout's foreshadowing bits and pieces about the Deathclaw, and plan to incorporate wild exaggerations in combination with procedurally generated characteristics to form madlib descriptions that get passed from character to character with slight embellishments, factual errors and such. And of course, this all has a dynamic effect on the underlying variables that deal with emotion. So if NPC 1 saw a creature with "long floppy ears, buck teeth and a fluffy tail" and eight steps down the chain, NPC 9 hears about "pointed horns, gnashing teeth and a lashing, snakelike tail", then that unreliable information is going to cause a much higher level of fear.

All in the name of spicing up the general, unscripted play into something altogether monstrous.

Stage 2: The monster jumps out of the closet

This is the climax that may or may not follow stage 1. [...]

This one is a "narrative climax". The foreshadowing narrative (optional) finally "boils over" into something that requires immediate resolution. Given the comic book/graphic novel format I'm dealing with here, this basically translates into gameplay opportunities such as combat, engineering tasks injury and so forth, but not really horror/shock. The characters will experience dynamic effects, but I'm not out to set up shocks because for one, they're not congruous with way the game is presented, but also because I'm aiming higher than that - for intellectual and psychological horror. In some ways, it's a bit of a shame, since Undying did "scares" exceedingly well, and I'd love to try my hand at that sort of thing - but in the end it's just not that sort of game.

However, to revisit my example from before - it basically serves as a starting point for any number of little branches and occurances which fit into this category of climactic events. For instance, the body might just vanish. It might get up and start walking. It might decompose rapidly. It might be perfectly preserved. It might break out in boils and sores. It might appear in somebody's wardrobe while they're sleeping. Any number of things, and ideally there should be the ability to merge some of these events so we get into permutation territory rather than simply branches.

Stage 3: You are the closet

Yeah, yeah it's the 'enemy within' thing again.

The more mundane aspects of this are covered by Needs and related functions. But of course, I want scope for extended aspects. From the Iron Tower forums:

But to give you an idea of the lines of thought I'm pursuing - the game has opportunistic scripts to trigger significant narrative events or plot arcs. So these scripts basically poll every tick (performance pending) and look for conditions. One such condition would be "On Player Death { etc }".

And what I'd like to see within this script are anything from a fairly standard "wake up [n] days later in the infirmary, recovering from your injuries" to "we can rebuild him, but don't expect better, faster, stronger" to "I'm the bad guy, and as long as you work for me, you get to live" and whatever other possibilities I can dream up. The same applies to NPCs who die, though I'd make a single exception - the player cannot die until there's a suitable end to their story, while NPC fatality is much more real.

That's one of my thoughts on "the enemy within" - conscious and (somewhat) willing double agents. Or the great pulp-horror scenario when someone dies, gets resuscitated, and brings back something from the afterlife with them.

Anything good that I’ve missed?

Well, my "stage 3" would be resolution. What the characters choose to do in order to finalise the plot arc, and in some cases I want that to be horrible, regretable or unspeakable acts. Or at least unforseen consequences.

Let's keep the example going:

Remember how the body looks exactly like someone? Maybe it's irrevocably connected to them (depending on procedural generation of the specifics of the plot arc) and it's walking around causing havoc and trying to kill people. However, when someone tries to put it down, the damage they cause to it is mirrored on the character it's a "clone" of. Maybe it's invincible and can only be damaged by proxy - through hurting the original character. Hell, maybe it's not just walking around killing stuff, and becomes a full-fledged doppelganger and you have to pick which one to kill.

In any case, the resolution has potential to get messy, and so the resolution stage is all about dealing about what's been done, good or bad, and here is another great piece of potential for psychological horror.

The last little bit that I'll leave you with here is that I've been brainstorming "avatars of emotion" - in effect, monstrous humanoid manifestations based on predominant emotional output. So with this, there would be a run on effect. A resolution that leaves characters angry or depressed may manifest an "avatar of anger" or "avatar of depression" that starts a new thread at "stage one" with foreshadowing narrative. It's just a concept at the moment, since I'm not sure we'll be able to derive any great breadth of emotion from the underlying numbers.

Discuss!

 

[Trash]

How about the uncertainty factor? Remember how Doom 3 started out a bit scary because you didn't know wether there were monsters in the shadows? It quickly became boring and repetitive because there always were monsters. Sometimes it's a shitload more frightening when you don't know when something is going to happen.

 

[Unradscorpion]

How about the certainty factor? Like a big clock getting closer to midnight and it is hinted that something horribly wrong will happen at midnight or door that you must open, but blood flows from it and you hear horrible sounds. You know something is going to happen, or that something horrific awaits behind the door, but you have no idea what is actually about to happen. It builds a lot of anxiety and fear.

 

[Kingston]

If I could just suggest a scary game, Section8, try out Penumbra. If only the second part, Black Plague, that is far more polished and without combat (you don't need to have played the first part, I didn't at the time. Although, if you can, do them in order). It pulls very, very few lame scares where things jump out at you. Its mostly the atmosphere, the sense of being alone (or rather wondering *if* you are alone), and when you aren't alone, its that tension of wheter or not you're going to be spotted. Its incredibly tense when you know that something is headed in your direction, and you pray it won't spot you. Oh and Penumbra has a pretty cool mechanic in which you can't look at a baddie for more than a few seconds when you are hiding, or else you'll go into panic. So you are basically staring at the floor, relying on the sounds of footsteps and the moving shadows. And then ofcourse the fact that enemies are intelligent and fucking nasty and mean. Spoilers from penumbra ahead, do not suggest you read them unless you have played the game.

Spoiler

You need a handprint to open a door. A scientist who has locked himself in a room asks you to retrieve a saw so he can saw off his hand and throw it throw it through one of those slidable panels on doors. You get it for him, and instead a monster busts the door down. He used the saw to cut off the chains he had attached himself to the wall with in his past unmonsterified state. Or the plague in your mind tricking you into killing the only person who could have helped you

And just characters you love doing desperate things

Spoiler

Red in Penumbra Overture. . .

Edit: Let me emphasise that point. In desperate situations people do desperate things. And they usually scare the shit out of me.

 

[Trash]

It kinda worked in Dead Rising. At night the zombies became a lot more bloodthirsty and diffiicult to handle. I always felt dread when I was far away from one of the save zones and the sun was setting. Otherwise it was just a cool hack and slasher with some horrible side quests thrown in though.

If you want a real horror setting one should make sure that the player is always uncertain on what is going to happen next and that all that one knows and expects is turned/twisted around. From having a controller that suddenly doesn't work anymore to percieved save areas that become flooded with enemies, everything should be fair game to keep people on their toes.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Most noticeable is the danger of loosing the possibility to make conscious decisions within the game which in return may hurt interactivity.

I'd have to say that this is one of those immersion self-defeating tactics. Nothing throws you out of the flow of the game more than having something so "gamey" forced upon you as some sort of hypnosis on your character (cutscene effect) or fucking with your controls to replicate "fear". They both scream "GAME!" when used, even when it is tactfully done. I'm pretty sure most Codexers understand the idea of forced narrative as a bad idea, in most circumstances, all too well. But I'm not sure if anyone involved with games has gotten it through their skull that randomly fucking with the controls because your character is "scared" is as annoying as it can be.

See, controls being fluid an responsive is a quality every game should try to maintain at all times. Fighting the challenge the game throws at you is fun. Fighting the controls isn't. And I'd honestly have to argue that any "fear" effect that can be gained through fucking around with the player's controls can easily be replicated, or in fact done better, with careful and well thought out design. Personally, I think it's better to scare the player than "scare" the character. Because if the player is scared, that usually always transfers to the character. However, it doesn't always work the other way.

I think character capability is a big part of good fear, however. If the character being played as is your typical ubermensch super soldier, things won't be very scary because it's likely there isn't a thing they won't be able to handle. In addition, if you pump the player up by painting their character as such a beast, it won't be fear that's produced when you throw something they can't handle at them, but meta-game thinking of "Oh...a scripted event in which I must run away...then I shall do so to progress the story". However, it's almost as bad to make the player character an extreme pansy with no capability. Then instead of making the player scared, they merely become conditioned to the game being a run-away simulator. I think a good, if a little different, example of this type of balance lies in stealth games. Take for instance the Thief games or the Hitman series. The characters in each of these are capable of kicking ass quite a lot. Heck, you could potentially go through all of the games swords, bows, and guns a-shootin', but you, the player, would need an immense amount of skill. Players are encouraged to be stealthy however because it is simply more effective as a survival technique. Compare to Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid where there are instances where failure to adhere completely to stealth can equal game-over, and it feels so less suspenseful because there isn't really a consequence as much as a "game over" or "load again" type of thing. I can't really point to a good example of this besides maybe Bloodlines' Ocean Hotel or maybe the Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3...but even these are only specific instances and not even the best illustrations of my idea of a good balance of capability.

Another important concept to utilize is the idea of a red herring or making something that seems so obviously a "monster in the closet" scenario turn out to be completely false. This helps the game keep the player on their toes. A bad example of this is in Bioshock, in Fort Frolic. As soon as you enter, you see these plastered splicers and probably expect a few of them to be still alive and bounce out at you...after some suspenseful music of course, for the extra kitsch factor. And guess what? Right on target this happens. No imagine if it didn't happen like that? The game would have lulled you into a false sense of security and could have really used that effectively later on. But it didn't.

Resource scarcity also helps a lot. It was the driving force behind Shock 2, next to the sound, as it made encounters a choice between finishing them quickly with your nice ammo/weapons or saving them for anything nastier that might sneak up on you later.

EDIT: I'd also like to say I really like Section8's ideas. It kind of sucks that there are few good ideas like this in mainstream games and the saddest part is that it would actually be profit effective. I guess the game industry is just a bunch of hacks for the most part.

 

[Section8]

How about the uncertainty factor? Remember how Doom 3 started out a bit scary because you didn't know wether there were monsters in the shadows? It quickly became boring and repetitive because there always were monsters. Sometimes it's a shitload more frightening when you don't know when something is going to happen.

File that one under "Misdirection". It's like what Pussycat669 was saying about Cold Fear's armoury explosion. Give the player something to make them feel confident/safe and then pull the rug out from under them, leaving them second guessing their confidence. Undying did a similar thing with little things here and there to attract the player's eye and control not only their focus but also their mouselook vector. And while they're looking at whatever it is, make thing move on the periphery of their sight, or outside of it.

In any case, this sort of thing is definitely on the list.

How about the certainty factor? Like a big clock getting closer to midnight and it is hinted that something horribly wrong will happen at midnight or door that you must open, but blood flows from it and you hear horrible sounds. You know something is going to happen, or that something horrific awaits behind the door, but you have no idea what is actually about to happen. It builds a lot of anxiety and fear.

From this post:

Lastly (kinda rambling on this point) timed events a la the Last Express would happen occasionally, as part of scripted plot arcs. To give an example in that respect: there's a clock tower in town. A scripted event can take over, start it counting backward, and seed the notion that it's counting down to something. The characters now have to decide whether they want to ignore that as superstitious nonsense, or take time out from other activities to investigate and prepare for what might happen. Within that script, there would be potential involvement from various archetypes - the way to the clockwork is defended by critters, traps, locked doors; the clockwork itself must be examined, understood and possibly reworked by an engineer. That sort of thing.

In this instance, there is still uncertainty, but there's also some sort of imperative.

If I could just suggest a scary game, Section8, try out Penumbra. If only the second part, Black Plague, that is far more polished and without combat (you don't need to have played the first part, I didn't at the time. Although, if you can, do them in order).

I played the original tech demo a year or two ago and recently tried the demo for Overture, though I think it had a $30 price point at the time and that seemed a bit too much. I notice it's only $20 now, and the Aussie dollar is a lot stronger so next pay I think I'll have to give it a shot.

It pulls very, very few lame scares where things jump out at you. Its mostly the atmosphere, the sense of being alone (or rather wondering *if* you are alone), and when you aren't alone, its that tension of wheter or not you're going to be spotted. Its incredibly tense when you know that something is headed in your direction, and you pray it won't spot you.

Thief had these moments in spades. It's not something I can see being common in general play for Synaesthesia, but stealth play is one of the key archetypes and I'd hope for some tense moments within that. Also, in terms of isolation:

Isolation - You awaken in the middle of the night, there's a strange sound outside, and everyone else seems to have vanished.

I think one of the strongest aspects of the game concept as a whole is that we can do away with typical quests in favour of the surreal and unexplained.

Penumbra has a pretty cool mechanic in which you can't look at a baddie for more than a few seconds when you are hiding, or else you'll go into panic. So you are basically staring at the floor, relying on the sounds of footsteps and the moving shadows. And then ofcourse the fact that enemies are intelligent and fucking nasty and mean.

And that's a very cool mechanic that was never in the tech demo. I really have to check this out.

It kinda worked in Dead Rising. At night the zombies became a lot more bloodthirsty and diffiicult to handle. I always felt dread when I was far away from one of the save zones and the sun was setting. Otherwise it was just a cool hack and slasher with some horrible side quests thrown in though.

Dead Rising is awesome in many ways. Most of all, I like the challenges and dynamics imposed by time limits. Trying to get a huge group to safety before the sun set, the zombies hulked out and the inmates started patrolling the grounds provided some really tense moments. I've always been a big fan of the day/night cycle in games and have grand plans for Synaesthesia. In the beginning, the living areas can be locked down to keep the characters safe from "they mostly come at night, mostly". From that one simple machanic we can derive all sorts of horror plot goodness. What happens if someone doesn't come back by sunset - do you lock them out for the good of everyone else? What about sabotage, or simply degrading of the lockdown mechanisms? Or for that matter, what happens if the power generator packs it in, and the part you need to fix it has to be taken from the lockdown system?

I'm pretty sure most Codexers understand the idea of forced narrative as a bad idea, in most circumstances, all too well. But I'm not sure if anyone involved with games has gotten it through their skull that randomly fucking with the controls because your character is "scared" is as annoying as it can be.

I definitely agree. I want to compel players, not force them, and the concept of "Desires" which I'm sure I've touched upon somewhere (though expect a better write-up soonish) seek to coerce the player into doing things in character.

EDIT: I'd also like to say I really like Section8's ideas. It kind of sucks that there are few good ideas like this in mainstream games and the saddest part is that it would actually be profit effective. I guess the game industry is just a bunch of hacks for the most part.

Cheers, I appreciate the support and over time these ideas will come to fruition. That's one thing the "hacks" have that I don't. An actual playable game.

 

[cardtrick]

I've kept out of this mostly because I don't have much at all to contribute. I don't think I've ever played a horror game, although you guys make some of them sound very appealingj.

But I did just want to comment on this:

Cheers, I appreciate the support and over time these ideas will come to fruition. That's one thing the "hacks" have that I don't. An actual playable game.

What is the status of Synaesthesia? I've been away from all the forums for a month or so, but I don't think I ever really had a sense of this. Are you still in the planning stage? Or have you actually started working on the game itself? And is Galsiah working with you? (I have it in my head for some reason that he is, which seems like a dream team made in HEAVAN, but I couldn't quickly find a post saying that.) If not, do you have a team, or are you lone wolfing this?

Also, I don't know what your level of web proficiency is, but if it's not high and you get to the point where you'd like a quick website put together, let me know -- I might be up for it. It would be nice to have somewhere to go for updates.

 

[Unradscorpion]

Thief had these moments in spades.

That reminds me of that time in Thief 2 when I entered some catacombs with the undead...
I had no idea they were walking skeletons!
I tried clubbing him from behind when he just turned around, I almost got a heart attack.

 

[Pussycat669]

Wow, I just played the demo of Black Plague and the first encounter with an infected is tense to say the least. They make great use of sound effects and music.

The difficult part is going to be ensuring that the creatures all leave their indelible stamp on the gameworld

Nothing creates worse abominations than a random creature generator. I would go for that. :wink:
On a more serious note though, wouldn't the element of suspense be wasted on the player since this is supposedly a RPG with a replay value? Familiarization could easily destroy the tension that you want to create (except if you use a large amount of false information). It will always work for the NPCs of course but wasting so much effort into fear modifiers for NPCs seems a bit of a waste to program.

However, to revisit my example from before - it basically serves as a starting point for any number of little branches and occurances which fit into this category of climactic events.

I'm a little worried about this. You see, your examples with the corpse might be all nice and dandy but it lacks any real effect on the gameplay from my perspective. Let us take Eternal Darkness as an example and its insanity effects (like that the head of the protagonist suddenly explodes or that s/he starts to shrink, etc.). While this can create mood on the first one or two play troughs, they grew really annoying on me after a while. It was just that they didn't really do anything so the effect has worn off. Sure, you can surprise the player with little alternations like in your example but how long (or better how often) is he going to play along? You could bring the flexible effect on emotions in as factor but I'm not sure if this is a great enough factor to justify this situation alone. I guess my only point is if you want to branch such situation you better try to make them 'useful'. I'm always troubled when I have to restart a level in SWAT 4 since I know that the enemies will be randomly placed throughout the area which could result into completely different situations. Simple but effective.
It's not that I believe that you will make the mistake to replace gameplay with sheer fluff but the danger is always there.

Well, my "stage 3" would be resolution.

You're probably right. I guess I didn't bother to mention it since there hasn't been one game that did this in a satisfying way.

"avatars of emotion"

You're planning this as a one night stand or a long time marriage? They might serve as a warning to the player to not remain on a specific emotional level for too long (like that one guy who tries to remain as angry as possible so he can keep that +1 modifier for his chair leg). It could also serve as a one time quest with a story similar to 'The Brood' from David Cronenberg. Could be worth a shot.

 

[Truth]

I don't really consider being startled and fear as the same thing. Startling via monster jumping out of closet is a pretty cheap way out, while building up tension then startling has been cliched to death in games and movies. I suppose you can try the dream within dream thing that's been cliched...build up, startle via loud noise whatever, "oh, it's only the cabinet that got knocked down, whew", sense of relief, then startle again with Major Blackhart appearing beside you.

How about the certainty factor? Like a big clock getting closer to midnight and it is hinted that something horribly wrong will happen at midnight or door that you must open, but blood flows from it and you hear horrible sounds. You know something is going to happen, or that something horrific awaits behind the door, but you have no idea what is actually about to happen. It builds a lot of anxiety and fear.

Uncertainty and the unknown is huge...it goes with the cultivating of dread / feeling of impending doom. Pyramid Head silently staring at you behind bars that you can't get behind (until later). Noises in the dark/fog just barely out of touch.

Player vulnerability and impotence is another element though it's probably along the lines of player confidence. No 'safe' areas...that level you just spent meticulously clearing up and think is empty, the well-lit room serving as a haven surrounded by darkness is a trap.

Variety and unpredictability. Do too much of anything and the player knows what's going to happen next. Doom 3 - Pick up that powerup or weapon and the lights go out and get surrounded by teleporting monsters, yawn.

 

[galsiah]

And is Galsiah working with you?

For an extremely loose sitting-around-not-doing-a-whole-lot value of "working", yes. Currently I'm in the role of ideas-bouncer, and absurdly-underqualified-programmer - but have been slacking a little lately. (though dabbling in C4 a bit)

[[On that subject, I can't emphasize enough that if someone with real experience wants to contribute on the programming side of things, they shouldn't worry about treading on my toes. I want to do what I can to make Synaesthesia a reality, and if that means getting out of the way for someone with more programming experience, that's fine and dandy.]]

I'll get around to posting on the ideas front in a while.

 

[sqeecoo]

I tried the Penumbra games because of the recommendations in this thread, and I must say I am very impressed. The first one is slightly unpolished, but they both have absolutely brilliant atmosphere, graphics, story and tension. Almost no real scares! It's wondering alone in the dark that's scary in this game, it does not try to make you jump. Very very nice.

But what's up with Clarence's voice? I can't decide whether it loathe it or whether it's fitting in a strange way.

EDIT: a little snippet from the game; an entry from a scientist who locked himself in a part of the mine and was reduced to eating spiders (the "cell mates")

Day 71
My earlier assumptions on the benign nature of my cell mates may have been
made in error. After a careful autopsy, I am concerned that there may be a
small volume of natural chemicals stored in the stomach which, if ingested
regularly, may be psychotropic, or even lethal. My only real chance is to
break out of here and raid any stashes of supplies I can find. However, my
evidence against such a move is insurmountable:

1. I have no source of light
2. I swore to myself I wouldn’t leave until I heard human voices outside
3. The spiders are so tasty

Day 100
From the marks I have been making on the walls, and my scribbled diary entries
–which, in the dark, may amount to an ineligible scrawl – today is the
hundredth day of my new life.

Over the past month my edible friends have become more and more aggressive,
and have swelled in number and size. Whether or not this is a result of my
plundering their ecosystem, I am unsure, however, at this rate of growth they
will soon be too large to crawl through the gaps in the walls. For all I know
I could only be seeing the tip of the iceberg.

If all else fails, and I am never recovered, I hope at least my study of, and,
indeed, involvement with, these fascinating creatures will one day be regarded
as an important point in natural history. The greatest names in modern science
got their more through fluke than talent, and it appears that this rule has
extended itself to my discovery of this delicious new species.

I pray that the second rule deems my breakthrough too insignificant: for all
the great discoveries tend to consumer their inventor.

 

[Kingston]

But what's up with Clarence's voice? I can't decide whether it loathe it or whether it's fitting in a strange way.

Yea, I was annoyed at first, but I grew accustomed to it. Maybe a sign that the devs don't take it all *too* seriously. I was more annoyed by the woman, what a shitty voiceactor/voiceacting director. Everyone is dead but she's chatting like there *is* a tomorrow.

The diary entries are really great. The kennels in black plague have some pretty scary entries.

Also, isn't Red just awesome?

 

[sqeecoo]

Actually, I liked the woman, because you (the main char) seem to think she is insane, and she probably is. The positive attitude is a way to cope I guess.

Red is absolutely awesome.

And I agree, Clarence shows that the devs don't take the game *too* seriously, which would be the most irritating thing (when devs decide their game is "deep").

 

[Section8]

Nothing creates worse abominations than a random creature generator. I would go for that. :Wink

Procedural content is a big piece of Synaesthesia, and I want to make sure we get it right. So don't expect anything random unless it's perfectly surreal.

On a more serious note though, wouldn't the element of suspense be wasted on the player since this is supposedly a RPG with a replay value? Familiarization could easily destroy the tension that you want to create (except if you use a large amount of false information). It will always work for the NPCs of course but wasting so much effort into fear modifiers for NPCs seems a bit of a waste to program.

I'm not quite sure what you mean with this comment. That the player will inevitably find out what's out there before they themselves encounter it?

I'm a little worried about this. You see, your examples with the corpse might be all nice and dandy but it lacks any real effect on the gameplay from my perspective.

The setup itself may lack significant gameplay effects, but I'm aiming for some drastic knock-on effects from the setup. Let's say for instance, a medic performs an autopsy and as they cut into the corpse it puffs out a cloud of horrid disease. The knock-on effect of that is what happens when drastic action is taken. Do you quarantine the guy? The whole morgue/surgery area? Kill it with fire? Do nothing and hope it doesn't spread? what happens if it does and suddenly everyone is putting more effort into fighting the disease than finding a way out?

These are all high-level gameplay effects which will also change the specifics of the low-level stuff.

Let us take Eternal Darkness as an example and its insanity effects (like that the head of the protagonist suddenly explodes or that s/he starts to shrink, etc.). While this can create mood on the first one or two play troughs, they grew really annoying on me after a while. It was just that they didn't really do anything so the effect has worn off.

I always wanted to check out Eternal Darkness, though I ended up selling my Gamecube after realising I didn't really play it and wasn't excited about the line-up of games. I liked the idea of the sanity effects, but it's a shame they didn't really have much effect. I'm trying to avoid that sort of stuff like the plague, though maybe not properly explaining myself.

Sure, you can surprise the player with little alternations like in your example but how long (or better how often) is he going to play along? You could bring the flexible effect on emotions in as factor but I'm not sure if this is a great enough factor to justify this situation alone. I guess my only point is if you want to branch such situation you better try to make them 'useful'.

Of definitely. I aim to tend mostly toward things that will actually have a drastic effect, and even something simple like the corpse disappearing can have a knock-on effect of distrust and division socially.

I'm always troubled when I have to restart a level in SWAT 4 since I know that the enemies will be randomly placed throughout the area which could result into completely different situations. Simple but effective.
It's not that I believe that you will make the mistake to replace gameplay with sheer fluff but the danger is always there.

Yeah, I like the way SWAT 4 handles that little bit of procedural generation, and love playing it co-op with my brother when we visit one another. My aim is to combine that sort of low-level dynamism with higher level concepts and then spend a lot of time tweaking and balancing the whole mess.

You're probably right. I guess I didn't bother to mention it since there hasn't been one game that did this in a satisfying way.

Fingers crossed. Maybe this will be the first?

You're planning this as a one night stand or a long time marriage? They might serve as a warning to the player to not remain on a specific emotional level for too long (like that one guy who tries to remain as angry as possible so he can keep that +1 modifier for his chair leg). It could also serve as a one time quest with a story similar to 'The Brood' from David Cronenberg. Could be worth a shot.

For the time being they're just part of the bestiary, and when the monster spawning scripts look for an opportunity, emotions can be one of the triggers. I could definitely tie plot arcs into the idea as well, but I don't want absolutely everything to have a transparent raison d'etre. I need to leave some room for the player to speculate.

And by the sounds of it, I'm going to have to give Penumbra another serious look.