Need ideas for a horror game 18+ Thread

Allright.

I'm a 3d artist in general and I'm about to start making the game I always wanted to but I need some ideas first.

In order to find the help I need I'll post here my general thoughts and some questions.

First of all to get rid of the technical aspects, I'm using Maya/PS/Zbrush/Substance/Unreal for the most part and when I need them I also use Quixel products/Marvelous Designer/Speedtree and World Machine (that are probably not going to be used in this project except maybe MD). I still need to learn Unreal but that's also a reason why I decided to start working on this. While I can make some photorealistic renders in Maya I still have to find out how to make a photorealistic game enviroment that doesn't use a billion of polygons (I know how to make low poly's and transfer maps but I still can't get the low poly stuff to look photorealisticin Unreal).

This is not a game that will be released (probably ever) and I'm making it for myself and a couple of friends that I rust and asked me to let them play it, due to possible medical issues that might (or might not) arrise.

So, you want a horror game... And?

Well... This is not the usual horror game. First of all I want NO jumpscares or creepy music (unless really needed).

Quoting Stephen King:
“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”

The terror is what I'm going after. I see no games made in this way (probably there's a reason about it). The main plot is that you're a guy with a perfectly normal familly that for some reason suffers from the first stages of paranoid schizophrenia (not the cute or funny way they show it in movies). As the game progresses you as well progress in stages until in the end you can't really distinguish reality from what's on your mind and you end up commiting a horrible act like let's say killing your children or something. Once that's done you get a black screen saying "That's what you're made of" or something. Mainly based on "Humans are bastards tv trope" (google it. Can't post links for some reason) the main horror of the game is showing what people are capable of, especially people with serious derangements with or without their knowledge. Done wrong this can be a failure or a cute attempt at horror that ends up simply gross or gory or funny (in the wrong way), but none of these is what I'm aiming for. Done right it could be terrifying more than anything. I got a big number of medical books on schizophrenia and currently reading through them to see how it really evolves from something that can't even be detectable to a driving force of mass murdering people and what factors can help it evolve on someone or not.

Graphically I'm aiming for a small photorealistic apartment or house (something like Sillent Hills PT) and characters.
Sounds will be realistic as well (putting down a glass of wine or opening the fridge or walking on floor etc) except when the schizophrenia manifests in which case I'll still go for realistic sounds that will be randomly played without an event ( putting down the glass of wine) actually happening to dissorient the player.
The focus on realism is to immerse the player and give him a sense of security using reality as the medium. In the start of the game everything will be normal and throughout the game player will learn the characters (his family for example) because let's face it, who gives a **** if you kill your children in a game when you do not care about them, just because the game told you it's your children?

There will be ample use of camera effects and random sounds when the character snaps at start and randomly as the game progresses so the player doesn't discern when he plays in the game's reality or the character's mind games.

As for gameplay mechanics it'll be a first person game with no hud or anything, stuff will move around according to the character's state (for example you might go to sleep in your room in a house you know like your palm and you wake up in your room (the one you slept) but as you walk out it has changed places with the bathroom). This will be done sparingly and progressively (might be a bottle changing place in the start of the game and a room changing place much later on to your own children changing near the end). There will be NO metaphysical or otherwordly entities or sounds (everything will be from our world) and I plan on having a hidden sanity meter that'll be working similar to Eternal Darkness series. I'm also playing with the thought of putting an eyes-closing mechanic like in SCP game. You will be able to interact with anything in the game and the only visible hud will be the dialogue options (because NLP and AI are not advanced enough) and through them you'll get a massive amount of options (from sitting on couch reading a fairy tale to your children to maybe even have forced sex with your wife (really, I'm 150% against rape but in non-violent cases it's something even non-disturbed people do (at least for me, when someone says no to sex and then you continue like nothing happened it's considered a rape).

So here I am asking for ideas (the main idea I want to keep it. The killing your children ending was simply an example and it can be changed if I get any better ideas. The 18+ on the title was for comments mostly as while I'm not familiar with those grey areas in these forums I'm open to any suggestions however NFSW they are.

If you got so far than you and if you have any questions i'm happy to clarify things.

What I want here is ideas and suggestions on the story and maybe even ideas on similar indie games I maybe should try for ideas. But keep in mind no gore for the sake of gore, no jumpscares, no alien-zombie-post apocalyptic mutant-cyborg-tentacled hybrids. I want a pure real world psychological horror or... Terror.

While my main focus is suggestions on story and maybe even character development (I DO want to play with the player's feelings a lot) I'm open to mechanics as well (I want to play with his mind too).

Thanks in advance!

I'm not a game maker (for now), but I really like horror games and played a lot of them. Good thing that you don't want to do another of jump scare fests, instead you plan to focus on atmosphere. If you don't want to include music, I suggest you do really good enviromental sounds, so player will be pleased hearing footsteps etc. In my opinion it is very important yet so few games have it done right. Schizophrenia is a nice idea, never seen it in any other horror game, I think it can bring fresh look to your project. I've readen report form a person with actual sickness, and it's look like horror in real life, from hearing knocking on window late evening, to voice in your head telling you to kill random people and massacre their bodies. Maybe you can implement some disturbing visions, not guresom but creepy, like shadows that have no right be in some places, or something like that. If you want to include killing your family etc. you will have to implement blood, but for God's sake don't make it splash all over walls, do it in realistic way. As for the enviroment, it's better to focus on small area and make it really detailed and beautiful, and I'm glad to hear that you are inspired by P.T. which is horryfing. If you create human complex mentality and interest player with story, I think it will be great horror game, fresh and not like these jump scare centrals, more like Silent Hill 2 or Amnesia The Dark Descent, and then I would storng recommend relasing it, so you can get much feedback, know what you did wrong, and if everything goes well people will love it, and it can be your chance . If you want more suggestions from me, just let me know, I'm happy to help you .

I think the best thing you can do is to make it so every time the player goes to sleep the character wakes up in a different location instead of just the house's floor plan switching around I think if your going for realism and the main character is a paranoid schizophrenic then don't move the house around, but have the player wakes up in a different location like every time the player goes to sleep in the bedroom they wake up in a different location with the wife character asking you who let's say that the dishes are balanced on one another or if all the cabinets are open with the player having no idea how they got that way. There are not many game that have perfected the Physiological Horror genre I think if it were done right it would make a nice game, but it's niche genre so if a major video game reviewer plays it they will say it plays slow and that it's not worth the time of the gamer. So you would have to do things in the game that start off small and then turn into news reports of murders that happened like the player has progressed to the middle of the game and they go to sleep or the screen goes black and they end up somewhere they didn't tell the character to go.

Like Ethan in Heavy Rain, in the parts when he had his blackouts and thought he is the killer.

Yeah like that, but it would have to be more subtle and when the OP makes the game he/she would have to find ways to keep the player interested in the game during the early parts of the game and not lose interest

Agree. That's where the story comes in.

the real question is how do you keep people interested without going away from the theme of the game

There was a Swedish short TV series I saw once, four episodes I think. It was about a family of four which moved to a new and house. I had some problems watching it because of the tension. Stuff happened there quite a lot but the tension was still tense in my opinion. To me, it was pure psychological horror. It's called "Mannen under trappan" or in English "The man under the stairs".

I'd like to compare horror tension a little with a rubber band. The more tension there is in a rubber band, the harder it'll hurt, despite being so small. Don't put much tension in it and the effect won't matter that much.

I suggest making the house some sort of safe zone for the player, and while out of it different creepy things happen. For instance going to get groceries from a local store. Everything is fine when you're in your house but as you walk to the store a fog starts to settles. The closer to the store you get the tighter the fog becomes, at some point you might even be lost, and the character starts hearing really faint whispers and see silhouettes in the distance. Once you finally get to the store, everything is fine. Then as soon as you step out, the fog is back, thicker, the voices a little louder, and so forth.

I think having a safe zone is the most important part in a horror game, or something that makes the player feel safe, either unknowingly or knowingly. But tasks that require attendance need to happen outside that safe zone. Because every human has a place they wish to be at once things start getting scary. Or at least that's how I experience good horror games.

Naqser wrote: There was a Swedish short TV series I saw once, four episodes I think. It was about a family of four which moved to a new and house. I had some problems watching it because of the tension. Stuff happened there quite a lot but the tension was still tense in my opinion. To me, it was pure psychological horror. It's called "Mannen under trappan" or in English "The man under the stairs".

I'd like to compare horror tension a little with a rubber band. The more tension there is in a rubber band, the harder it'll hurt, despite being so small. Don't put much tension in it and the effect won't matter that much.

I suggest making the house some sort of safe zone for the player, and while out of it different creepy things happen. For instance going to get groceries from a local store. Everything is fine when you're in your house but as you walk to the store a fog starts to settles. The closer to the store you get the tighter the fog becomes, at some point you might even be lost, and the character starts hearing really faint whispers and see silhouettes in the distance. Once you finally get to the store, everything is fine. Then as soon as you step out, the fog is back, thicker, the voices a little louder, and so forth.

I think having a safe zone is the most important part in a horror game, or something that makes the player feel safe, either unknowingly or knowingly. But tasks that require attendance need to happen outside that safe zone. Because every human has a place they wish to be at once things start getting scary. Or at least that's how I experience good horror games.

something like this could or even my idea of the protagonist having black-outs with things happening during those black-out then near the end of the game the player is shown what happened during the black-out

A safe-zone is a GREAT idea! As previously mentioned, it gives the player a place to breathe in between pissing their pants and having monsters and scares thrown at them. All in order to have a greater "scare" effect when they muster up the courage to move on to the next segment. It'll keep the player constantly wanting more, and hopefully inciting a sense of dread combined with a want to finish the enticing story.

Another great idea is to, near the end of the game/story when all other "segments" or "objectives" are completed, reveal that the "safehouse" was never near as safe as the player might've previously thought! Taking away that safe-zone (by making it vulnerable, attacked, infested, etc) will make for a great Plot Twist and will most likely screw with the mind of the player. Just the thought that the only safe place in the game/story, was never actually safe to begin with will certainly help with creating that feeling of "terror" you're hoping to achieve!

On another note, I'm an avid fan of horror (as a genre) and I'm really excited to see that there are still aspiring creators out there who are willing to "push the mediocre bounds of commonplace horror gaming." Good luck to you sir!

I spent a lot of time designing various horror mechanics and events for various game ideas ive had, and have had the opportunity to learn about all kinds of fear-related info from studying neuroscience at uni. I also know a bit about mental disorders as a result of the same education. Here are some ideas to help you out:

1) As Naqser suggested, safe zones are crucial in horror games. Safe rooms, in-game pausing, reliable consequences, basically whenever the player can feel like they fully understand and control their situation.

2) Confusion is a vital ingredient to fear. Even the scariest scene or mechanic will have less and less impact over time, and the faster you change elements in a scene the faster the player will exhibit stress (fear). This is why jump-scares work - being unsettled is the first step to being afraid. For many reasons, unsettling the player is (imo) the key to horror games / movies / books / anything enjoyed over a long period. You can (almost) never let your player feel like they understand exactly whats going on. They must always be alert to the fact that their environment and situation can and will change. Simply put, to make a scene scarier, just ask yourself what the player is assuming about the scene, and then undermine that assumption.

3) Instinctual fears can easily be triggered. Spiders, snakes, the dark, water, heights, small spaces, close contact, there are loads more, but these kinds of fears are deep-rooted and can be used to great effect. Common tropes such as the scary spider or bat exist because of these instinctual fears.

When psychologically manipulating an emotion such as fear you need to have an ebb and flow about the game. In a horror game you need to pay extreme attention and make sure the player is in sync with the overall emotional state you want them to be in at any given time.

As for schizophrenia and other mental disorders affecting neurological, cognitive or psychological ability, youre straying into an area that can be a little difficult to accurately convey. Most hollywood nutters exhibit craziness in the classic cliche ways because its probably the closest you can get to conveying some of the truths behind such illnesses without being boring or sad. Some things do come to mind though that would be cool in a game:

Various personality disorders commonly affect a persons ability to judge the tone and patterns of human speech. This could manifest itself in a game by having the announcer on the TV saying something such as "the weather you will die today will be sunny with a possibility for light rain", even possibly with the in-game subtitles showing "the weather today will be sunny with a possibility for light rain" to compound the effect.

Audible hallucinations are far, far more common than visual ones. Hearing whispers, scratches, doors closing and opening, footsteps (that last one is rare but documented), all can be heard without any audible provocation in some disorders, although stimulus does increase this symptom.

Visual hallucinations are most commonly of the "corner of the eye" type of experience. Its likely that the muscles in the eyes (and possibly the optic nerve itself) become tired from prolonged hyperactivity (caused by things such as anxiety, paranoia, fight/flight responses) causes this symptom rather than any manifested delusion. In a game i can imagine if you blur the edges of your view slightly, you could display all sorts of movement in that blur to replicate the real-world effect.

A common symptom to a lot of disorders i studied where that to most sufferers, everything sounded louder and everything felt heavier. In-game that would probably amount to fiddling with the speed and volume controls, but itd an interesting subtlety if you can pull it off.

Let me know if you want to discuss anything in more depth, i have lots i could write about. With the amount ive researched this stuff it feels good for it to actually come in handy .

Negative_Damage wrote: I spent a lot of time designing various horror mechanics and events for various game ideas ive had, and have had the opportunity to learn about all kinds of fear-related info from studying neuroscience at uni. I also know a bit about mental disorders as a result of the same education. Here are some ideas to help you out:

1) As Naqser suggested, safe zones are crucial in horror games. Safe rooms, in-game pausing, reliable consequences, basically whenever the player can feel like they fully understand and control their situation.

2) Confusion is a vital ingredient to fear. Even the scariest scene or mechanic will have less and less impact over time, and the faster you change elements in a scene the faster the player will exhibit stress (fear). This is why jump-scares work - being unsettled is the first step to being afraid. For many reasons, unsettling the player is (imo) the key to horror games / movies / books / anything enjoyed over a long period. You can (almost) never let your player feel like they understand exactly whats going on. They must always be alert to the fact that their environment and situation can and will change. Simply put, to make a scene scarier, just ask yourself what the player is assuming about the scene, and then undermine that assumption.

3) Instinctual fears can easily be triggered. Spiders, snakes, the dark, water, heights, small spaces, close contact, there are loads more, but these kinds of fears are deep-rooted and can be used to great effect. Common tropes such as the scary spider or bat exist because of these instinctual fears.

When psychologically manipulating an emotion such as fear you need to have an ebb and flow about the game. In a horror game you need to pay extreme attention and make sure the player is in sync with the overall emotional state you want them to be in at any given time.

As for schizophrenia and other mental disorders affecting neurological, cognitive or psychological ability, youre straying into an area that can be a little difficult to accurately convey. Most hollywood nutters exhibit craziness in the classic cliche ways because its probably the closest you can get to conveying some of the truths behind such illnesses without being boring or sad. Some things do come to mind though that would be cool in a game:

Various personality disorders commonly affect a persons ability to judge the tone and patterns of human speech. This could manifest itself in a game by having the announcer on the TV saying something such as "the weather you will die today will be sunny with a possibility for light rain", even possibly with the in-game subtitles showing "the weather today will be sunny with a possibility for light rain" to compound the effect.

Audible hallucinations are far, far more common than visual ones. Hearing whispers, scratches, doors closing and opening, footsteps (that last one is rare but documented), all can be heard without any audible provocation in some disorders, although stimulus does increase this symptom.

Visual hallucinations are most commonly of the "corner of the eye" type of experience. Its likely that the muscles in the eyes (and possibly the optic nerve itself) become tired from prolonged hyperactivity (caused by things such as anxiety, paranoia, fight/flight responses) causes this symptom rather than any manifested delusion. In a game i can imagine if you blur the edges of your view slightly, you could display all sorts of movement in that blur to replicate the real-world effect.

A common symptom to a lot of disorders i studied where that to most sufferers, everything sounded louder and everything felt heavier. In-game that would probably amount to fiddling with the speed and volume controls, but itd an interesting subtlety if you can pull it off.

Let me know if you want to discuss anything in more depth, i have lots i could write about. With the amount ive researched this stuff it feels good for it to actually come in handy .

^This, They could use all the ideas suggested by the all posters on this thread. I would help make this game as a consultant or a director to make sure everything goes the way the main developer wants it to and to make sure everyone work on the game is organized and knows what they have to work on, most indie games fail because they lose direction and drive to make the game Skype would be good for the team to keep in touch and update each other on their progress with the parts of the game their working on.

Don't skimp on the sound track either. There's something about a soft slow piano in the background to build the tension. The sounds can be more on edge than anything you put on screen because the player creates the fear within their own mind. And that's a scary place to be.

ericmhunter wrote: Don't skimp on the sound track either. There's something about a soft slow piano in the background to build the tension. The sounds can be more on edge than anything you put on screen because the player creates the fear within their own mind. And that's a scary place to be.

That's also VERY important! Music, effects, and just sound in general can make or break a game in the horror genre.

As a plus with sound and shadows you can do a lot more to trick the player into seeing something that's not there by having the the character say something like "what was that" and have the character turn automatically to the left or right or even turn quickly around and then when the player turns the character back the way they were facing before things would be different like doors would appear or be open when they're not supposed to be yet and then when the player tries to walk into the open door the character would say something like "why can't I go into this room the door is open" then have the screen fade to black and everything changes back to the way it was before