Scared yet?

I came up with these points about a year ago when I was playing through Alien: Isolation (which you can view here)

• Must be scary

The game has to make my mind believe that it is scary. I have to believe that there is a reason to be afraid. Not just jump scares, because those you get used to and then once you figure out the pattern you know what to expect. When my mind thinks there is reason to be afraid it reacts through producing certain physical behavior, like adrenaline release, twitching of muscles from tension. As the old saying goes “Where the mind goes the body will follow”.

• The length of scares

The game must find a balance between terrifying a player and letting the him/her rest. The problem with being scared too long is, as weird as it sounds, it starts to break immersion. Once I play the game under stress for a long time, my mind starts pulling back to analyze the situation and comes up with solution. Another saying comes to mind… “Mind over matter”. Your mind will start telling you relax its just a game, let your instincts take control and get through this. Nothing is more immersion breaking than this state of mind.

• Immersion breaking difficulty

The last point that I want to make is when the game designer puts a puzzle into the game that has no hints or tips as to what it could be or is hiding the clue behind a wall of text the player will then have to take him/herself out of the game, stop role playing his/her character and then think like a developer to see if the they can figure the puzzle out. Coming back into character after something like that becomes very hard. This creates frustration not tension. Tension is good, frustration is bad.

Just my two cents from playing and watching the few horror games.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLgLeAHBQIBFP7E4j9CRiRK1hxy6hlvufi]