What scares you?

[GrAVit]

Basically the best way to scare people is by doing something new, something that the players wouldn't see coming. It can be a small detail, like changing certain settings in Amnesia, like making custom grunt entity files, which have no music.

This way, the player would normally expect the "danger" music to start every time a grunt spawns, but if it doesn't, they'll probably think that it's merely a sound effect, which will lead to the player getting startled by a sudden grunt appearance without sinister music.

It could also be something bigger, such as a new monster. I remember how scared I was in Library of Alexandria when I saw a glimpse of that new monster that I had never seen before.
New sound effects and such work as well.

I think that music and sound are the most effective things in horror games. It creates the immersion, startles people, and entertains them. Try playing a horror game without sound, it's really not that scary anymore.

I personally think that the mansion is a better environment just because it looks better. It also has far more variety than castles and especially dungeons. Ideally, you should have a nice mix of them all to keep it fresh, but the mansionset is still my personal favourite. Dungeons and stuff just look kind of bland with the same rocky texture seen everywhere.

I think there are generally two things that scare me in Amnesia nowadays, those being chase scenes and the fear of the unknown. Chase scenes can be quite scary since you know that the monster is right behind you, and if you turn around, it's likely that he'll be right at your face. That's also when the monster's sound effects are at their scariest.

The reason that jumpscares work is because you're not expecting them. If you play a game, with the majority of scares consisting of jumpscares, for the second time, you'll probably know when to expect them, and that's when they're not that scary anymore.