Things you like and hate in Horror Games.

[AGP]

The great thing I've found about video games is that they have the visual storytelling capabilities of a film with the intimacy of radio, and this becomes so impactful (spell check is telling me this is not a word, but I beg to differ) for horror games. There needs to be a correct balance between audio and visual, since games are interactive (unlike with films), it's very necessary to have that balance.

That's why games like Silent Hill and Amnesia and Penumbra are so good, because visually and auditorally (again, don't know if that's a word) they meshed so well together.

To make a GOOD or rather, successful, horror game, it's imperative to have a theme. Like with Outlast, I didn't notice it until Markiplier said something in his Whistleblower playthrough, but Outlast does have a very strong visual and sound theme that make the atmosphere alone very terrifying.

With games with AAMFP, while the writing was fantastic (and I was drooling and over-all a little too excited over the writing), there just wasn't a cohesive a theme another than: "let's just use a lot of pig imagery". But the way that was built up wasn't effective because it was talked about WAY TOO MUCH and by the time we saw the enemies, we just think "Oh... A pig, because I was totally expecting an elephant" and we loose the fear factor.

That's not necessarily all in regards to making a story work, but it's part of it.

NEED: visual and sound theme, good sense of balance between all the aspects of the game, an atmosphere and environment that keeps the player engaged and on their toes, a good sense of imagination and creativity

While jumpscares can be effective for building up and releasing tension, the overuse of them can become boring, predictable, and downright unimaginative.