demagogue on 16/5/2011 at 00:43
Something could still be scary without darkness if you didn't know exactly where it was. You knew it was out there somewhere and out to get you, but not exactly where. Someone mentioned how scary the VC were in Viet Cong because they were hidden in the brush, and sneaking through there looking for them was nerve wracking. That's not a horror game, but the principle is there.
jtr7 on 16/5/2011 at 00:48
Darkness is oft used because it taps into basic primordial fears of heightened vulnerability from predation and hidden terrain, reduces visual input including color cues at the same luminance levels, subconsciously reminds of the inevitable need for sleep in conflict with a need for peaked awareness, and since most of that can be created through other elements to replace what cheap and freely available darkness alone can do, one only needs to collect more elements together to overwhelm an audience's sense of safety.
Nameless Voice on 16/5/2011 at 01:10
What about brightness? Make everything so bright that you can't really see clearly. Overuse bloom all over the place, and have evil creatures made of light that lurk in the sunny areas of the world. The night would be the "safe time" when you can rest in peace, but you always have to fear the sunrise, as that's when these creatures appear.
june gloom on 16/5/2011 at 01:12
Setting things during the daylight actually does a lot towards playing with the false sense of security we get when things are nice and bright out. Alan Wake does a good job of this- while the majority of the game is set at night, the episodes often begin in daylight, and things tend to kick off with things lurking in the shadows inside buildings.
Koki on 16/5/2011 at 05:45
System Shock 2 wasn't dark at all. At best you could describe it as "dim".
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
Left 4 Dead 2
Is not a horror game.
june gloom on 16/5/2011 at 05:47
Yes it is.
Koki on 16/5/2011 at 05:48
Go to bed, dethtoll.
nicked on 16/5/2011 at 05:53
There is something to be said for the strange feeling of super-brightness to present "offness". Something like Cube works well as horror with full brightness all around, because the brightness is just another "off" aspect of a frightening situation. Or the Wicker Man, which is almost entirely daytime, but still unnerves you because of the mystery and the characters acting freakily.
In a game it's tougher to instil horror anyway because you can't make your player character too vulnerable or it'll stop being fun.
I think setting has a lot to do with it. A dusty crypt is still going to be spooky whether it's pitch dark or has shafts of sunlight punctuating it here and there. But if you set your game in a less obvious spooky setting, say a forest, then night time is a useful crutch to stop it feeling like a jolly afternoon stroll in the forest, and more like being lost in the woods.
Personally I always find games most atmospheric/scary when it's dusk, and there's that ominous sense of foreboding (see Eternal Darkness hub sections, the earlier parts of Undying, the really quite scary few minutes when the sun goes down over Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time, the music stops, and in the silence you can hear the monsters encroaching)
june gloom on 16/5/2011 at 08:55
Quote Posted by Koki
Go to bed, dethtoll.
Your mom hasn't called me yet.
Queue on 16/5/2011 at 11:13
That's 'cuz both your moms are here with me.
See that, one-ups-man-ship!
