Game Design Analysis - Delivering Dread 2/2

As a continuation from last week's post this week we'll be discussing the delivery of dread through subtle scenes and audio, my preferred style of horror. Unlike jump scares, creepy environments leave a much more lasting impression on players. Down the line a keyword or image can invoke a chain reaction in the mind to bring that scary scenario back to the players. Jump Scares leave players with: "A thing jumped out at me. I flinched." While carefully crafted scenes leave players with: "So there was this creepy [location]. In it was [monster] who [did nasty things]. It was awesome. I had chills." The difference clearly being that scenarios and environment leave the players with a story to accompany those scares. I'm not saying that jump scare games can't have stories, it's just that jump scares games have to rely on a different mechanic or story telling style to get across the same effect.
The notable examples being: Slenderman vs FNaF. Slendy has no story. He's just a monster and you're some guy in a bad area. Pure jump scare game. Meanwhile FNaF has an underlying story that was carefully crafted to be hidden, making players want to search it out to try and uncover it all.

I can't say one way of doing scares is better than the other, it all comes down to what type of game is being designed. But it is a simple truth that if one relies on sound and the environment to set the tone then those scenes that creeped a player out will stick with them for much longer.

---

So how does one make a scenario scary? The two different paths one can take are: visceral environments or visceral experiences. The difference between the two is that in environments players are lead through the scares, while experiences are discovered naturally by the player. These two different paths are also not exclusive so the experiences can be combined with the environment; in fact, experiences are usually enhanced by a quality environment.

Spooky vs Not Quite as Spooky

Visceral Environments are any type of scene that is disturbing or spooky to the players. Instead of having a monster right off the bat this type of horror relies on the fear of the unknown. In this desolate decrepit castle is there vampires, a bundle of corpses sewn together or vengeful ghosts? We're literally in Hell, what will we find here; demons, sinners, a racist grandma?! The player will only know if they progress through the environment. Games that focus on a slow drawn-out environment and storyline usually take forever to actually show the monster to the players. It's always just a passing shadow or ominous rumor, only truly being revealed at the apex of the story when the tension is at its highest and the player has learned all they need to regarding the lore.
A good example of this style is the Amnesia games. The character wakes up in a castle with no memory, then must progress ever downward to find the truth, and the monster doesn't even appear until a decent way into the game. The entire time before the monster even shows up is littered with some exposition flashbacks topped with the occasional jumpscare to keep the player nervous.

Visceral Experiences are quite similar to environments except that it is more on the player to discover the horror. What that means is that there has to be aspects in the environment that keen eyed players can notice without it being directly revealed to them in a "ta-da, here's this thing" moment. The proper way to do this is with subtlety and having faith that your players will find what you want them to find. It could be as simple as corpses but something is off with them, just odd enough that the player knows that something weird happened. The player should always feel that there's something else going on underneath the surface.
The example I use for this one is from SOMA (another Frictional Games game, huh... I promise this isn't sponsored) and it is also one of my favorites. So you're walking along all alone through this strange facility, you've seen a couple spooky monsters and had your fair share of this environment, then you start coming across headless corpses. Odd, right? Well time to explore and find out why there is some headless corpses. After a bit you come back and... One of the corpses has been moved. Not far, but it has definitely been moved. The problem is that you were gone from this room for maybe thirty seconds and there was no way a monster got past you to do that. Were you hallucinating, was it actually always there? Did the headless corpse move on its own? Or even worse, is there actually a monster that somehow did this and are they still nearby?

Happy Spookin' Gamers!