A Diskussion about "regenerative health" in horror games.

[Ghieri]

Qualifications in terms of storyline or development?, in terms of
development, not much, a few mods here and there way back in the old
counter-strike days, in terms of storyline, quite a bit, custom
storylines for many games (but not amnesia or penumbra, i am only a
recent convert to horror, my lack of experience would probably result in
the usual lame jumpscare fest as its just not my feild of experience,
wich is action-thriller) , a few published short stories in local
newspapers and magazines, nothing international as of yet though.

I see. The problem is, you have little practical experience, and are taking on huge projects like this. Publishers won't touch it because they believe that the project will fail, Developers might like your idea, but won't help you out because they have their own ideas developed in house that have a greater chance of success. Unless you can prove to them that your project is worth funding(Unsually by showing them a working prototype and pitch document) then you probably won't get the funding that you need.

[the dark side]

thank you.

i have got the pitch document. thats not a problem, a working prototype is, i dont have the money to finance one from the pro's. personally, and well, not even modders will work on it for free. so im pretty much in big trouble there. another problem is the mechanics, many modern game engines have the gameplay mechanics wrote into them, so if i use cryengine SDK for example, im stuffed, because you can only use COD mechanics as they are written into the engines core code, and if i use source, wich has the correct mechanics for the franchise coded in, it will get laughed out the office for "wasting our time with such an old engine!" and i dont have the money to cook up a special "unique" engine.
a shame, as i know the perfect level to use for the "tech demo", level 4 of chapter 1. that level alone shows of 90% of the games mechanics.

any idea what would make the publishers think its likely to fail? knowing that, i can hopefully alleviate some of those fears.

i can take a rough quess, but, i could be very wide of the mark

1. the old fashioned "outdated" gameplay mechanics. No Squad system (you are on your own 90% of the time), no controll hints (read...the...manual!), No ADS (zoom aim, except on sniper rifles, they have ADS), No health Regeneration (find and "use" a health item!) no Gun Limit (goodness, they are so boring!) No Quick Time Events (quick time events are boring, i like to controll the charachter, not just type U-S-A as fast as possible to "not die"!) no first person cutscenes (they, Really, limit the story!) basically, nothing from COD and its clones. against current markerting "ideals".

2. its storyline focusses on British Issues, not a fictional war against russia or aliens, and stars a Posh British Security Operative, not a silent American Marine. most against the trend for american army propoganda in games (in number 1 the american army plays a small, Antagonistic role in one chapter, thats it!)

3. its focussed on single player, not the ever popular and easy to programme online deathmatch (as i said, mp isnt even in game 1 to keep the budget down!)

am i close with those quesses?

[Bridge]

For example, movies. I don't find "horror" movies to be scary in the slightest. They mostly prey upon the general populace's disdain of gore, or at least the ones I have seen.

Then perhaps you should watch a real horror movie like The Thing, or the first Evil Dead movie.

[Froge]

The Thing was more awesome than scary.

[Kman]

For example, movies. I don't find "horror" movies to be scary in the slightest. They mostly prey upon the general populace's disdain of gore, or at least the ones I have seen.

Then perhaps you should watch a real horror movie like The Thing, or the first Evil Dead movie.

Great choices, though I actually liked Evil Dead 2 more just cause of how ridiculous some of the deaths/gore scenes were it was actually funny, though obviously yes the first one was a LOT scarier.

[Ghieri]

@ Dark side: The best advice I can give you is to start with an engine, like UDK, learn how to use it, join a mod team, make something awesome, keep making awesome things, put up a portfolio and then show that to developers and publishers. The industry is only going to take you seriously if you have something to show for it. That's really all I can say about that.

Great choices, though I actually liked Evil Dead 2 more just cause of
how ridiculous some of the deaths/gore scenes were it was actually
funny, though obviously yes the first one was a LOT scarier.

Also, Hellraiser.

[Hunter of Shadows]

The Thing was more awesome than scary.

God I love that movie...the John Carpenter one, not the new shitty one

[the dark side]

thanks for the advice aldigheri, wich game engine source kits use the "old fashioned" mechanics, or can be modified to use them? rejoining the mod community could do me good, take me back to the old days when i did a couple of things for counterstrike.

movies,. sadly, not many horror movies are that scary, too reliant on jumpscares or ludicrous Gibs (and as a Wolf 3d/ROTT/BLOOD veteran, Gibs dont scare me)

also, i could have sworn "the evil dead" was always meant as Horror comedy rather than horror. (its also the source for so many quotes in classic shooter videogames its beyond beleive, Duke Nukem 3d and the 2 "BLOOD" games especially, man, i miss BLOOD.. hmm, with serious sam 3 selling like hotcakes, perhaps a new, very "old school" BLOOD and steam/psn/xbla re-releases of Full (add on packs included) versions of the old 2 may be what monolith needs to get out of the "MMOFPD" quagmire its in now)

hmm...scary horror movies, non slasher, non jumpscare.. id probably have to say mostly old black and white horror with Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. they were the kings of creepy, when horror used atmosphere and creepy actors instead of Gore and Jumpscare. just how it should be (i kind of see amnesia as a kind of throwback to Karloff/Lorre Black and white creepfest actually due to the use of creepy charachters and dripping atmosphere...)

[Googolplex]

I think there are some scary movies, especially when you watch them alone when it's dark and your parents are gone out.

I watched The Descent, The Grudge, Boogeyman, House Of Wax etc. I found them all scary.

[Bridge]

I think there are some scary movies, especially when you watch them alone when it's dark and your parents are gone out.

I watched The Descent, The Grudge, Boogeyman, House Of Wax etc. I found them all scary.

Descent was a pretty cool movie up until a certain point. The monsters really could have been handled better and it doesn't really have any good scares, but man the movie really has a cool atmosphere for the first half. Those climbing scenes were incredibly tense and I think my enjoyment of the movie comes almost solely from that (because I'm a climber and there aren't that many realistic portrayals of it in movies). Never seen the other three because I doubt they are any good.