An Exit Screen With No Pause In Horror Games

[Koopa Rs07]

For a video game designer (especially Frictional Games), I think that it would be a good idea to make the exit menu not pause, because too many people use it to feel safe. I've seen too many let's players pause Amnesia out of fear just to take a break.. No.. They should find a room in the game that makes them feel safe, not the exit screen. Instead they should just put the options in the corner of the screen and not pause the game.

Idk though.. Some people just want a pause menu so they can simply take a piss without quitting the game and that makes sense. Tell me you think.

[FlawlessHappiness]

I remember it was discussed before a long time ago.

I don't think it matters. As long as you're not forcing the player into something he/she does not want.
We play games because we want to. We play the horror genre, because we want to be scared.
The same way: We use the pause because we feel like we need it.

I fear if something like a pause was removed, it will scare some players away.
Some people just need time to think after a scare.


If the player is able to play without pausing, there's a pretty big chance he/she won't pause the game.
And if the player needs to pause the game, there's a pretty big chance he/she will pause the game.

I believe it's up to the player.



Inventory, on the other hand, is a gameplay mechanic. I see no reason why this should pause the game (Unless it can be really hard to use, and thus you need to pause the game meanwhile).


Bottomline:
The pause menu is there to pause the game. Whether the player uses it as an escape or not, it's up to the player.
The inventory is a gameplay mechanic. It's part of the game. If possible, it shouldn't pause the game.

[Mudbill]

Penumbra works in the way that reading a note or viewing the inventory does not pause the game. It makes it kinda stressful to try to solve a puzzle when you're being chased. Pressing ESC does pause the game, but the pause screen continously plays a wind ambience, which in my opinion is pretty annoying if I have to tab out, because it keeps playing when the game is unfocused. It makes me want to tab back in quicker to stop it.

This is Overture btw, I have not played the others yet.

[Koopa Rs07]

This is Overture btw, I have not played the others yet.

You could play Penumbra Black Plague for your subcribers!

[Rapture]

I would rather see the game not paused. My friends/family use it as an escape when it gets to scary, it would only be more hilarious when they realize nothing will stop the monster from eating their brains out.

[Mudbill]

Maybe the game should have a "hard" and "easy" mode, where the hard one disabled pausing, but the easy does not. That way it won't force people to keep playing until they quit the game if they do not want to, and it will make them aware that if they selected hard, they have to face the consequences.

[Koopa Rs07]

Maybe the game should have a "hard" and "easy" mode, where the hard one disabled pausing, but the easy does not. That way it won't force people to keep playing until they quit the game if they do not want to, and it will make them aware that if they selected hard, they have to face the consequences.

Bingo!

[FlawlessHappiness]

I would rather see the game not paused. My friends/family use it as an escape when it gets to scary, it would only be more hilarious when they realize nothing will stop the monster from eating their brains out.

As a prank maybe. But I doubt they'll play through the whole game without the pause.

Maybe the game should have a "hard" and "easy" mode, where the hard one disabled pausing, but the easy does not. That way it won't force people to keep playing until they quit the game if they do not want to, and it will make them aware that if they selected hard, they have to face the consequences.

This is good. As long as the player is aware of what they're going for, you're sure to have their attention.

[Romulator]

There are games where I don't use the pause button at all. That is for speedrunning though (unless I am required to 'pause' the game to open a menu).

There's really not much of a benefit to removing the capability to pause. Someone gets a phone call, has to go to the toilet, needs to eat dinner.. There's a couple of reasons why you need to be able to pause a game, but I have yet to see a reason of why you should not be able to pause the game.

I mean, as you said Koopa, it kills the immersion and people can use it to calm down. Rightfully so, the game isn't meant to jumpscare you, it's meant to ease you into the scares, keep you on edge (at least, in Amnesia's base game). While I'm on edge, the last thing I even consider is the pause button because I'm too busy running. That may be just me, but I'll only pause the game if I need a breather after a ridiculous jump scare.

And I wouldn't have the options on the screen. Amnesia itself already has a very limited Heads Up Display. The HUD is really just messages, the centre dot, how you can interact with an object and your lantern. Having the pause menu options in say, the top right corner, say I'm looking up some stairs that fade into the top right, I need to look around some text to see if something is up there.

Maybe, Escape hides/shows the options in the top right. But would you navigate with the arrow keys or WASD? What if a monster appears. How will you run?

Same with the mouse. How would you look around to make sure a monster appears if the game keeps running and pressing escape changes from "look" to a "pointer".

I see little benefit in disabling pause over keeping it, but that's just a theory.
A GAAAMMEEE THEORY.

[Prelauncher]

As FlawlessHappiness said, there's a reason for the pause menue pausing the game. I don't think a player should be punished for having to eat dinner or answer the phone. And although the ability to choose whether or not you can pause the game sounds interesting I don't think it's something that would improve the experience when playing the game. If you are one of those who pause the game when you get too scared then you wouldn't select the "hard mode" and if you're a player who doesn't pause the game when shit hits the fan you wouldn't use the pause menue as an escape in the first place thus making "hard mode" redundant.