Whats scarier, blood and gore, psychological horror, surprises?
StormyStudio
United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
As I'm working on my horror game, current title 'Horror Box', I'm deciding what horror style to aim for before I get too far.
Which do you think most appeals to you and is most likely to be the most original/successful approach for the app store
The blood and gore route, (dismembered body parts, running blood etc etc), cutting your own characters hand off to escape a trap. Zombies... Movie equivalent: 'Scream, Hostel, Zombie films'
psychological horror, (children singing, ghostly figures running past screen but when you look back they've gone, or were never there)... the sound of distant screams, and strange environmental changes and phenomenon. Movie equivalent 'Ring', 'Rec', 'Blair Witch' and lots of Japanese Horror.
Shock - have things jump out at you. E.g. be looking at a magic eye puzzle for 20 seconds looking for a message when suddenly a witch appears...Movie equivalent, 'Scream'
Which do you think most appeals to you and is most likely to be the most original/successful approach for the app store
The blood and gore route, (dismembered body parts, running blood etc etc), cutting your own characters hand off to escape a trap. Zombies... Movie equivalent: 'Scream, Hostel, Zombie films'
psychological horror, (children singing, ghostly figures running past screen but when you look back they've gone, or were never there)... the sound of distant screams, and strange environmental changes and phenomenon. Movie equivalent 'Ring', 'Rec', 'Blair Witch' and lots of Japanese Horror.
Shock - have things jump out at you. E.g. be looking at a magic eye puzzle for 20 seconds looking for a message when suddenly a witch appears...Movie equivalent, 'Scream'
Comments
Blood and gore:
As you age this seems to not be as scary and most people now days are numb to seeing a bloody body due to video games, so I do not think is is very scary at all. Now dont get me wrong a dead body can still be scary it all depends on how you do it. Think more of the idea where you think the person is alive but turns out to be dead in their chair. What comes to mind is the scene in 1st Jurassic Park when the woman in turning the power back on and the hand falls on her shoulder and then she finds out it is only his hand.
Psychological horror:
I think this is best, but in the adventure games such as resident evil and silent hill. From looking at your screen shots I assume you are trapped in an elevator and there is not much adventure involved, so I dont think hearing a small child's voice behind a closed door is very scary in this situation because you do not have to go through said does as in silent hill or resident evil.
Shock:
This personally scared me the most when watching horror films. I am fine with all the graphic material and the "mystery" of it all, but when it comes down to it I end up plugging my ears because it is usually the peak in music, or perfectly timed sharp sound effect that gets me jumping.
Hope this helps you in your quest to make a horror game
I was inspired by the 1st Saw movie ending when the man is sawing his own foot off to survive. I wanted to make a game with a similar ending, but I realized that there is no real attachment a player has to the character to really care about having to commit this task and it wouldnt be that big of an achievement.
However I think you could achieve this attachment if your game was more of an rpg and had hours upon hours of play. Then people get attached to the character and would have more of an effect, but with most iDevice games only being 1-3 solid hours that just is not enough time.