For the past couple of months now, I’ve been making my own horror game based on many different popular & up-and-coming games (The Mimic, Short Creepy Stories, Haunt, etc.) Yet, I want to freshen my mind and do something different.
Instead of the generic horror game formula we’re all used to (Find the key, first person view, mazes, weirdly placed jumpscares), what are some horror game mechanics that you’d like to see?
Personally, I’d like a point-and-click horror style game, but instead of being stuck in a static, non-moving camera, you can look around your surroundings. It can give a good scare when used effectively.
Schizophrenia, Hallucinations, Misplaced Knocking, Running From Hallucinations That Aren’t There, Seeing Things, Hearing Things, Doorways, Objects, Items Disappearing When You Look Away, Strange Corridors That Mutate And Warp When Looking Away, “Jumpscares” e.g. Things That Appear And Disappear Near You That You Can Only See For A Second Around A Corner, Slight Whispers, Inaudible Voices Nearby, Footsteps Behind The Player And Around The Player, Sounds That Only Appear For Ac-couple Seconds While Madness Ensues Or Things Get Visibly More Warped And Disgusting In Regards To Going Insane, Items That Appear That Aren’t Just Cheap Roblox Models And Instead Something That Could Scare Someone From A Distance
I think sound design is very overlooked when it comes to horror games on Roblox, I think it’d be cool to look at building tension based on proximity to the next objective.
A room that looks scary, as you approach the music gets louder and more tense, climaxing while you open the door, only to fade away as you realise the room is safe. Then contrast this with no music at all and louder footsteps for almost a heightened senses kinda feel.
Idk, I’m sure you get my point. There’s a lot to say for sound design In horror games, I’d like to see Devs play around with different ideas in that regard.
Nice question!
I would like a horror game that include eerie mechanics such as
Hallucinations that might happen randomly or under some circumstances. In the hallucinations we could see stuff such as blood-writing on a wall… (this can also be used as a piece in the puzzle or to add lore), or false entities chasing players or just eerily standing in places, acting weird and setting up unease. Sudden gore scenes. With this one I kind of mean hallucinations but more gruesome, changing up the scenery temporally. Eerie atmosphere changes to set a sense of danger or confusion. For example, changing the sky’s color, darkening the atmosphere and more visual aspects being changed.
Honorable mention: a mechanic that uses the sound coming from the player (player’s microphone, or player’s in game movement and actions) and any other sound source, the idea would be that sound should be kept down or the player risks of having to face danger, this could probably help build a lot of anxiety.
These mechanics would help make a phycological horror game which from personal experience really make my heart race a bit too fast compared to other horror game types. These mechanics can certainly be played around with by devs though.
That couldn’t possibly be done if you didn’t know what the specific sounds meant, when you play doors your obviously encountering specific entities that have sound queues, if you introduce sound/light queues that don’t directly link with anything the player wouldn’t understand or believe anything was coming.