Creating fear in an adventure game

[Kroms]

I've been thinking for the past few days about the 'no death' principle of LucasArts and Telltale adventure games. "The Tomb of Sammun-Mak" had some 'deaths' that heightened the suspense occasionally, but it's not a technique you can use all the time.

My point in mentioning death is *fear*: how do you guys think you could stimulate fear in a game where you're essentially an immortal?

Say you're playing a game where there's a serial killer in kitchen, and you're hiding underneath the sink. He's looking for you. He knows you're somewhere in that room.

How do you make sure you keep it scary if you can't die?

How do you make sure it doesn't become frustrating or laughable? You can't keep the player there forever, repeating over and over. You can't punish the player. Then what? Is the answer a compromise, or am I not thinking outside of the box enough?

I know some people consider the underground tunnel scenes of Monkey Island 2 to be scary. I found them scary as well (mostly because of LeChuck's insane grin, which made me realize he was enjoying it), but it's hardly a blanket rule. Yet part of me thinks that may have hit on something. Or has time played with my memories?

It's frustrating. I haven't come up with any smart ideas. I know there's an answer, but I can't quite find it.

What do you guys think?

(And for those wondering what's up with that image, I was thinking specifically in terms of the Doctor Who episode "Blink", which feels like an adventure game at the end with the TARDIS. I started wondering how you'd adapt that into a game and, well, three days later here I am. If you haven't seen this episode, do it. Even if you're not a Who fan.)

[Avistew]

My answer is simple: I don't want it to be scary. I've never read a horror book or watched a horror movie or played a horror game. Real life is scary enough, I have no interest in being scared when I playing.
The way I see it, fear is like pain, except one is physical and the other is emotional. They're both supposed to be a signal telling you something is wrong, that you can push through if you think and realise the signal is "wrong".

But just like I have no interest in playing a game that would physically hurt me, I have no interest in a game that would scare me.

This being said, you don't risk dying in horror movies, do you? They're still scary. Plus you CAN die in Lucasart style adventure games, as long as it's part of the story.

[SHODANFreeman]

Originally Posted by Kroms

I know some people consider the underground tunnel scenes of Monkey Island 2 to be scary. I found them scary as well (mostly because of LeChuck's insane grin, which made me realize he was enjoying it), but it's hardly a blanket rule. Yet part of me thinks that may have hit on something. Or has time played with my memories?

I don't think that scene is scary at all, personally. It's basically the same scene as Lechuck punching Guybrush in MI1, except with different sprites, and a teleporting voodoo doll instead of a 9000-foot-in-the-air punch.

I think it's extremely hard to achieve real fear in a game environment without having fear for your character's life. It works in a horror movie because you have no control over any of the characters, and you are not sure when and if any of them will die. When you're being placed into a character, and given free reign to move around and do things, they have to somehow make you feel as though things that you do can cause them to be killed, and without allowing death, there is no possibility of real fear. That said, I hate the way death is handled in old Sierra games, simply because of how nonsensical half of them are, and how a death could mean replaying a good length of the game if you accidentally forget to save extremely often.

If you want my personal favorite example of how to create fear and properly handle death in an adventure game, try the Penumbra series by Frictional Games, specifically Penumbra Black Plague (the second one).

[JedExodus]

Adventure games can create tension, I haven't seen one that's really scared me...yet. But I remember the first time playing The Longest Journey and Broken Sword there were some really tense moments where I was afraid for my character.

[The Highway]

That picture of a weeping angel has already made me scared T_T

i think if you want to create fear in an adventure game, something is wrong with you, because all the adventure games ive played have been lighthearted. but i havent really played a hell of a lot of adventure games in my time, so i dont know...

[ShaggE]

I've always loved horror adventures, and very few of them use death as a mechanic. The fear comes from how well the story is told, and how easy it is to immerse yourself in the world. Sadly, I can't think of a single horror adventure that is truly frightening. Most of them go for jump scares, which is startling, not scary. The others are either too "game-like" to immerse you, or they suffer from bad acting, which can completely destroy the tension.

Take Sanitarium, for instance. An absolutely incredible game, but outside of two truly disturbing scenes, it's not scary. For one, the isometric view always reminds you that you're playing a game. For another, the acting is atrocious. Had these two things been altered, we'd likely remember Sanitarium as one of the most terrifying games ever made.

[Chyron8472]

When I think of fear that has come to me from playing adventure games, the first thing that comes to mind isn't suspenseful horror, but frightened startlement from something dangerous happening so quickly that I didn't expect it. Most LucasArts games don't employ such startling events. It's more commonly attributed to Sierra, I suppose. Still, if you remember ever playing Maniac Mansion the first time and walking into the kitchen to suddenly be chased down by Edna, I'd consider that as frightening even if you don't die but merely are locked in the basement.

[VeronicanPlay]

I think The White Chamber is scary, but that is because I am a real wuss

[Fealiks]

Originally Posted by Kroms

Say you're playing a game where there's a serial killer in kitchen, and you're hiding underneath the sink. He's looking for you. He knows you're somewhere in that room.

Deadly Premonition?

I agree to some extent that it's really difficult to create fear in a game where you can't die. The thing to remember is that the player doesn't have to know that you can't die. It doesn't have to say at the start of the game "By the way, you can't die", just like it doesn't have to say "They all live happily ever after" at the beginning of a movie.

The protagonists in movies rarely die either, but a variety of techniques are used to create fear anyway. For example, making it look like death is imminent is a great way to create fear. The only thing that adventure games lack in order to do this is immediacy.

The reason the underground tunnel scene in MI2 was so scary was that it created an artificial sense of immediacy by having you rush between rooms, and it made it seem as if you could die if you weren't fast enough.

You might remember that MI3 created a similar effect at the end, however, but it wasn't as scary (at least it's largely regarded as being less scary from what I've seen and heard). The reason for this is atmosphere.

Darkness, for one thing, is always scary. Humans are naturally afraid of the dark because we don't know if there's a predator or the end of a sheer cliff waiting for us round the corner.

The fact that the tunnels looked disused and dirty also helped with the atmosphere. The reason we found that so chilling was that it gave us the sense that there was no authority or protection there. It made it look like we were the only humans down there and all we had for company was an undead maniac with a vendetta and lots of voodoo.

[GaryCXJk]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PUT THE IMAGE IN SPOILER TAGS!

The image of an Angel will in itself become an Angel!

[thesporkman]

I don't know why you're trying to place unnecessary restrictions on the hypothetical designers of this scary game. If your puzzles are essentially about trying to keep your character from being killed by a terrifying knife-wielding maniac or something, then the punishment for not being able to solve these puzzles in a timely fashion should be a gruesome and disturbing death sequence. It's just going to feel silly and artificial if death isn't actually a possibility.

I suppose, though, if you're going to insist on not having deaths, then you're going to have to come up with something equally unpleasant. The consequences of failure have to be something unpleasant that the player is driven to avoid.

The consequences of being caught by LeChuck at the end Monkey Island 2 were that you had to watch the scary animation sequence where LeChuck stabs Guybrush's voodoo doll and that your puzzle-solving was interrupted and you were forced to find your way back to whatever room you were in to finish what you were doing.

If we were to apply what Monkey Island 2 did to your scenario, I suppose failure could result in a scary scene where the killer lunges at you and automatically chases the player character to another room. Then, as with Monkey Island 2, if there was something you still needed to do in the kitchen, you'd have to work your way back there without being caught again. This would feel a little bit cheap to me in this context, but it might work.

There are a lot of other possible unpleasant failure scenarios, I suppose. Maybe your character can't die but can sustain physical injury, and the more you mess up the more mutilated and disfigured your character will become. Maybe failure could result in the death of an NPC character you've grown to care about instead of you. Maybe the killer doesn't intend to kill you right away, and he ties you up or something when he catches you, creating an additional puzzle to solve.

I'm just kind of rambling and thinking aloud at this point. In summary, I don't see why you wouldn't want to have deaths in a horror game, but it's definitely possible to come up with creative solutions to the problem you've presented.

[WarpSpeed]

You can make a horror game with the right music and storyline, but it's hard to be truly scared about something if you can save/restore, and you know there's going to be a solution that lets your character survive.

In movies, you can have characters get into trouble by doing really stupid things. "Maybe we'll be safe if we run deeper into the woods!" If the characters are being controlled by an adventure game player, it's harder to get them to do stupid things - you basically have to force it by not allowing an alternative.

If Telltale wanted to give horror gaming a try, though, I think it would be interesting to see what they'd come up with.

[doodinthemood]

I think you can easily create an atmosphere of isolation, and then through that make something seem dangerous or scary even though deep down the player knows he cannot die.

[doodo!]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but that's a old lie that CMI told poorly. You can die in old school Lucas Arts games. You can die in Fate of Atlantis, Last Crusade, maybe even a few others. You sound like you need to play Still Life, and Heavy Rain. I'd also recommend the game Blade Runner but it's hard to run on modern computers.

[taumel]

Sorry, your savegame seems to be corrupt.

[ShaggE]

Originally Posted by taumel

Sorry, your savegame seems to be corrupt.

[SHODANFreeman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhdD0lYBh0Q

That's just a good little video that possibly demonstrates how scary Penumbra is, although it's 10 times scarier when you're the one playing.

[taumel]

Originally Posted by ShaggE

Nice one but honestly i think she looks more after a mix of angry/yelling/unmotivated, the look in her eyes isn't convincing.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by taumel

Nice one but honestly i think she looks more after a mix of angry/yelling/unmotivated, the look in her eyes isn't convincing.

I bet she hasn't REALLY lost her most recent saved game... she's probably just confronting a knife-wielding maniac in her shower or something.

[taumel]

I see, a emancipated woman facing a man in her shower who's asking her for making some breakfast and gesturing with a knife, yes, that does make more sense.