Running out of ideas!

[palistov]

I saw Cryaotic's playthrough of your custom story and I liked a lot of what I saw .

Spoiler below!

A lot of it was tightly controlled events that you couldn't avoid which did cause some tension, like having the player look at something scary, but to be honest, the disappearing bodies was kind of....lame :S I suggest in the future making a lot of those types of things ambient (make them happen randomly and not directly in response to an event like entering a room or picking up an item), and not something the player is guaranteed to see. I think it would be much more unsettling to see it happen out of the corner of your eye instead of forcing the player's view to it and forcing them to watch it. Then it just seems weird.

Anyways...watch movies, play other video games, look for inspiration in literature, etc. My advice is to give the player an EMOTION or a feeling, not a jump of fright. Jump scares aren't very scary anymore. They'll give you a little shock but after that there isn't much value to them. They serve there purpose well in many situations, like the climax to a certain sequence, but if you've seen Cryaotic's playthroughs of Amnesia custom stories, you'll notice how over his Amnesia custom story career he stops being scared by the typical jump scares. Sure, they make him yelp every now and then, but it's not like he becomes deathly terrified afterwards.

Examples of good scares? (SPOILERS OF THE DARK DESCENT BELOW)

Spoiler below!

In the Morgue, when the player enters the side rooms with decayed remains of prisoners. The whole sickening/disturbed feeling the player gets. Try and build this up with your work

Spoiler below!

The archives cellar, when the player must hop around on boxes to avoid a watery demise. The panic and stress of having to do a difficult task while death awaits your first (and last) mistake.

Spoiler below!

The maze after the archives cellar, where the player has to run from the water lurker while leaping boxes and running through doors. Build up the fear and panicked feelings during the chase with sounds, etc.

*SUPER SPOILER* One of the devs mentioned that in chase sequences like this, the sounds that the player hears of monsters chasing them are actually exaggerated. When the monster sounds like it is RIGHT BEHIND YOU, it actually isn't. They designed lots of these sounds to seem closer and louder, or even scripted sounds to be played close to the player to enhance the fear without putting the player in serious danger.

What's the point? Well it enhances the fear without putting stress on and breaking immersion for the player. It's scary as crap to hear a water lurker snap its jaws right at your heals, but it's annoying when it repeatedly kills you at the same point in the chase.

Instill fear, not frustration.

Spoiler below!

Something I used in my map is smart monster AI. I would have the monster follow the player around. As an example, when the monster spawns, it is almost surely going to spot and follow the player. I set it up that way. But it is also easy for the player to get out of sight, so when they do the monster follows them. And when the monster reaches a certain point, it is given a new patrol route. This enhances the feeling that the monster is ACTUALLY searching for the player. This continues throughout the whole map. You can see it here from 13:43 til the end, and continuing into the next part (part 3).

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Oh and some extra tips:

Watch or play other peoples' mods and try and develop those feelings you get from them into your story. There's nothing new under the sun, but you can always put your own twist on it