So You Want To/Write a Survival Horror Game: Difference between revisions

{{tropeHow-To Guide}}

* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]: Not essential, but still used a lot. Give it a twist to make it less "generic zombie". ''[[Dead Space (Franchiseseries)|Dead Space]]'' has the Necromorphs, for example, while ''[[Resident Evil]]'' has a whole slew of mutant freaks beyond your garden-variety zombies.

* '''Weaponry:''' Generally, you shouldn't give the player police or military grade weapons until late in the game, if at all, and after the enemies have gone up in strength and difficulty. Most games restrict it to things like melee weapons, pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and other guns that one would expect to see lying around. By all means, avoid providing the player a [[BFG]] in anything except a [[New Game Plus+]]. Above all, make sure it fits the theme of your setting.

* '''[[First -Person Shooter|First-person]] or [[Third -Person Shooter|third-person]] perspective?:''' The former allows for the player to be snuck up on by enemies much more easily, since most of the screen is no longer visible, but it can also frustrate players when they can't tell ''where'' the enemy is. The latter avoids this, but can remove some of the fear and add [[Fake Difficulty]] if there's [[Camera Screw|poor camera control]].

* '''How many enemies?:''' Some survival horror games get by with only one [[Implacable Man]] hunting the player, a la [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street|Freddy Krueger]] or [[Friday the 13 th13th (Filmfilm)|Jason Voorhees]]. Others throw them into a zombie apocalypse. In the middle, a zombie apocalypse with a few iconic bosses/sub bosses can be used. In fact, it's possible to avoid standard enemies altogether by having the player trapped in a malevolent [[Genius Loci]].

* '''What "flavor" of horror?:''' Western horror is visceral (the horror comes from the threat of being eaten or otherwise painfully murdered; a prime example would be [[Dead Space (Franchiseseries)|Dead Space]], where the enemies are basically [[Zerg Rush]] zombies with tentacles and claws and have to be mauled to death), while eastern horror is cerebral (feelings of isolation and paranoia, some [[Rule of Symbolism]], and "being trapped with something that hates you in a very passive-aggressive way"; a prime example would be ''[[Silent Hill]]'' where there are few enemies, but the ones that are there are very symbolic and can be tied directly to regrets, frustrations and mental trauma). Something in the middle would be like [[The Thing (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Thing]], where you're soaked in as much [[Paranoia Fuel]] as the writer thinks he can get away with, and he then provides a lit match in the form of an enemy [[Chest Burster|popping messily out of a teammate]]. You could have something down the middle by starting out fighting hordes of zombies, and as you start to get mentally fatigued, pile on more and more Freudian imagery until the player is fighting (un)living [[HRH. R. Giger]] sculptures.

* '''Why Don't You Just Leave?:''' Not such an issue in a broken starship, but in a monster-infested suburbia, why not just hop the next bus out of town? Some games forget to give the hero a darn good reason for sticking around when there are monsters trying to ''eat his soul''. The reason could be [[How to Stop Thethe Deus Ex Machina|external or internal]], ranging from "surrounded by desert" and "impassable forcefield" to [[Silent Hill|"my daughter's here somewhere and I'm not leaving till I've found her."]] But steer clear of the milder forms, like "the bridge is out" (why not just swim across the [[Insurmountable Waist High Fence|river]]?) or "oh gee I might have to walk a couple miles down the road." At any rate, go read up on the ''Monster in the House'' plot in ''[[Ten Movie Plots]]'', which is basically what [[Survival Horror]] ''is''.

* '''[[Villain Decay]]:''' Because of the nature of the player as a monster-killing dynamo, they may become a [[One -Man Army]] despite starting the game as an [[Action Survivor]]. As a result, players may lose that initial dread you worked so hard to get as the monster stop being scary. Common ways to avoid this is to make most enemies particularly weak on purpose, but giving them [[Zerg Rush]] tactics to keep them frightening en masse. Creating a few [[Sub Boss]] enemies to harass players, or even an [[Implacable Man]] that they can't kill for most of the game, and can survive only by fleeing, are other means to curb the player's confidence as they hit their stride. If you ''must'' use [[Demonic Spiders]], make sure they aren't "cheap".

* Instead of trapping the hero in a remote, monster filled location they must escape, place them in a densely populated environment where [[Somebody ElsesElse's Problem|no one will help them.]]

* [[Cold -Blooded Torture]] is often done only by the villain. But is it too much to ask that the bad guy gets a taste of his own medicine for once? It's horror, use it as the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for the PC.

* Try setting your game in a historical period or a fantasy setting instead of the usual modern or sci-fi style setting. ''[[Army of Darkness]]'' and ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]: [[Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare|Undead Nightmare]]'' have deadite/zombie attacks in 1300's England and in [[The Wild West]], for example.

* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: When the plot of a survival horror game features [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]] or simple "mundane" debauchery and carnage, the only way for the innocent to escape is to pay with blood... which [[Cycle of Revenge|calls to more blood.]] Having the protagonist fight the evil on a physical ''and'' moral dimension can add a lot of meat to the game. So introduce some branching choices, and if you have a [[Karma Meter]], consider making the [[Bad Ending]] one where [[And Then John Was a Zombie|the hero becomes the new "king" of hell.]]

* [[Removing the Head Oror Destroying Thethe Brain]]. Center of mass is really easy. Now, you've got to pull off a very difficult shot over and over. Or be eaten alive.

* [[Was Once a Man]]: ''What do you mean 'it used to be a person?' ''The (usually, violently abrupt) distortion of the human form is creepy. Bits missing or bits that shouldn't be there (wrong place, too many, etc.) make the mind reel, and so is the threat of it happening to you or someone you care about. [[But Wait! There's More!]] [[The Corruption|Having it happen slowly and inexhorably over the course of the game]], searching for the cure, and then finding it, [[Hope Spot|only to discover it doesn't work or there's none left because you waited too long]] adds that little bit of [[Player Punch]] for getting the [[Downer Ending]].

** There are several colors inherently disturbing to the human mind, such as off-white (corpseflesh), grey/yellow green (rotten meat), and middle brown (shit). Red is [[High -Pressure Blood|self-explanatory.]]

* [[Science Is Bad]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong]].

Very important, since it help set the mood. Generally, it has to be a scary place. [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret|Is it a town in the American Midwest? A small village?]] [[Ghost Ship|a spaceship?]] Or maybe it's [[All Just a Dream|all inside the head of your hero.]]

* [[Ghost Ship]]: [[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Perfect for]] [[Sci Fi]] [[Survival Horror]].

Also consider that a big part of horror is the familiar acting in an unexpected and horrifying way. Thus, a familiar location that has been distorted may be more effective than strange architecture or locations that most of the audience will never see. Also has the advantage of making people squeamish when they return to these places in real life, thanks to the [[Tetris Effect]].

* A staple of survival horror is the [[Improvised Weapon]], often one that [[Breakable Weapons|becomes useless at an inopportune moment]]. So 2X4's, assorted sports equipment, [[Grievous Harm Withwith a Body|severed limbs, etc]].

* [[Armor Is Useless]] often comes up.

* [[Hell -Bent for Leather]] might work if a character is the tough guy.

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]

* The ''[[Penumbra (Videovideo Gamegame series)|Penumbra]]'' series and its spiritual successor, ''[[Amnesia: theThe Dark Descent (Video Game)|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'', made by Frictional Games. They are played from a first-person perspective, but the similarities to contemporary FPS games end there. Combat is almost non-existent, and certainly not advisable, forcing the player to rely on stealth and good old-fashioned running like hell. ''Amnesia'' in particular has developed quite the reputation for being possibly the most pants-wettingly terrifying game ever made, with [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] describing it as being "unmatched as [[Bring My Brown Pants|a constipation aid]]".

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]: Sanity's Requiem'', described on this very wiki as "''[[Resident Evil]]'' meets ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''". It is known for its [[Sanity Meter]], which, if it should fall too low, would not only cause your character to see things that aren't there, but would make ''the player'' experience such things as well, with [[Interface Screw|volume shifts, controller malfunctions, fake memory card deletions, and the video feed cutting out]].

* ''[[Metro 2033 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Metro 2033]]'' is a prime example for having all the proper trappings of the genre. Ammo is scarce, [[Scavenger World|things you need are always in short supply,]] fights almost always end in a net loss, and [[Crapsack World|there is no solution to the world's problem.]] The gameplay elements are taken [[Up to Eleven]] in Ranger Mode, where every shot will be carefully aimed, each filter will be used to its limit, the knife will be used more than guns, and attempts will be made to avoid each unnecessary fight. Oh, and the mutants are [[Nausea Fuel|horrific and nauseating]] to the fullest extent of the words.

* The 2008 reboot of ''[[Alone in Thethe Dark]]''. Shitty controls just make people [[Rage Quit]], it does nothing for tension.

* ''[[AMY (Videovideo Gamegame)|AMY]]'', a downloadable game from Vectorcell, is a prime example of how '''not''' to make a [[Survival Horror]] game for your [[Play Station 3]] or [[Xbox 360|Xbox 360.]] [http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/amy As these reviews point out,] there's nothing quite like a perfect storm of horrible controls, repetitive scares, and [[Fake Difficulty]] to buzz-kill an otherwise interesting premise.

* ''[[FEAR|F.E.A.R.]]'' is a combination of the tropes of FPS games and Japanese ghost movies a la ''[[The Ring]]''. While it's quite possibly the most action-heavy game on this list, and only included here because of its supernatural horror elements, the two genres it draws from go together well enough to make it a worthwhile experience.

* The ''[[System Shock]]'' games and their [[Spiritual Successor]], the ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]'' series, are also examples of horror-shooters done right.

* The ''[[Siren (Videovideo Gamegame)|Siren]]'' games are a decidedly Japanese take on the [[Zombie Apocalypse]], with a heavy focus on stealth rather than combat.

* ''Call of Cthulhu: [[Dark Corners of the Earth]]''. While quite buggy, it is still widely regarded as one of the best adaptations of the works of [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] ever made.

* ''[[Clock Tower (Video Gameseries)|Clock Tower]]''.

* ''[[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dead Space]]:'' uses 3rd person shooter elements and gives a combat focused play, while throwing hordes of grotesque untraditional zombies at the player that can only be killed through removing limbs. Scares are focused on unexpected appearances of hidden necromorphs and seeing the deaths of innocent survivors. Anxiety is created through the claustrophobia, seeing how the ship is basically a warzone/massacre, and with the general feeling that, like ''Metro 2033'', combat results in a net loss for the player. Notable for the unique story and richly detailed setting.