Monster Problems?!

[JenniferOrange]

A lot of creators lately have been using either less monsters(grunts, suitors, brutes) or too many monsters. Because I'm a big baby, monsters aren't my thing. I prefer a custom story that's actually a STORY, instead of pee myself while naked men fly everywhere and Malo hunts me down. I've seen a lot of negative comments toward the stories with few or no monsters this past week. I know the whole monster thing is traditional when it comes to Amnesia, but in my opinion when we make custom stories, we're not trying to replicate Amnesia itself. We're supposed to make new things. Like, instead of using 6,000 keys, having the player be creative and figure out they have to stack boxes to get over a wall to progress. Or exploding things.
In all honesty I do like the horror concept. I'm just more into realistic, supernatural scares than having flappy face jump out of a closet. So, what do you guys think? What's your opinion? Are you more of a monster person, or do you like stories you can really get sucked into?
Let me know how you feel.

[Wooderson]

The thing is, Frictional Games are pros. Custom Stories are made by fans/aspiring developers etc.

It doesn't suprised me that people don't find most custom stories great as the story made by FG.

I dread having to face enemies, I dread the suspence of expecting to. So either way, I still get shit scared when playing. But I do like to see a strong storyline as it really does help to feel inside of the game more.

[dizla]

I enjoy these jumpscares that most people hate, maybe that's just me, but I find them more scary than suspense scares that end up in nothing. A load of jumpscares will do me, but I can also see where you're coming from. There isn't really any stories behind most of the latest Custom Stories out there, and more a simple GET IN AND GET SCARED type of feeling behind them.

[dph314]

I think very few monsters, more than none, is the perfect amount. Just enough monsters to let people know that they are present in the game and there's a possibility that you can run into one at any time. That way, even though you went through the whole game and only saw 2 or 3 monsters, the suspense and trepidation in moving throughout the world was still always there.

[BlueFury]

That's why it's good for people to make custom monsters themselves, it can greatly improve atmosphere and the feel of the story, which makes me more of a monster person. Overdone jumpscares are just bad and a CS only needs a few.

[SonOfLiberty796]

I honestly think that if there isn't that much monsters (maybe only like 2 or 3) and yet there is a scary, dark atmosphere, I still get scared a whole bunch. I mean, my fingers get all sweaty, my heart pounds, I'm ready to scream.

I just feel like a story with a little bit of monsters is something "unique". I always expect, as quoted by Dave Chappelle, a monster coming out and saying: "Gotcha bitch!" xD

[Hunter of Shadows]

A lot of creators lately have been using either less monsters(grunts, suitors, brutes) or too many monsters. Because I'm a big baby, monsters aren't my thing. I prefer a custom story that's actually a STORY, instead of pee myself while naked men fly everywhere and Malo hunts me down. I've seen a lot of negative comments toward the stories with few or no monsters this past week. I know the whole monster thing is traditional when it comes to Amnesia, but in my opinion when we make custom stories, we're not trying to replicate Amnesia itself. We're supposed to make new things. Like, instead of using 6,000 keys, having the player be creative and figure out they have to stack boxes to get over a wall to progress. Or exploding things.
In all honesty I do like the horror concept. I'm just more into realistic, supernatural scares than having flappy face jump out of a closet. So, what do you guys think? What's your opinion? Are you more of a monster person, or do you like stories you can really get sucked into?
Let me know how you feel.

It's about goddamn time someone said this

A lot of the reviews for custom stories really annoy me, because they label some custom stories as 'great' or 'good' when they're not, I'm not going to name names here, that would be rude.

But I'm thinking of a number of custom stories that were praised for their 'scares' and how well done the 'monsters' were, and I played the exact same thing, and was unimpressed and bored with the result, because they used 'jump scares' and lots and lots of monsters to the point that it was feeling like Dead Space.

So a lot of monsters and jump scares, becomes about as subtle as running up to someone and getting about a half inch away from their face and screaming at them and then going "are you scared yet!?"

I think very few monsters, more than none, is the perfect amount. Just enough monsters to let people know that they are present in the game and there's a possibility that you can run into one at any time. That way, even though you went through the whole game and only saw 2 or 3 monsters, the suspense and trepidation in moving throughout the world was still always there.

Correct, as Yahtzee put it 'Amnesia is a game that understands that a monster is scarier the less you see of it' but unfortunately, when a game puts a lot of monsters into it...this effect is lessened a lot as you become familiar with dear old Mr. Face and Mr. Tall...and naked blind man.

It's better if the game let's your imagination do the work for it by making you paranoid.

That's why it's good for people to make custom monsters themselves, it can greatly improve atmosphere and the feel of the story, which makes me more of a monster person. Overdone jumpscares are just bad and a CS only needs a few.

I don't really agree, I've seen a number of custom stories that use the monsters in very unique ways(White Night for starters) that does not make them less effective cause we've seen them before, a custom monster isn't going to make anything scarier unless you use monsters effectively.

[JenniferOrange]

I'm surprised to see a lot of you have been feeling this way for some time. So, all that have posted are more into either jump scares or atmosphere, yes? It's great to see other people understand my point of view. :]

[Kraton]

I'm surprised to see a lot of you have been feeling this way for some time. So, all that have posted are more into either jump scares or atmosphere, yes? It's great to see other people understand my point of view. :]

If that's the way people feel, especially those who want the game to make the player's own imagination fuck with them, then FCM (full conversion mod) the game I've been working on should be something everyone here will like. My only problem is not enough time to work on it (I am an intern in a game company atm which has me working at least 40 hour weeks) and my creativity keeps running out on me (that and my partner, who is mostly just the idea man, hasn't been working one bit, so I'm having to come up with everything myself).

The story I've been working on focuses a lot on story itself, as well as minimalistic views towards the use of jump scares and monsters. Most of the things that would make the player jump in my game should be things that might or might not be witnessed by each individual player; things like events that happen based on current sanity in any point of the game (thus being dynamic), as well as a lot of eerie sounds barely on the edge of conscious hearing, making the player have a hard time knowing if their mind is fucking with them or if they're really hearing things, and most importantly making all the details of the scary things happening in the game things that the player has to really focus on to see exactly what's going on. By limiting the player's perceptions a bit more than most people do in their CSs, it forces the player to get "closer" to the game, and become more immersed. The most important part of my FCM is that monsters will be scarce as things will get scarrier and more freaky shit will happen as the player delves further into the madness of the story. If the player plays it safe and stays in a well lit area, not doing much ingame, then scary things won't happen; but if the player is attempting to progress the game, they would have to press forward into creepy scary places and essentially risk going insane, which directly relates to how much sanity events happen, making the game even more scary.

I am hoping to get as much time as I can to work on my game, but progress feels like it's just going so slowly that it's almost pointless to even set an expected completion date.

[Zaffre]

I'm surprised to see a lot of you have been feeling this way for some time. So, all that have posted are more into either jump scares or atmosphere, yes? It's great to see other people understand my point of view. :]

If that's the way people feel, especially those who want the game to make the player's own imagination fuck with them, then FCM (full conversion mod) the game I've been working on should be something everyone here will like. My only problem is not enough time to work on it (I am an intern in a game company atm which has me working at least 40 hour weeks) and my creativity keeps running out on me (that and my partner, who is mostly just the idea man, hasn't been working one bit, so I'm having to come up with everything myself).

The story I've been working on focuses a lot on story itself, as well as minimalistic views towards the use of jump scares and monsters. Most of the things that would make the player jump in my game should be things that might or might not be witnessed by each individual player; things like events that happen based on current sanity in any point of the game (thus being dynamic), as well as a lot of eerie sounds barely on the edge of conscious hearing, making the player have a hard time knowing if their mind is fucking with them or if they're really hearing things, and most importantly making all the details of the scary things happening in the game things that the player has to really focus on to see exactly what's going on. By limiting the player's perceptions a bit more than most people do in their CSs, it forces the player to get "closer" to the game, and become more immersed. The most important part of my FCM is that monsters will be scarce as things will get scarrier and more freaky shit will happen as the player delves further into the madness of the story. If the player plays it safe and stays in a well lit area, not doing much ingame, then scary things won't happen; but if the player is attempting to progress the game, they would have to press forward into creepy scary places and essentially risk going insane, which directly relates to how much sanity events happen, making the game even more scary.

I am hoping to get as much time as I can to work on my game, but progress feels like it's just going so slowly that it's almost pointless to even set an expected completion date.

Why did you revive the thread? Why do people always revive threads?