Hello everyone! Recently, I’ve been working on a horror game and I wanted to know what things I should try to avoid as not to make it repetitive and actually scary.
Lazy horror games have been popping out of nowhere lately and I want to be sure on what I’ll be putting is scary as well as unique and provides a good experience for the player.
Make the game less of a walking simulator than anything, that’s what I personally find repetitive with many ROBLOX games and horror games in general. What you could do is use world building by giving the game a sense of direction by setting up the scene and make the objective clear without even having to say it.
Finding a key to unlock a door while a monster is chasing you, or doing any puzzle to unlock something while a monster is chasing you. It’s a tired cliche. (Examples: FNAF Doom, Forgotten Memories, probably Camping, the game nobody remembers by now)
As a wise man once said, remember, the scariest game is the game that always keeps you on the edge of your seat, and once you give your player a jump scare they are no longer on the edge of their seat because the worst has already come. The scariest games are the ones that make you think something scary is going to happen but nothing ever happens keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole game!
Avoid repetitive jumpscares, lack of SFXs and lack of animation.
If it’s truly terrifying and murky, then a quiet background music is highly recommended.
That’s all I can say.
Get to the scary parts quickly. I’ve played far too many games where there is just too much standing around at the beginning.
You should make your game have some Time Pressure, like being chased by a monster while finding the correct code
Also REMOVE THE DEFULT WALK SOUND ITS TERRIBLE IN A HORROR GAME
idk man 2008 roblox game sometimes feel eerie, especially if you play some old place in Novetus solo mode
but that’s more of a liminal feel than horror i guess
reminds me of
If it’s a walking simulator, make it open-world.
Avoid “cringy” screams and monsters
Loneliness is usually a good way to make the game unsettling (if you want to have many players just separate them using darkness/a big map but let them encounter each other)
Do not overuse music, make the game calm, it feels more immersive/realistic
Try to use liminal spaces at times
The position/goal of the players matters, it’s scarier entering in a deep dark cave than getting out of it.
Watch videos of other horror games and take notes on their pacing and how often and in what context they use jumpscares. Also a big mistake people do is they tell rather than show. Basically try to avoid a dialogue system that says “what was that!” Anytime something scary happens, the game shouldn’t be telling the player what they should be feeling
This is really good advice. Definitely something to save for later 