Development Log: Horror Game Part 5

More notes, this time starting with a list of possible physical areas, then exploring themes for scares once more, using children's horror books as examples, and sliding around the mechanics to see what takes precedence.  I think I like the idea in the last paragraph, of making monster be more of the continual ticking clock threat (a ticking clock where you don't know the time!), and puzzles be the real thought-provoking challenges.

Scraps and Notes and Ideas for Horror Adventure

5/23-5/24

Remember that the common places were the scariest in Silent Hill.  Elementary school = scary. Sewer != scary.

So, with that in mind, think back to being 8.  2nd grade, approximately. What scared ME?  What did I do, what were my hobbies?  What do OTHERS do? Since I lived in middle of nowhere, the experience is quite different.  Perhaps just start with my life, and work my way up to other things as I think of them.

Common Places:

School

- Bus ride to/from

- Class itself

- Lunchroom

- Recess

-- Swing Set

-- Slide

-- Pavilion

-- Monkey Bars

-- Kickball Field

- Nurse's office

- Bathroom

Friends

- Friends' houses

-- Friend's birthday parties

-- Sleepovers

- Friends' back yards

- Friends' woods

-- Forts/treeforts/snowforts

Home

- Back yard

- Woods

- Flower Garden/Vegetable Garden

Town Center

- Church

- Town Hall

- Library

- General Store

Babysitters' Houses

- Back yards

- Woods

- Field

- Barn

Cub Scouts (don't remember much?)

- Meeting Hall

Common Hobbies:

Movies/TV

- Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers

Books

- Goosebumps (discovered it in 2nd grade!)

Videogames/Computer Games

- NES, PC games

Special Yearly Activities:

Halloween/Fall

- Hay Ride

- Apple picking

Birthday

Christmas

- Visiting Relatives

- Stockings

- Waiting for Santa (did I believe at 8?)

Easter

- Easter Egg Hunt

- Visiting Relatives

- Almost Catching Easter Bunny (did I believe at 8?)

New Year's

Fourth of July

Dentist visit (twice a year)

Carnival

Was I 8 When...?

- Hiking

FEARS

- Zombie in the closet

- Monster under the bed

- Neighbor's evil dogs (Dobermans or something)

Now stop for a second. A.) Mostly woods, since that's where I grew up.  Life is completely different for a city kid.

Grr.

Well, anyway, new idea: what if what is a safe zone changes depending on year?  Since Elementary School was awesome, but Middle School sucked, for first few years the safe zone looks like a school, but later the school becomes dangerous.  It would lull the player into a sense of safety and think that the school motif is okay, and then later strangely there are no other players in the school, and monsters start appearing, making it terrifying and quite a shock.

So let's start with this idea of making common ground safe zones, like a full school structure, and work on randomized danger zones later?

Stop one second.  I'm reading Stephen King right now, and it's making my heart skip.  Let's look back at good ol' R.L. Stine for some lessons.  Was Goosebumps actually scary?  Some were.  Welcome to Dead House, Night of the Living Dummy, The Girl Who Cried Monster, The Ghost Next Door, The Haunted Mask...

What are the themes of these?  Because that's what really scares children. In order, we've got Ghosts, Toys coming alive, Parental distrust, Ghosts, and Losing control.  In fact, Night of the Living Dummy and The Girl Who Cried Monster are BOTH about losing control, as well, so we've got three stories where the kid loses control of a situation, and two more are simple ghost stories.

And what is a ghost, really?  A spirit of the dead, yes, but what do they DO? Sometimes you've got a poltergeist, but usually they're just something that you don't understand, and they're scary because you don't understand them.  Fear of the unknown and loss of control.

Move to the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz. Besides the nightmare-inducing pictures, what were the scariest stories about?

Disturbing premises, for one: things off-kilter in a big way to set the mood, like a boy finds a big toe in the ground, and takes it to his mother, and SHE COOKS IT and THEY EAT IT. WTF?!

Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts, ghosts... Not being believed...

Also, expectations of fear! Some are about haunted houses, so people expect scary things to happen, and The Girl Who Stood on a Grave has the idea of hands coming out of the ground even when none does, she still dies of fright.

Premonitions... hmm, how would I work that one in?  Not just premonitions, but foreshadowing of any kind that the character understands, like in The Hook, the radio reports a prison break.

Modern scares, like High Beams and The Babysitter.  Work in telephones, somehow?  After all, that bit in Silent Hill was disturbing.  Phones can definitely find their way in, though I wouldn't know how to add cars.

So, all told: primary themes of these stories: Fear of the unknown, off-kilter premises (the world takes care of that?), loss of control, and expectations of fear/premonitions, which can also be interpreted as tone, to some extent.

So fear of the unknown is taken care of by exploration (kind of the opposite, but the tone makes players explore almost in morbid curiosity, scared to do so but knowing they have to), and what is left is loss of control.

How do you show loss of control through a game where you get the thrill of solving puzzles and such?  Perhaps if monsters aren't bosses in themselves, puzzles are, and the monsters are unkillable creatures that chase, and all you can do is hope to make it to a safe zone in time.  I think that will help tie things together.