I have a few questions that i hope you guys could answer. What makes a Horror game scary?
I’m currently developing a horror game with a friend and i am the builder.
I’m curious to know what are the basic tips on making a horror game.
What should i achieve?
What’s allowed and what’s not? (In ROBLOX rules.)
What are the most important parts of a horror game?
The tense and action are of course, given and implemented in the game.
I need more ideas. Please feel free to give some 
Have a nice day!
6 Likes
You should achieve a good atmosphere to start off for your game as it’s key to making a good horror game, build up your atmosphere, have random sounds pop off in different locations to keep the person on their toes and then yeet them a jumpscare
Things that wouldn’t be allowed in horror games is excessive amounts of gore as that’s what people try putting usually, but the most important parts about a horror game is the built up atmosphere that the person who’s playing the game goes through but mostly, you have to set the player in an environment that others don’t usually like, hospitals, asylums, haunted houses, mansions ect
Hope this helped you
10 Likes
Thank you so much for the idea.
You should definetely add jump scares and things running after you. If things aren’t running after you and you just casually get killed by some low poly looking jeff then it’s not fun. But if you get chased by a realistic scarily made creature that will jumpscare you then that’s scary.
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Hey,
like in every horror movie or game Jumpscares are the best (like said before). But the real question now is:
How to make Jumpscares?
To make a Jumpscare you dont need a scary creature. What you need instead is a scary loud sound. The sound needs to be scary so that you get scared once it plays loud out of the sudden. (Then you basically already have something scary).
Then you can just add to the atmosphere and do whatever you want. You can add some monsters to the sound and a dark and misty/dark foggy map with weird objects like idk old rusty towers/houses or whatever comes to your mind.
But remember! The most IMPORTANT thing is the sound. You dont believe me? (watch a horror movie without sound) yes it will be boring.
I hopw this helped you
- Cheerful
3 Likes
Sometimes jumpscares aren’t needed. For example: I think old abandoned asylums are pretty scary, so a game with that would be very creepy in my opinion.
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The build style also matters. A horror game in a low poly, cartoony style just wouldn’t be scary, and even fit the game. A mid-high poly style build would look more realistic. Also consider adding scratches, posters, etc. to give an extra gloomy/horror feel.
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It’s for the same reasons as other horror games.
I highly recommend you watch some video’s on what makes horror games work as they can be really entertaining and informative.
Also jumpscares = bad, sometimes. They can be used as payoff to build up however if they are there as the only source of fear your game will fail. I highly recommend you take a look at darkwood as it is an extremely good horror game with absolutely no jump scares in it, infact dark woods is one of the games I’m actually too freaked out to play myself.
Here is a few tips:
- Good horror is just like good writing, you want to have build up then pay off, a good atmosphere with a decent into creeper and creepier things then a monster revile can work for pay off.
- Keep it visable, you don’t want to have it so that you’re players are unable to see anything around them, this is why most games have a gamma slider when the game starts.
- Don’t be too harsh on the players when they die.
Here is a list of my favorite roblox horror games. 1. Realm of the 9 portals, 2. Silent Limbo, 3. Light bulb, 4. Party.EXE ?(I haven’t played in a while don’t remember it well) 5. Those Who Remain.
(Sorry I can’t like your post)
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Horror game developing is my cup of tea
I would say what makes a scary game scary is achieving something that one can relate to for instance having the builds realistic the player can relate to things they have seen before in real life. A horror game MUST have scary music that builds up for the player to be uneasy. By just putting jump scares everywhere wont work much first you have to build up the anticipation and strike when the player is not expecting and in ways that they did not think of. Be creative. Another part of it is details the small details that make the difference like lights flickering, something moves aver so slightly that make the player question if they saw it move, a room that you have previously been in change orientation (like the furniture shifts around to different positions as previously the player have seen). I would say also add inside and outdoor ambient that helps more the player being more on edge. There are some very well made horror games in Roblox that you should check out (like 🌹 ROSES 🌹 - Roblox)
Hope this helps you out
Good Luck on your journey
CrazySnoopylove
2 Likes
Having ambiance is key, if you don’t have any sound you’re player will lose focus on the world and distance themself from it.
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- Good atmosphere and no jumpscares. It’s a cheap startle, not an actual scare.
- Make use of paranoia to create suspense
- Take inspiration from real horror games with high ratings, not roblox games. This is applicable to other genres as well. None of the horror genre games I tried on roblox were scary at all to me. Want good examples? Silent hill games, Lost in vivo (not a single jumpscare in that one), SOMA, outlast
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Other people have said a bunch of great ideas but something that could be expanded on is Pathetic Fallacy. Similarly to tone and atmosphere, pathetic fallacy is where you set the theme/mood for something. As Vernlage said earlier, asylums, haunted houses, etc are a great way to do this.
However, as H.P. Lovecraft experienced, during the world war, people had seen real horrors and were no longer fearful of things that went bump in the dark. So he usually combined hints of science to give his stories an eerie plausibility (with the inventions of x-rays etc, this was powerful material).
Anyway, back to Roblox. Things like jump-scares hardly scare people anymore. For example, the SCP genre evolved from the paranormal board of 4chan ages ago to set a new clinical tone. You really have to work on suspense, so music, or even silence, is a great way to achieve this. For example, have a player go down a sketchy hallway with the music slowly ramping up. This will give players a feeling is suspense, preparing for something that might happen.
Anyway, I hope this would’ve helped you.
2 Likes
There are many ways that make horror games feature a scary approach, things to include “suspense, atmosphere”; horror games aren’t accomplished by just only that, but it has to have a horrifying feel look at horror games around that genre to gather little ideas to implement to your game.
(Read or view articles on ways to achieve a unique gameplay design - or learn about level design). If your creating a sorting horror game, try making it different from existing games, a lot of games have the plain gameplay where it’s something related in a house and that’s all; “jump scares suspense” are good add.
In general, jump scares have a nice reputation in a bunch of games nowadays, it’s a simple method of scaring sorting players. A game needs to have that proper blend, of an atmospheric horror and throughout the gameplay to be “scary”. A horror game needs to be (unpredictability) not knowing what is coming or what is going to happen.
While jump scares can be used in many different types of ways in a game, I think other horror games incorporates jump scares in a way that makes sense to the game loop. I’ll try doing a little bit of research on your own finding different ways to accomplish a horror game scary feel, there are many factors and ways to do this you just need to incorporate ideas where it fits the gameplay.
4 Likes
What scares me the most is suspense. Obviously I will not be providing spooky references, but imo the scariest is hearing footsteps, or something knocking over, or you see a figure. Much more scary than cheap loud noises and a pic of Jeff the Killer.