Good Settings for a Horror Game

[Amosquito]

So what are some good settings that horror games take place in? (Besides graveyards)

[Vasyenka]

Personally, I believe atmosphere is what makes for a good horror game per se. Your setting could be within a graveyard, but if it's daytime, you're with friends, there's joyous music, etc. it's not going to be "scary". However, take away the light, the company, the music, and add in other elements such as a sluggish mist, foliage, ambient sound effects, and possibly even whispers and/or apparitions, and you now have something most would consider "scary".

A good example of this, in my opinion, would be Silent Hill. Throughout much of the game, you explore areas that are well lit, not a whole lot in terms of ambiance going on, and you're lulled into this sense of security - that your character isn't going to die any moment. But when the game shifts to the otherworld, everything becomes dark, looks rusted/frozen, and you're unsure if what you heard was just ambiance or an actual monster on your trail - all while taking place in the same location.

Of course, personal preference takes a huge role in that, blah blah blah etc. etc., but atmosphere is my choice of what makes one on the edge of voiding their bowels in a horror game.

[Sexbad]

I want a game set on a Borg Cube. Not a fully functional one, though, because you'd be assimilated within minutes, but maybe one that has crashed and is having trouble maintaining your connection to the Collective. You'd have to escape and find refuge or something while avoiding Borg Drones that are still functioning.

[hollowleviathan]

There's some good logical difficulty ramping in your idea, Lee. Since the more drones find you and you must fight, the more resistant the next ones you find will be to your phaser. So it behooves you not to be found.

[Sexbad]

Maybe your phaser has a number of frequencies, too. Each frequency has like two or three effective shots, and lower ones stun the bad guys while the higher ones can kill them. You'd have to conserve certain shots for certain situations, too.

[Mine Turtle]

(10-09-2011 12:39 PM)Amosquito Wrote:  So what are some good settings that horror games take place in? (Besides graveyards)

- (nighttime) you fall into an abandoned mineshaft (like penumbra - overture)




- (nighttime) youre in a forest, lost, alone, and you have no sense of direction, you then come across a deserted city, and before entering one of the houses you hear a faint humming scream in the forest behind you.




- (nighttime) youre in a forest, again, with no sense of direction, alone, and lost. you then see a faint light in the background. you follow it, and hear a very faint scream behind you. you think its nothing, then turn around, seeing something in the distance, through the fog, looking at you. you think its your imagination, then you check again, its come closer.


i can come up with more if ya'd like ^^