How do I make my game more scary?

I am creating an SCP game called “The Foundation” it’s kind of like containment breach but with an original storyline, I’m not really sure how I can make it scary, I’ve added custom footstep sounds but I don’t really know what to add so I need ideas.

Here’s some pictures of what it looks like so far:
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You can try adding slow, quiet instrumentals to create a scary scenery for the player.

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Lighting is your best friend when it comes to horror games. Add an Atmosphere in lighting, set it to black and fiddle around with the density until it’s dark enough. Use color correction to add more contrast so you can barely see. Give the player some sort of light but make it very limited to make them feel small.
Ambience is a big part of these games as well, perhaps add noises playing randomly in the distance to scare the player.
Hopefully your game turns out well :grinning:

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Like what reetism said, you’re gonna have to make the best out of the lighting, but also the build. Make it look like a monster of some sort ravaged all over the place, like put red, long scratch marks over walls, have some wires and lights break, and all that stuff. Make the player feel like the monster brought the area into ruins, and is searching for the player.

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maybe some blur, that scares the crap out of me.

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You should add a small red tint in the lighting for an extra deadly feel, if your game involves murder.

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There are threads that include amount of details regarding ways to make a game scary, while it’s not horror related you could place a few gameplay elements; “suspense, atmosphere”. If your lacking ideas on what to add next, feel the need to visit games that feature around the genre to gather little ideas.

Viewing small articles related to how to make a game scary as an example include a few scary elements that you could possible take, and not define a horrifying look. Here is a thread that may come in handy if ever needed. Refer :

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Have you ever watched horror psychological films, like David Lynch’s? Some of his films like Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive doesn’t have any jumpscares, but actually can give an unnerving moments in certain scene to watchers (well except one scene with a dinner on the second one).

David prefers to “pressure” with eerie sound design and long scenes, making you flip out in mind while watching, which is actually goes to psychological category. I think that you’re aiming on that category here, since SCP does have this kind of a stuff and according to your screenshots.

Just as how I think…

This one is great but you need something better, something that will make the player scared and stress him out. Take a look at unhinged theme from the game Doors. Hear it from youtube, and then play the game and hear how it sounds like while you are playing. Sometimes the atmosphere of the game isn’t very scary, and some monsters aren’t very scary too. But what makes the player scared is the music. It affects the gameplay alot.