Horror element

[Jakisthe]

This topic brings me to a game design question which I've struggled with for years:

 

Is it possible to create a horror game, with horror that persists throughout the entire game, without making the character weak or the controls clunky?

 

Every instance I can think of (Dead Space, Clock Tower, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Amnesia, System Shock, Penumbra, etc) violates one of those tenants...

[Choisai]

This topic brings me to a game design question which I've struggled with for years:

 

Is it possible to create a horror game, with horror that persists throughout the entire game, without making the character weak or the controls clunky?

 

Every instance I can think of (Dead Space, Clock Tower, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Amnesia, System Shock, Penumbra, etc) violates one of those tenants...

 

 

Though Resident Evil and Silent Hill got pretty lame because there are so many sequels, Dead Space, Amnesia and Penumbra were very good games. They might have broken that rule, but I never experienced a movie or game that was as scary as Amnesia.

Penumbra was good too, and you had some more game control. But it give you too much of an oppertunity to save and then just run into the darkness and see what evil will be lurking there. Amnesia doesn't really give you that option.

[Rennn]

King's Field 4 had clunky controls (d-pad, ugh). Having said that, that was because FROM Software (company that made KF and Dark Souls) was still stuck on PS1 mechanics at the time.

It's not a horror game, but it is an excellent fusion of a 1st person RPG, and adventure game, and a horror game. It's like the PS2 version of Dark Souls with slower combat and a bit more scare (for the time, because the graphics right now won't impress anyone).

 

However, I would assume it's possible. Part of what makes those games scary is your inability to fight back as well as you would like, due to the awkward controls. If, perhaps, a game moved at a very methodical pace in a 1st person pov, we might be able to make your ability to fight back minimal without it being annoying.

[Rennn]

 

That's as far as i got this time, let me know what you think!

 

Diairies will be important, I think. Skyrim has a lot of potential for written story, and it'd make the mod much scarier if you could find some chilling journals from people who died.

 

Start small. Mods this big get really intimidating really fast.

[Choisai]

 

That's as far as i got this time, let me know what you think!

 

Start small. Mods this big get really intimidating really fast.

 

 

I'll first start with creating the forest and the area itself. I'll do this by placing it somewhere in the sea of ghosts far in the north. This forest will be copied directly from the Falkreath county.

 

Then i'll start figuring out how to recreate carriage rides and creating these 'spawnpoints'

Then I want to recreate a camp for the Orcs and i'll start designing the Orcs. Not too hard though, they all have daedric weapons and dragon armor. Except for one that has full Daedric armor and a daedric warhammer.

I need them to act normally and walk or ride towards the goal. Can't be too hard. Then, once the area has been finished, I'll create the boat that brings you to the island. The boat can be seen in the distance from the island, but the water is to shallow for a big ship so you came with a small boat instead, the ones that can be seen in Dawnstar. I also want the Orcs not being able to start a conversation with the player.

 

I will copy the hero building from Sovngarde and try to make it more Gothic. If this is too hard, I'll leave it unedited.

The dragon bridge that normally leads to the hall will be replaced with the stone bridge from Windhelm. I hope these two will fit together, or else i'll have to use another bridge. Maybe a rope bridge like what you can see at bandit camps.

 

Then I need to figure out how to make the sovngarde castle and it's bridge to fit in with the forest of the island. I don't want to copy much of Sovngarde, but I think Ill have to do something like that.

The forest suddenly ends and the path becomes the bridge towards the castle. Creating the dragon that get's gunned down will be simple. It will be some guy using the staff of magnus but now it does a few thousands of lightning damage. The dragon get's killed and I need it to go down behind the castle. That's going to be a pickle.

 

I'll also want to create gargoyles in case I can use the stone bridge from Windhelm.

 

I'll also need to recreate the carriage ride but now make it way longer and write lots of diaries.

Not to forget my own custom made music.

 

I've already written one creepy background theme,

a ending theme slightly based on 'Prophecies' from the movie Koyaanisqatsi,

I want to use Prophecies from the movie Koyaanisqatsi (either an organ or piano version - I have both instruments),

 

a very simple background version of Liszt's Totentanz

, a simple melody based on the opening of Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem,

I want to use an excerption from Requiem Aeternam from Mozart's requiem (probably the excerption as heard in the movie Watchmen),

an excerption from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.2

 

a self written version of Carl Orff's O Fortuna and Fortune Plango Vulnera,

Schumann's piano quintet opus 44 second movement from the 'marcia funebre',

Beethoven's great fugue, a simple background

version i've written myself based on Bach's Little Fugue,

a simple background version (also written by myself) based upon the melody of Tchaikovsky Swan lake theme (the one that goes like: F sharp, b c-sharp d e f-sharp, d f-sharp, d f-sharp, b d b g d b, e d c-sharp f -sharp),

and another melancholic theme i've written to be played in the background.

The big problem with this music will however be the recording. The real big works like Beethoven's great fugue and Schumann's piano quintet have excellent recordings.

 

But for my own music i'll need to find proper ways to record it. I don't think the quality of my Ipad 2 is good enough. I don't have any professional microphones either but i can download some Midi-software and make midi-files with it. Too bad though that midi-files usually sound to synthesized.

 

The music that will play when you finally leave the castle got to be something pretty.

I've been thinking about using Tchaikovsky's Pas de deux from the Nutcracker Ballet. I have an excellent recording of the original, but also an excellent piano edition. But maybe it's to sweet for the darkness of the story.

What also might be suited is Schubert's opus 100, or Barber's famous Adagio. These have more sadness and darkness then the sweet Pas de Deux. Maybe, I'll use Nobuo Uematsu's 'To Zanarkand' from Final Fantasy X, but I don't want to use music from film or other games.

 

I maybe use Boellman's Toccata from the Suite Gothique for a boss fight but it's passionate, maybe to passionate for the horror.

 

feel free to suggest any scary music. I don't want real stereotype horror music (like the Jaws theme) but music that fits. Like Chopin's funeral march opus 28 (? - not sure it's op 28 that was a funeral march. The one that's really easy to play in a technical way of speaking) or something in that direction.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Choisai

[navarrobase]

I read this topic and i like the idea very much. I was brain storming ways on how to make the hero feel vulnerable and weak without taking his skills or weapons, completely anyway. This is what i came up with, a heavy cloud weakness for the Melee/Range types, a mind numbing fog for Mage Types, and a choking shortness of breath for Shouters. The idea being you can still use your weapons, at full/partial capacity however not as frequently. Upon entering the affected area (at your disposal wherever that might be) your hero is weakened severely. Allowing for only a select number of swings before his weapons and or shield are far too heavy to hold up, forcing him to catch his breath. Rangers far too weak to fully draw the length of the bow, perhaps even unwillingly denocking his arrow. Mages unable to focus with the dense fog in their mind having a bad case of vertigo after casting a select number of times (remember in "New Vegas" the blurring effect when your struck in the head). Shouting would have the worst of it, considering you are Dragonborn and it being the main focus of the game. Perhaps have severe penalties for it, such as you suggested, it alerts larger numbers of enemies. Perhaps even a one time use, or a certain amount of uses before you start choking to death due to the toxic fumes in the area and your large air intake. The bottom line being that your hero is forced to kill his enemies in the set number of hits if he makes a mistake it means his/her death. Sort of like a tightrope effect for a hero, death being a very real thing if you make a mistake. It would encourage smarter more planned out use of skills, and dreading the thought of failure leading to death. I'm not sure how the scaling would work between hero skills/weapons and the enemies. After all, you don't want heroes that sneak pulling 1 shot kills to have the advantage. Likewise you don't want to expend for example, 5/5 swings and you only drop the enemy down 1/4 oh his total HP. In theory, the hero would not loose his heroic abilities, yet he would be brought down to common man status (something all too scary for heroes). I realize that the mechanics involved in this idea alone are far fetched. Perhaps even impossible, heck i don't know, I'm simply tossing out ideas.

[Choisai]

I read this topic and i like the idea very much. I was brain storming ways on how to make the hero feel vulnerable and weak without taking his skills or weapons, completely anyway. This is what i came up with, a heavy cloud weakness for the Melee/Range types, a mind numbing fog for Mage Types, and a choking shortness of breath for Shouters. The idea being you can still use your weapons, at full/partial capacity however not as frequently. 1In theory, the hero would not loose his heroic abilities, yet he would be brought down to common man status (something all too scary for heroes). I realize that the mechanics involved in this idea alone are far fetched. Perhaps even impossible, heck i don't know, I'm simply tossing out ideas.

 

Well, i'd like to thank you for commenting on this topic. But the idea of 'fighting back' makes the entire thing less scary and more heroic. It isn't about fighting. It's about survival. It's a survival horror mod. Not limiting abilities, but removing abilities is what makes it so scary. A common man doesn't know sword-fighting nor does he have any marksman skill. He only knows how to use an axe for woodcutting or something like that. If you are able to fight back, it makes the monsters far less scary if you know that they can be killed.

But thanks for the idea! if you have any more ideas, just post them!

[Choisai]

For all you people who really like the idea - I have to finish a lot of homework before I can do this. So I can't start modding in about 5 weeks.