IndievdB

*Contains Minor Spoilers*

A jump scare is when something occurs suddenly in order to scare the audience. A classic example of a jump scare is The Maze game. You are focusing very hard on getting to the end without touching a wall. You squint your eyes and lean in to the computer as the walls narrow. Just as you are about to reach the end, a scary face pops up and screams at you!

Many people feel that a jump scare is an unimaginative and lazy way to scare people. However, they have their place in horror games and can be used to enhance the atmosphere of a game. When a jump scare becomes annoying or frustrating, it is generally because of two main reasons:

1. The jump scare feels unjustified
2. The jump scare feels repetitive.

Unjustified Scares
The classic popup of a scary face with loud noises does succeed in scaring the player. However, if the scare wasn't justified, then the player will feel ripped off and angry. This breaks the immersion of a game and can ruin the atmosphere. For jump scares to be justified, they should meet the following criteria:

• A) Jump scares should make sense.
• B) Jump scares should enhance the game.
• C) Jump scares shouldn't make the player mad.
• D) Jump scares shouldn't be isolated.

NOTE: Jump scares can be used effectively without adhering to these criteria. These are just guidelines based on my opinion.

A) If a game doesn't follow a system of logic, then the immersion of the game will suffer. A game designer should always be asking, "why?" Why does a scary face jump out at you? Why does the dead body fly at the player? You will find that in higher quality games, every scare has a cause; there is nothing that can't be explained. For instance, the first major jump scare in Outlast is a headless dead body being tossed at you. Why does this happen? Because someone named Chris Walker has been murdering people, taking off their heads, and hanging them from the ceiling. There's an explanation and story behind the room full of dead bodies.

B) Jump scares shouldn't be relied on to scare the player. They are a tool to enhance the atmosphere of the game. They can even help to further the plot. A good display of this is in the previous example, where the headless dead body is tossed at you. Soon after the jump scare, you are forced to navigate through a room full of dead bodies hanging from the ceiling. The jump scare has trained you to be scared of bodies hanging from the ceiling. It has amplified the atmosphere of the game because you're now thinking, "Is one of those bodies going to move?" Sure enough, one of them does.
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C) Horror games are designed to make the player suffer. This doesn't mean making them angry. If a player is angry, immersion is broken. So how can jump scares be used without making the player frustrated? You have to make them think about something else. In Amnesia, some of the monsters you encounter are merely hallucinations. They will jump scare you, then dissipate into dust just before they would have killed you. The idea is that the player isn't mad because they are too overwhelmed with relief that the monster wasn't real. Another way to make them think about something else is to give them information soon after the jump scare. In Outlast, one of the bodies you thought was dead jump scares the player by suddenly gasping for air and reaching out at you. Immediately afterwards, he uses his last words to tell you about the plot. The idea is that you will be too interested in what he just told you to think about the jump scare.

D) Jump scares can have a much stronger effect if they are used in combination with other aspects of a game. Let's say the player is looking at a painting that suddenly screams and morphs to illustrate some sort of monster. Great. That was scary, but why stop there? It's a great prelude for the monster to slowly crawl out of the large painting and chase the player. Let's say there's a loud bang and the player falls through the floorboards. Okay, now's your chance to darken the atmosphere. Cut off the lights and add some more ambient music. Now, in addition to the jump scare, you have a creepy change in scenery.

Repetitive Scares
A jump scare every now and then is great, but one right after another can get boring. Once again, a jump scare is just one tool in a game designer's arsenal. They shouldn't be relied upon to scare the player.

An interesting way to allow for more jump scares is the instadeath mechanic. In a game like The Witch's House, the character can die from something different at every corner. The point is to learn from your mistakes and eventually get through the game without triggering any of the instadeaths. Instead of being repetitive, the instadeaths actually contribute nicely to the atmosphere. They give the sense that anything could kill you at any time. This works for a few reasons. Some of which are how easily you can save, how fast you can move through the maps, and that they train players to expect instadeaths early in the game.

If you jump scare a player and instadeath them, it could provide more substance to your scares. More bite to your bark. Even if you jump scare a player and give them very little chance to survive, it might work to the same effect. Or it could just be annoying. Who knows? Food for thought.