Survival Horror and Shareware?
 

I recently played Resident Evil for the gamecube, and began to think of the possibilities of creating a survival horror type game as shareware. The most dominating limitation I can think of are graphics. I believe that graphics are often very good for this type of game and the resources available to indies are pretty slim when it comes to this department. Resident Evil creates a mood for the player that is driven by its looks and bad camera angles, and I think this is what appeals to a lot of people at first, but once you play it awhile the visual appeal diminishes as the puzzles take over, and you get excited when you find some more shotgun shells, etc. and the game, atleast for me, takes on a new flavor of fun.

I really don't know of any shareware-survival-horror games out there (haven't really look hard), and this may be because of it is too hard to truly create a scary game with the limitations we have, or it may be because there is not a market for it. Perhaps no one has really tried and created something worthy, but I think there may be an unexplored opportunity here. If anything, the puzzles and survival "fun" has been captured by a lot of shareware games out there, where the point of the game is to solve a puzzle and get to the next level. But imagine if you use this same aspect of these games and apply a horror type mood to it. It may have to be in 2d, but I think you can still make it scary if you are clever enough. Any other thoughts?

I think it's just hard to do horror right in the first place. I was going to say something about how it would be hard to do in 2d, but then I remembered the game Sanitarium. While not really scary, it was a bit creepy at times. So I guess, if you can get the art, it's possible. Still really hard to do right, though.

What about System Shock? The graphics are outdated, yet it still scares the crap out of people most of the time.

I agree it is really hard to pull off - any attempts at creepiness that fall just a little bit short may end up being ridiculously funny instead.

There's a horror-style shareware game coming out in a couple weeks that you may want to look into. It's not very well known, so it might take a while of googling to find it. It's called DOOM3. :)

I think it's a genre where the level of quality is so high, that to make something for the shareware market which appeals to the same players would be very hard to pull off. Not only that, it's entirely unclear where and how you'd go about marketing it.

I suspect survival horror is a going to be a hot genre for the retail market in the coming years. The latest graphics tech lends itself to it very well (lights are expensive). I wouldn't advising trying to compete directly. But, I don't see any reason why a survival horror game has to have realistic graphics. There are plenty of scary books out there. There are plenty of people out there that still like to use their imagination.

-Jeff
www.evertt.com

Scariest games in existence...
 

Okay, I love survival horror games and I encourage you to work on one. I want to be first in the beta! ;)

Seriously though, if you want to make a great survival horror game it's NOT about the graphics. It's about the sound. Don't believe me?

Go play Silent Hill 2. (You can get it for PC for about $15 nowadays or for XBOX or PS2 for the same price.) I'm currently playing through it and let me tell you, it's taken MONTHS to get through the first 5 hours. It's that scary. (Of course, I play with headphones, only in the dark, usually when the wife has gone to bed.)

Honestly though, the graphics could be freakin' blocks for all I care... And the game would still be fantastic considering the MASTERFUL sound design. And it's not even about "OMG SOMETHING IS MAKING LOUD BANGING SOUNDS ON A DOOR" scariness. Not even close. It's almost a slow, steady, pulse of ambient sounds... Almost like music except not. I can't explain it but play the game and you'll see what I mean.

(I now fear the sound of a crackling radio late at night.)

Not to rip on Survival Horror - I think it's a useful & important genre. But as horror goes, it's the videogame equivalent of the "Jump Story." (You know... the campfire stories with "Where's my go-o-o-o-o-lden a-a-a-a-rm.... YOU'VE GOT IT!")

There's SO MUCH more that could be exploited in the horror genre that's hardly been touched. I'd love to see games that explore some of these other, dark areas --- which of course mainstream publishers wouldn't touch with a 10-foot spear. Not until some indie manages to make a mint on it and it becomes a tired, overused genre 10 years later.

I was just going to make a post about the sound as well. If you ever play Aliens vs Preditor, one of the first missions doesnt have a single monster, but the sounds scare the crap out of you, because you think one could pop out any moment. Sound is key to a game like this, and I would really would like to see a shareware Horror game get released.

Once again, I must direct you to play Silent Hill 2.

This game is not all about "jumping scares" and such... In fact, the plot is very deep, mature, and adult-oriented. It deals with a lot of very dark issues. I'd mention a few of them here but it would SERIOUSLY spoil the game and I don't want to do that.

All I can say is, play it, all the way through. Don't use a walkthrough ahd DON'T spoil it for yourself. You will be very surprised at the content (and undertones) of the game. More games developers need to have the balls to put these kinds of stories in their games.

And if you want to know the spoilers, private message me and I'll tell you.

I'm in the process of playing Silent Hill 2 now, but I've not had too much time to put into it. I'm probably only about 4-5 hours into the game. So no spoilers, please :)

I had a concept once that I'll probably never do because I am too squeemish... but how about a game where you play the horrible, hockey-masked killer?

It's kinda been done before with giant movie monsters before, of course. Then there was Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, where you play the vampire. That had some elements of personal horror and angst, taken from the Pen & Paper RPG.

Would it be possible to do a real psychological thriller as a computer game? Or something like The Thing or Ten Little Indians in a computer game format... where discovering the identity of the killer has to happen before you can figure out how to stop him / it? Or a good cat & mouse type horror / thriller like Silence of the Lambs or Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Or a good ol' subltle-but-spooky ghost story like "The Haunting?" Or comedy/horror like "House"?

I don't know. I'd like to see some games try.

Manhunt does that I think. Apparently you have to kill your victims in as nasty a manner as possible to get good ratings on a snuff video. :eek:

Totally not my cup of tea. I'm finding as I get older, that brutal gratuitous violence doesn't do as much for me as it used to. Of course, it may be that the games are more brutal and gratuitous than they used to be. :)

Correct
 

Yes, Manhunt does exactly what you describe.

And the game gets boring fast! :(

What section/building of the town are you in now? And what do you think of it so far?

Finished the apartments.

And while I think it is better than most (Far better than the last game in this category I tried - "Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare" which I got for a budget price, and probably only played for an hour before saying, "This is CRAP!"). Interesting art style - good sound. But it was what I was thinking of when I said survival horror is the videogame equivalent of the Jump Story. My wife and I were playing it, and found it scary and tense in parts, but we also got to the point where we were laughing at the predictability. "Hmmm... how much you wanna bet a zombie should be jumping out right about now... Oh, BINGO! There's the static on the radio!")

I *do* like it - I'm also a fan of the big, formula-following summer movie blockbusters, too. It looks like it's doing some cool things story-wise, but it's only doling out the story in little chunks. So I'm finding it good, but not (so far) great.

Keep playing...
 

IMHO it gets MUCH better. Especially a bit further on...

My brother just bought Silent Hill 2 and I got to watch a lot of it, so I know the story. Only now I wish that I did not ruin it for myself. He used a walkthrough, so he got through the game real fast. But if you truly wanted to enjoy the game, I would advise you to just play it without a walkthrough or help.

I like the sounds, including the music. I think this is one of the best parts of the game.

SH2 Soundtrack
 

Yeah, I've got the soundtracks to all 4 games. They're all amazing. After I finish SH2 I'm going to play SH3... Once that's done I hope SH4 will be out in the US.

i think this is a smart thought. the deeper meaning i can see in this: when you do an indie game, and you want to succeed with it commercially, you have to be a master in at least 2 ways. you have to become a master in making games but also you have to be a master in the arena your game is playing in.

so for example you want to make a horror-theme based game? then you have to become a master in making games as well as in creating horror.

and you have to be passionate about your game's theme, because you want to support your game throughough the next years in order to make a lot out of it. don't choose a theme you are not passionate about: otherwise you will create horror for yourself.

The closest thing to survival horror games that i've seen (that have been successful) are games like Crimsonland and Alien Shooter. Though they tend to be closer to survival then horror.

I absolutely agree that !

During a little rant, listening to ghost sounds, I thought about how I could create an Horror game, a bit like Silent Hill, but with very little art ressource.
The best idea I had is to do a game very very simple : each level would be a house, or a floor; everything would be complete dark; you'd see your character in 3d view like in SH; and u'd hear terrible sounds : ghost, yelling, moaning, every crappy noise, from nearby monsters.
Your character would hold a directional lamp, lighting the close area in front of him.
The goal would be to find something : an object, a person, then the exist, running away of the monsters (ghost, crawling things) which would be trying to catch u.
No weapon, no fight.
So it'd be a very simple game, almost non violent (still could die), just damn scary if you play it alone at night... :)

I guess the 1st impressions would be great, but I have no idea if it could sell enough... :rolleyes:
But as indie with low ressources & time, it'd be already a good goal to achieve ..!

The most important part would be the control of the character (it should not be frustrating), the scary sounds themselves, and the level design (to have interesting exploration and challenges).

Any thoughts ?
(as I will probably never have the time to do it anyway, you can grab the idea if u like it... :p )

PS : about SH2, the best part is in the hospital... it's more than scary, it's... disturbing... :eek:

I love horror games, and horror writing. I do agree that only a tiny selection of horror possibilities has been exploited.

If you want to see a :p example of an indy horror game that made me laugh, and is very historically accurate:

check out this one
Halloween part I
http://www.bluechillies.com/details/15931.html

Halloween part II [much funnier] :eek:
http://www.geocities.com/mindarkh20/...oductions.html

unfortunatly part two is only available from his site and it was over capacity when i tryed it just now. Might try back tommorrow :rolleyes:

A little Flash game I saw on Newgrounds did a decent job of setting a horror-style ambiance with relatively simple graphics and sound... obviously, a person/company with more time and resources than a teenage hobbyist could make something more in-depth, but when I saw this thread it popped into my head.

You can check it out here.

Of course, like most horror games, it'll strike everyone who plays it as being either intriguing and creepy, or weak and tacky. I think that's the problem with the genre, it's very hit-or-miss. And sound is *much* more important than almost any other genre, IMHO.

Actually, I'm really interested in seeing someone try a serious indie survival-horror game now... any volunteers? :D

Any Indie who plans to try a Survival Horror game should probably check out the upcoming movie, "Open Water". You can check out a review here: http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...ter/index.html

Open Water was made on a shoe-string budget and has very little special effects. Yet almost every reviewer who has seen the movie thinks it's very suspenseful.

So I don't think there's a technological barrier for Indies to do survival horror games. It's all about setting the mood and atmosphere. You don't need the most sophisticated graphics to do this. An Indie horror game may not appeal to the same people who buy Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but most shareware consumers aren't your typical hardcore gamers anyway. I'm willing to bet many shareware consumers would appreciate a nice suspenseful game in addition to all the other action and arcade games they buy.

I've gotten nervous playing a 2D adventure game, so you can make people get on the edge of their seat even with simple graphics.

Argg...now I have to add a survival horror game to my ever growing list of game ideas I want to protoype.... :( :D

Some of the best and most scary movies that I have seen, have not been the slasher horror (in fact those generally make me laugh!) Check out 'The Others', 'The Village', and 'The Ring'. While there has been some violence in some of them, it's been the mood of the movie that has provided the fear factor. In fact, I started watching The Others one night alone, and got freaked out enough to turn it off and watch it the next day in the light!!!!! :D

I'd love to see a horror game that used real horror rather than blood and gore to acheive a scary game.

Oh man, I had to stop playing that! B-) I like how the different articles you find even tell you how it is affecting you psychologically and yet it still works.

I'll check it out again later.

Oh and it was Alien vs Predator 2 that had the no-enemy mission, and I have to agree. The music and sound effects are done well. While it did have a lot of jump scares, the ambience creates a tension. When you fall through that hole in the floor on the second mission, the music does that same tumbling thing (forgive me if there is a name for that) that you hear in movies. I was at a LAN party and playing the single player during a break, and if you ask a few of my friends who were still there, I was breathing and getting audibly freaked out. B-)

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just found this topic and I thought you might like to know of an interesting survival horror game for the Sega Saturn (and the PC) that is really based on sound. It is called Enemy Zero, and although the story is a direct rip of Alien, the idea of survival is made interesting by a few points. The aliens that are trying to kill you are invisible. The only way you can detect them is by a motion sensor that beeps. The faster it beeps, the closer you are. Your gun is very crappy, at first taking a minute to charge every shot (and you only get three shots). Another interesting feature was that it cost you a fixed number of "battery power" points to save and load, and when they run out, so does your attempt to win. This instilled an even greater sense of survival into the game. So, to reiterate what everyone else has already said, sound matters.

Another one that came out on NG recently that was pretty creepy was

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/189227

I actually had to stop playing it, even though it hadn't given me any big jumps yet. The ambient atmosphere alone was doing enough to creep me out.

...and I was able to sit through the Ring two days ago and get to sleep within two hours afterwards :). Although just looking at the box gives me images I immediately try to block out. Five more days...

ok, I KNOW that this is not the correct place to say this, :o

But i searched the whole web for a walk through to the game Exmortis, [previously mentioned in this thread]
Awsome game, Very scary, Very cool sound effects, Very cool graphics, Very tough combination to the safe on the 2nd floor.

Did anyone get the combo the the safe? I can't :(