Sound of Silence

[MrWhitticus]

So I read on the sixpenseee blog the other day about a new indie horror game that is in development called Sound of Silence and I hadn't really seem many people talking about it.

It is essentially a game which can pick out your worst fears simply by observing the way that you play. For example, if you are in a dark area and being more paranoid than usual, it will suss out that you are afraid of the dark, and base the rest of the game on that.

According to their website they plan to eventually set up a Kickstarter account for it, but other details are still sort of foggy.

In the meantime, you can like their Facebook page to support them.

What are your thoughts?

[i3670]

Haven't heard of it *badum-tss*

[Kappa048487127]

It sounds like Anna all over again. Anna had a great atmosphere, but was ultimately a boring house of smoke, and mirrors. Supposedly the game could learn from the players actions, and give different endings accordingly.

From Steam:

*Game reacts to player's actions, changes locations and starts supernatural events

You mean what pretty much every game has done since the dawn of video games? an action is done by the player, and than something happens in the game. Wow... groundbreaking.

As or Sound of Silence I'm not convinced. All they've got is a video of them walking around a house in Unity, and a bit of concept art. This is what happens when all you have is an "ideas guy" trying to make a game.

[MrBehemoth]

It sounds like Anna all over again. Anna had a great atmosphere, but was ultimately a boring house of smoke, and mirrors. Supposedly the game could learn from the players actions, and give different endings accordingly.

I really wanted to love Anna, I really, really did. But ultimately I was left angered and unsatisfied by a game that rewarded me when I spent time doing nothing and then punished me for behaving as it suggested that I should. The attempt to make a sandbox of symbolism is just what made it confusing and vague.

I'm sceptical that emergent narrative can work in the horror genre.

[AGP]

It seems like it would be difficult to have a complete story based around something that changes the type of fear presented based on what the player is afraid of. Not impossible, but very difficult.

I find that many successful games have used a generalized fear as the inspiration but utilize different areas within their game to explore the more specific things, so one thing may be more or less effective for every player.

This sounds interesting, but we'll just have to see.

[Froge]

I don't think it's possible for AI to tell what a player fears just by their in game actions. Personally one of my greatest fears is playing a normal-seeming game when suddenly I notice a face staring at me on screen, but that's far too specific for any AI to detect.