EarthQuake

Fear is a response to the unknown, usually to an event that is assumed to occur. Knowing that something undesirable will happen, but never knowing when it will happen will induce some form of fear in many people, and this uncertainty is my main weapon against my audience.

What I'm doing is taking a highly atmospheric setting, introducing some "uncomfortable" game mechanics (lack of weapons, slower movement), and randomizing the settings and situations to reduce the chance of players becoming too familiar with any single place or event.

You won't know where the next level is. You won't know where that next health or food item that you badly need is. You'll never know exactly where a monster is. There's no guarantee you'll ever even encounter a monster, but you know the chance is there. Players will be equipped with basic knowledge about how to play, and the rest is undetermined. No story, no explanations for what is happening, and only one long-term goal: to survive.

I've spent quite a few hours playtesting this thing, and as someone who knows every little thing about how the mod works, it never fails to creep me out, or even outright frighten me. I have one playtester that refused to play it for an extended period of time. I hope that these are signs of a successful implementation.

40oz said:

I'm interested in how your approach to this is going to be. This probably isn't what you have in mind, but my favorite way to induce fear is to strategically manipulate the visuals and behavior of the game as the player is becoming comfortable with it.

Scythe 2 kept me on the edge of chair, and did so, so simply.

jute said:

I think the game idea is very good. Will it support co-op play?

I think someone did this very thing at the ZDoom forums. I remember it using fog to good effect, too.

Sorry, missed your post. Yes, it's being designed with multiplayer in mind, and in fact much of the complexity stems from it being multiplayer-compatible. Although people can play alone, a wider set of strategies can be employed when others are present in the game. Cooperatively, players can spread out and quickly find the entrance to the next level, or reveal the location of items other players may need, or even distract a monster to aid a cornered/hidden player.

Heh, if you can think of the name of the project you saw over at ZDoom, I'd love to look at it. Doesn't hurt to see what else is already out there.