Horror game ideas

[Faun]

Lets gather up some ideas about horror elements necessary in a game.

Here are the constraints.
1. The area is enclosed. Like a square walkway in a building.
2. Not open world.
3. Avoid the jump scares.
4. There are no other human NPCs. Monsters are allowed.

Here are my suggestions:
1. A washer/dryer that rattles frantically in its place when the player approaches.
2. A bathroom door that when opened shows the universe/shows up gears and spurs running and blood dripping down.
3. A shadow appear sometimes from behind you in the direction of light source.
4. Apparition of children walking from a side door to another.
5. A whisper in player's ear.
6. Photo frames dropping down, sometimes floating before dropping down.
7. A picture that turns bloody with time.
8. A pool of blood appearing below the door gap and expanding
9. Cockroaches/insects coming out of door gaps.
10. A TV with static

 

[SaiyanGoku]

11. Hearing someone else's footsteps when the player walks and when you turn back, they aren't audible.

 

[rhitwick]

12. Long dimly lit corridors
13. Flickering tube lights
14. glowing eyes in dark but nothing when light comes up
15. annoying sounds: continuous; water dropping from tap, a broken window/door continuously waving with wind, wind howling
16. Can do a dilapidated present and glorious past scene in the same room.

 

[Nerevarine]

Not original but something in silent hill 1 and 2 that really really scared the crap out of me.. As you must know in Silent Hill, you get a radio that creates static noise whenever an enemy is nearby.. Once I was in a room with no enemies, nothing but the static noise kept on coming, and it was growing louder and louder.. After searching for a bit, I noticed a faint silhouette of a baby ghost wandering the room, the ghost wont do any damage or attack you, it was just there to scare the living crap out of people..

In one hospital level, there was an elevator with the topmost floor being the 3rd floor.. First I went to the first floor, cleared everything out, then went to the second floor cleared everything out.. nothing too scary.. when I went to the 3rd floor, expecting something really scary to turn up, to my surprise it was a dead end.. nothing was there at all.. Thinking I must have missed something on the first and second floor, when I got back to the elevator.. there was a 4th floor button on it !!!! That was scary and the 4th floor itself was not like any other floor.. the walls were in decay covered in blood, entrails would be hanging out of the ceiling etc.. Also next time you go to the elevator, all the buttons would dissapear, leaving you stranded on the 4th floor !!

Another scary event was from an old game, many of you might not have heard of it.. It was Clive Barker's Undying.. There was this long dark corridor and whenever you enter it, you keep getting whispers like "look behind", or "behind you".. But when you turn around there would be nothing.. but randomly, an enemy did spawn behind you...

 

[rhitwick]

Another scary event was from an old game, many of you might not have heard of it.. It was Clive Barker's Undying.. There was this long dark corridor and whenever you enter it, you keep getting whispers like "look behind", or "behind you".. But when you turn around there would be nothing.. but randomly, an enemy did spawn behind you...

Man Undying was scary!

I fell down from my chair while playing it. The blame goes to me for this for sure.

Time : night 1AM
Room: Lights out and using headphone for sound ( i was in hostel and roomies were sleeping)

I'm roaming in a castle for a long time finding none, not even a ghost. It was 15 mins already, cleared room after room, no treasure, no ghost nothing. Walking in an alley and all of a sudden a ghost falls from sky just infront of me. I was so shocked I made a sudden push backwards with my body.
The chair tripped, it was a wired headphone back then which got torn due this sudden pull. Hurt my head and with that loud noise my room-mates woke up.

 

[ashs1]

I find the player's breathing sound effect pretty scary as well.. Like the breathing getting faster when you're in darker areas

 

[Anorion]

wow. these are good.

 

[adityak469]

Subscribed

 

[Nerevarine]

Gibe Moar stuff pliase

 

[SaiyanGoku]

17. The player's sense of direction getting lost at random intervals making him go around the same location more than once. Couple this with Faun's 2nd and 7th points.

 

[Faun]

18. Lights flickering only when you walk
19. Area sometimes changes when you blink eyes
20. A security phone ringing but when you pick up it gets disconnected.
21. Classical music sound coming from a room. Half broken and varies in pitch.
22. Door opening sound from one of the rooms behind you. It can be slow creak or a quick slam.
23. A flood of water gushing out when you open some door.
24. You can call lift and hear the slow elevator music as the lift approached but then it starts accelerating into free fall right when it's near your floor.
25. Every floor number is same. Doesn't matter whether you go descend the stairs or ascend.
26. There is a mirror behind one of the paintings. But you don't see your reflection once you remove the painting.


Start adding your ideas here. I can't be the only one thinking.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

27. Random animal heads used for decoration getting turned into the animal itself and then chase you down until you are cornered only to disappear at the moment you think you are dead. Note: one of the animals will actually kill you so you can't know which will disappear and which won't.

 

[vito scalleta]

this is pretty dark but ..
28. Zombie baby coming at your leg from out of nowhere . (add in scary teeth and freaky cries )

 

[Nerevarine]

29. A haunted painting.. The painting itself should be alive in someway.. The painting should display images of the person seeing it, getting brutally murdered by a horrifying figure ..
30. Basically the same idea as above, but with a mirror... Whenever the player looks at the mirror, it should display show a horrifying dark figure slowly approaching the player from behind, but as soon as the player turns around, there would be nothing.. When the player looks back at the mirror, the figure is gone !..
The mirror, should be located in an area where the player should pass through multiple times .. Add in a tinge of randomness to the mirror (mirror should act normal most of the times, but should display said scary event some times)
Also, the mirror itself should not harm the player in any way.. it's just there to scare the living crap out of people... Really good horror games implement something like this, things that are scary but dont damage the player in any way
31. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A GOOD SOUNDTRACK !

 

[Faun]

The mirror idea can be placed in a bathroom.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Player has no access to internet at home. Been living this nightmare for 5 days running.

 

[Anorion]

^lol, please start some good ones

 

[SaiyanGoku]

32. Player gets hallucinations of getting their heads swapped with groin region.

 

[Nerevarine]

33. There is no savegame system.. If you die, you start over from the beginning like Dark souls or Diablo.. There could be something similar to waypoints/bonfores throughout levels but finding them is hard..
34. Game's main premises are dark hallways, to navigate around you will need a torch which operates on a limited amount of battery.. Without battery, you are screwed.. Battery WILL Not regenerate when you save.
35. Game should have certain sections cut off, for example.. until u find a shovel, you cannot proceed past a debris blocked door.. until you find a component of a generator, you cannot use the elevator..
36. Game should be focused around evading enemies, not shooting and killing them.. Ofcourse you can kill them with guns but the bullets must be super rare

 

[doomgiver]

33. There is no savegame system.. If you die, you start over from the beginning like Dark souls or Diablo.. There could be something similar to waypoints/bonfores throughout levels but finding them is hard..
34. Game's main premises are dark hallways, to navigate around you will need a torch which operates on a limited amount of battery.. Without battery, you are screwed.. Battery WILL Not regenerate when you save.
35. Game should have certain sections cut off, for example.. until u find a shovel, you cannot proceed past a debris blocked door.. until you find a component of a generator, you cannot use the elevator..
36. Game should be focused around evading enemies, not shooting and killing them.. Ofcourse you can kill them with guns but the bullets must be super rare

this is a description of "rogue-like" games.

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