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[zendavis]

Well my team and I are prepping our "Slaughter House" horror RPG project for Kickstarter. We got tired of watching awesome properties like Resident Evil and Silent Hill lose what made them scary and become action titles, and decided that we were going to go as far into opposite direction as possible.

The thing we've tried to remember is that away from the independent scene, most of the talent involved in the game industry neeed to be mercenaries. They're good at what they do. They're good people. But at the end, they need to do what the executives tell them. And they're okay with that because they've got a family waiting at home that needs to eat and they're still $30,000 in debt to Full Sail University. There are even people like that on this team looking to add content to their portfolio so they can land a upfront paying gig.

But even moreso. It's hard to do unique visionary horror. You need people with foresight leading the way or otherwise you end up with the gaming equivalent of C-Tier horror films. And can you do that when you're only just listening to a suit? We don't think so. So with that said, you go with what gets the executive paid. And I can ensure you that's not horror.

For us, it's really about doing something that hasn't been done before and making a name for ourselves with a bit more compelling than the last great horror game, "Amnesia".

There's discussion of game mechanics with real time character model damage, like dismembered fingers, where the player character becomes disabled permanently for the rest of the game like Day Z (fingers don't grow back godamnit!), multiple endings like Chrono Trigger, and a perk system that works in line with helping keep your community alive.

The problem becomes that there is no way in a million years that a top line publisher would ever gamble on something like this because to them, it's just not all that accessible. Killing people is easy enough to understand. But running for your life because we've implemented a save system similar to Day Z is something most people just aren't willing to accept... or pay for. And they aren't going to risk it.

I mean I still remember when people complained about Aliens vs. Predator classic not allowing saving inside the level in order to promote the fear and terror of being killed. People ended up revolting. Or the backlash against Doom 3 for not being able to attach a flashlight to their gun. And I agree that these were shortcuts to inspire fear, but it's ten times easier to just give someone the ability to land a head shot and call it a day.

Anyway, here is an early concept on what we're going for...

 

[randomwab]

It's hard to think now that Resident Evil 2 sold 5 million on Playstation alone. Hell, even something like Resident Evil Outbreak sold 1.5 million. I want those days to come back.

 

[Chuckpebble]

Not at all into horror. Did enjoy REmake though. Only SH game I ever bought/played.

 

[TedNindo]

Ohhh there is a lot more. The indie scene has actually been a growing pool of horror games in recent years. The problem is not a lot of them are really big like Amneisa, but a lot of them are fairly short and most are actually free. One of the most recent I can think of is the SCP Containment Breach game, based on the SCP series. There's a game in development titled Enola that's recently been on my radar. In pre-purchase Alpha (pay cheaper, play and give feedback stage and get the full version when it's done. Paid for it a while ago and he's released a few updated alphas, the newest one released a little more than a week ago). So much I could name here, but so much of it is obscure.

Mind you it can always come back. I have good faith in Mikami's upcoming 'pure survival-horror game' he's making. He opened up his own studio, and their working on a horror game. He's the father of Resident Evil 1, and the director of Resident Evil 4 who left the team after that game and helped some on Shadows of the Damned. I do have faith he can make a great current horror game.

This is all we have on that game for now though, it'll be for Next-Gen consoles:

Completely forgot about that game. Btw is Mikami behind the gameplay mechanics of his games because some of the games on his portfolio as a director are some of the best examples of original, complex and very well balanced game design and mechanics out there. I'm sure they did a lot of play test builds with just gameplay mechanics before building a game around it.

It's no wonder that Capcom can't recreate what made RE4 so good without him.

 

[cm osi]

i think the barrier is the survival part, i see a lot of games going for the action style

 

[BD1]

What the genre needs is an unexpected blockbuster AA-AAA console game and the publishers will chase the money.

i.e., Zwei becomes a breakthrough success.

 

[Dusk Golem]

No, please name them. Too often people fret about the loss of a genre when it's thriving right under their noses.

Alright, this will be a bit of a stream of random games I know I've played. A lot of these are freeware, and some are not-released-yet-but-have-ongoing-media-for-them titles, I'll try to link to a video of each.

Enola, as I said above. It's caught my attention. You can pre-pay for cheaper right now and gain access to this guy's ever-releasing Alpha builds. He actually is pretty consistent on releasing them, the last Alpha updated was released 8 days ago.It's been building up nicely.

This game only got a trailer recently, but Among the Sleep definitely looks interesting. You play as an infant going through a terrible circumstance.

Lone Survivor was a recently released 2D psychological horror game that is a lot like the earlier Silent Hill games. It was recently in the newest humble bundle and was a fantastic atmospheric little game.

Au Sable is a fairly short and freeware platformer with stronger horror themes

Sacrilegium is another upcoming horror game that shows a lot of promise.

Of course, talking about Amnesia, we can't forget about Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, releasing later this year.

Sounds of Silence is an upcoming indie horror game that fascinates me. The concept is that the game changes based on what you have the most reaction to in the game, evolving based on what you do, look at, how long you take at certain parts, etc, to try and make a horror experience fueled by your personal paranoia.

A Mother's Inferno was recently released. Pretty twisted.

This is not indie, but the Fatal Frame 2 Remake on Wii releases next week in Japan and Europe.

A pretty short but pretty effective atmosphere game is Which.

Devil's Turning Fork is a really interesting artsy horror game that takes a very different approach to darkness.

Alice is Dead is a pretty great flash series with a twisted iteration of Alice in Wonderland (obviously). Also has some fantastic music.

Hide is a horror game the makers of Amnesia actually recommended. Short, free, and good for a playthrough.

I could go on, but this is a pretty good list here focused mostly on some more recent games, some a few years old though.

 

[Inkwell]

No I don't think it's because of the scare factor. Plenty of horror movies have had great success in the mainstream.

Honestly I think it's because true horror games have a much slower pace and require you to take your time, and THAT is what casuals hate. They need explosions and stuff to move constantly in order to stay seated on a 10 hour game.

To an extent this is correct. Survival Horror comes out of the point-and-click adventure genre. Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill are pretty similar if you break them down to their basics. All of them include puzzle solving, both by using inventory items and also purely by logic (like the painting puzzle in RE). They also have some combat with low resources and ammo. Many times you can (and should) simply avoid combat. In Amnesia you have to avoid all combat. Not only can these games be a little slow-paced, it's probably more annoying to get stuck on a puzzle than a difficult action/combat section.

It seems like all other horror games are action games. Mostly shooters too. It's not a surprise when some of the best selling games are action packed shooters. These action horror games have important horror elements, but they seem to focus on empowering the player instead of trying to keep them in suspense. Horror movies do well, but I think people are more intimidated by horror games. It's a bit different when you are in control of what happens, and I think some people become overwhelmed.

I think that the actual horror element does keep some people away. It's the slow-paced gameplay that does this the most though. You can even see this among many non-casuals here. I love the Myst series to death, but I'm pretty sure a high percentage of people on this forum hate the series because of it's slow pace and puzzle solving.

 

[DidntKnowJack]

Is horror a barrier to mainstream success? No. I don't think so.

Is that the thinking of most major publishers? Yes.

 

[News Bot]

The "AAA" model today is a curse for horror games, I think. It wasn't a detriment when hardware still imposed countless limitations and restrictions on both the developer and player, such as the case with the Resident Evil series, but today it just never really works very well. There's a greater tendency for developers (or executives/publishers) to introduce certain elements that kill any horror the game had in order to appeal to a wider audience and reap back their superfluous budget.

One reason why the "AAA" gaming market needs to crash.

i.e., Zwei becomes a breakthrough success.

The chances of this are pretty slim, unfortunately.

 

[fredrancour]

Someday someone will be smart enough to figure out how to sell a horror game to the massive audience of women who like scary movies and they will be able to weave themselves wardrobes out of $100 bills. Wish I was smart enough to.

 

[AppleMIX]

Ok, I'm sorry but when the hell was Dead Space a survival horror game?

I've been seeing this popping up on neogaf for a while now and I'm confused. Did we play the same game?

 

[Conciliator]

I think there's less horror because horror has less explosions/epic QTEs/being loud all the time. The common wisdom now, true or not, is that you need the giant roller coaster setpieces in order to make your game sell. As far as Dead Space goes, they seem to just be going in the direction that the money has pointed them towards. Dead Space 2 was louder and had more explosions, and it made more money. Even louder = even more $$$.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Ok I'm sorry but when the hell was Dead Space a survival horror game?

I've been seeing this popping up on neogaf for a while now and I'm confused. Did we play the same game?

It just depends on your definition of survival horror. Some consider RE4 to be the best survival horror game, and Dead Space is every bit as survival horror as that game.

 

[sonicmj1]

Didn't EA explicitly say as much when they talked about adding co-op to Dead Space 3?

I don't think the experience of playing a horror game is the same as the experience of watching a horror movie. A movie will finish no matter what you do, and the pace is controlled by someone else. Even if you're incredibly frightened and have your face planted in the back of your seat, you can still finish the movie. And if you're watching in a theater, you're never alone, which helps. But if you're that scared of a horror game, you still have to be the one putting yourself in more scary situations. A lot of people don't want to do that, because they're scary. Co-op gives those people a way to cut the tension to more manageable levels, so it broadens potential appeal.

 

[Dusk Golem]

It just depends on your definition of survival horror. Some consider RE4 to be the best survival horror game, and Dead Space is every bit as survival horror as that game.

This is true. Horror has lots of sub-genres. While I love Resident Evil 4, I wouldn't call it strictly the best horror games. It's a great game, but not really the best at being a horror game (though I would argue a few of the game's moments did legitimately creepy me out, which is kind of sad to say a lot of current horror games don't manage to do).

Also, this whole talk has reminded me that survival-horror isn't strictly dead, just not mainstream right now. Like others, I do have faith in Zwei. I'm not exactly sure how big it'll be, we know very little about it, but Mikami has shown repeatedly from Resident Evil 1 to 4 to Vanquish to Shadows and other titles he's worked on that he is a master when it comes to intuitive design and aiming for a specific tone or atmosphere, and if he says he's making a straight survival-horror video game I'll believe him (at least a lot more than Capcom trying to claim RE6 is horror).

I also find it funny this topic is made literally a week before the Fatal Frame 2 remake is released, since Fatal Frame 2 is commonly regarded as one of the best survival-horror games of all time.

 

[XeroSauce]

All horror game should be made akin to Amnesia.

Atmospheric, in-depth, puzzling, and a good universe.

While there were some aspects of Amnesia that weren't stellar (sanity didn't effect enough environmental things, some AI issues) the overall game should be a look-upon for those thinking about making a horrow game.

Games that employ surprises or just straight up gore aren't fun, nor were they ever fun.

There's also games like L4D, where horror isn't the main aspect, but when you have 5 health, no ammo, and no teammates, limping to the safehouse...that's a different, substantial horror. Day-Z is ever farther down the spectrum, the zombies are hardly scary, but having no ammo and constant threats from other enemies is a fun way of creating tension.

 

[Quikies83]

I also find it funny this topic is made literally a week before the Fatal Frame 2 remake is released, since Fatal Frame 2 is commonly regarded as one of the best survival-horror games of all time.

Woah!
I need more information on this please - what systems? downloadable?

edit: fuuuuuuuuuu Wii only???

 

[Melchiah]

Nobody watches horror movies by themselves though.

I do. It's the best way to experience them.

 

[PrinceOfApathy]

I have watched multiple horror movies by myself from a young age to this very old age. Paranormal Activity 1 put me in a really bad place after viewing that in a pitch black room by myself, I also play horror games by myself in the dark, all the lights off with the Surround sound on; and I can say both have caused irreparable damage, but I wouldn't change that for anything.

 

[SolidSnakex]

This is true. Horror has lots of sub-genres. While I love Resident Evil 4, I wouldn't call it strictly the best horror games. It's a great game, but not really the best at being a horror game (though I would argue a few of the game's moments did legitimately creepy me out, which is kind of sad to say a lot of current horror games don't manage to do).

Yeah, some have started calling those games "action-horror". Which seems to fit them better. There's still horror there, but they lean more toward action than survival.

Also, this whole talk has reminded me that survival-horror isn't strictly dead, just not mainstream right now.

This is an interesting point. Some of us have talked about The Last of Us being a new breed of survival horror. But arne and ND in general are trying their best to make sure that people don't associate it with that genre. I'm not sure if it's because they don't believe that it's survival horror or if it's because of the massive drop in popularity that the genre has seen over the years.

But I still see it as survival horror. And i've seen many people on horror related sites getting really excited about the game because of it being a potential rebirth of the genre.

 

[Mupod]

Ok, I'm sorry but when the hell was Dead Space a survival horror game?

I've been seeing this popping up on neogaf for a while now and I'm confused. Did we play the same game?

Well, it seems sometimes like everyone has their own definition of survival horror. I say it's close enough, at least on the harder difficulties. Obviously it's very action-oriented and the game encourages fighting rather than fleeing (necros chase you through vents and drop ammo) but ammo/health management is still a factor.

Anyways I personally don't care much for games where you're as helpless as an infant and your character starts going into blurry-screen spasms every time he hears a loud noise. Although this one does look interesting.

I think Revelaitons was almost on the right track. They got rid of ammo drops from enemies and tried to bring the atmosphere/exploration back while retaining the modern RE control scheme. Like Dead Space they recognized that getting headshots with good controls is far too easy so they designed the enemies appropriately. Of course, late game it turns into gunning down hordes of Hunters with your souped-up weapons, but that's why I say 'almost'.

 

[Melchiah]

I have watched multiple horror movies by myself from a young age to this very old age. Paranormal Activity 1 put me in a really bad place after viewing that in a pitch black room by myself, I also play horror games by myself in the dark, all the lights off with the Surround sound on; and I can say both have caused irreparable damage, but I wouldn't change that for anything.

[REC] was a wonderful experience almost alone, with only about a dozen people in the theater. Bless the common hangover days for keeping the theaters empty.

 

[plagiarize]

AAA isn't a measure of quality, or success, it's a measure of budget. in that case, i don't know that survival horror games are likely to ever command the biggest budgets, although i'm sure Dead Space 3, Resident Evil 5 and Colonial Marines are up there as action horror affairs. any genre that's fallen from popularity isn't going to get less money to work with, but the great news is that many great games have been made on small budgets.

as a gamer, i pay absolutely zero attention to how much a game cost to make. can i see, for example, that Alice: Madness Returns cost a fraction of a game like Uncharted 3? totally, but that doesn't mean that Alice 2 isn't the better game in my opinion. i've had loads of fun this year with the new Trials... and again, budget is kind of irrelevant.

i think cinema goers get this. the popularity of films like Paranormal Activity show that cinema audiences aren't espescially caught up with budgets. i think mainstream gamers have no idea about budget and just look at the quality of the end product. i think it's only the true hardcore like us that really care about such things as whether a game is AAA or not.

the fact is that there remains an audience for it. someone will find a way to budget a game to cater to that audience. it might take a little while, but it'll happen. adventure games fell off the radar for a long time, but they're a healthy genre again now.

might they look more like I Am Alive than Last of Us? sure. they might... but i don't have a problem with that if the games are good. I Am Alive sure was.

only whats popular right now is going to get AAA budgets and i'm well beyond worrying about that.

if anything the recent kickstarter success stories has told us, it's that any genre that was good will be back, even if its fallen from grace. eventually enough people who liked it back when, will be eager enough for more. video pinball is back. carmageddon is back. adventure games are back. FMV games are back. survival horror will be too. it's just what happens in gaming. anything that was in part created thanks to technical limitations (pre-rendered backdrops) tend to be completely forgotten for a while after those technical limitations are removed. look at the wilderness years of the 2D platformer, which is now back in full force after two generations in the wilderness. survival horror will be back

I have watched multiple horror movies by myself from a young age to this very old age. Paranormal Activity 1 put me in a really bad place after viewing that in a pitch black room by myself, I also play horror games by myself in the dark, all the lights off with the Surround sound on; and I can say both have caused irreparable damage, but I wouldn't change that for anything.

speak the good word brother, and be heard.

I mean I still remember when people complained about Aliens vs. Predator classic not allowing saving inside the level in order to promote the fear and terror of being killed.

you may get banned for soliciting, but what i have quoted here is why i will pledge to your project. i have never saved in AvP classic other to confirm that saving indeed worked. it is probably the single player game that i became the best at, and the fear induced by not ever seeing 'checkpoint reached' or a save icon blink on screen allowing you to sigh in relief even as you trudge through hell, or having to remember to save (which always takes you out of any game, if you have to CONSTANTLY REMIND YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME), that fear made me a much better player, and it has kept me replaying that game to this day.

and to this day it still scares me.

 

[UntoldDreams]

Its possible that the reaction from mainstream is that horror gaming has changed a lot with the advance of technology. There was a certain amount of "scary" thrown in with poor graphics but it was not uncomfortable or unmanageable when you took an objective look at the screen and saw a low polygon monster.

Modern Horror games though can have some pretty disturbing imagery rendered in a high enough resolution to be a lot more uncomfortable to look at.

Its possible people simply looked at it and said "I don't want to be immersed in sewers for 12 hours fighting zombie alligators".

 

[PatrickLyons]

as someone whose nightmares reliably fall into the category of "running from things" I don't really mind that developer resources are going into areas other than scaring me. I enjoy watching someone else play horror games, but I have a hard time playing them. thanks be given for Let's Play.

 

[Melchiah]

Its possible that the reaction from mainstream is that horror gaming has changed a lot with the advance of technology. There was a certain amount of "scary" thrown in with poor graphics but it was not uncomfortable or unmanageable when you took an objective look at the screen and saw a low polygon monster.

Modern Horror games though can have some pretty disturbing imagery rendered in a high enough resolution to be a lot more uncomfortable to look at.

Its possible people simply looked at it and said "I don't want to be immersed in sewers for 12 hours fighting zombie alligators".

I think this is the main reason why we're never going to see a game like Silent Hill 2. The majority of people still think games are for children, when in truth the majority of gamers are +30 nowadays.

If you don't buy your child horror movies, why would you buy him horror games?

 

[hxcmuziq]

IIRC there is a little mini horror game built into every other iteration of that one popular FPS, um... Call of Duty, I think it's called. So no, I don't think it's is not the horror aspect that is a barrier to main stream success.

 

[Snapshot King]

Alright, this will be a bit of a stream of random games I know I've played. A lot of these are freeware, and some are not-released-yet-but-have-ongoing-media-for-them titles, I'll try to link to a video of each.

Enola, as I said above. It's caught my attention. You can pre-pay for cheaper right now and gain access to this guy's ever-releasing Alpha builds. He actually is pretty consistent on releasing them, the last Alpha updated was released 8 days ago.It's been building up nicely.

This game only got a trailer recently, but Among the Sleep definitely looks interesting. You play as an infant going through a terrible circumstance.

Lone Survivor was a recently released 2D psychological horror game that is a lot like the earlier Silent Hill games. It was recently in the newest humble bundle and was a fantastic atmospheric little game.

Au Sable is a fairly short and freeware platformer with stronger horror themes

Sacrilegium is another upcoming horror game that shows a lot of promise.

Of course, talking about Amnesia, we can't forget about Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, releasing later this year.

Sounds of Silence is an upcoming indie horror game that fascinates me. The concept is that the game changes based on what you have the most reaction to in the game, evolving based on what you do, look at, how long you take at certain parts, etc, to try and make a horror experience fueled by your personal paranoia.

A Mother's Inferno was recently released. Pretty twisted.

This is not indie, but the Fatal Frame 2 Remake on Wii releases next week in Japan and Europe.

A pretty short but pretty effective atmosphere game is Which.

Devil's Turning Fork is a really interesting artsy horror game that takes a very different approach to darkness.

Alice is Dead is a pretty great flash series with a twisted iteration of Alice in Wonderland (obviously). Also has some fantastic music.

Hide is a horror game the makers of Amnesia actually recommended. Short, free, and good for a playthrough.

I could go on, but this is a pretty good list here focused mostly on some more recent games, some a few years old though.

Man this is a good post. Lone survivor and Amnesia are such a breath of fresh air after RE5 and Downpour.

 

[Orayn]

It's the opposite. You could have a generic action shootbang with all the monster closets and shambling zombies in the world, but people would enjoy it for the action first and foremost if it did well. An unintelligent shooting gallery target by any other name...

Survival gameplay is what doesn't jive with people - Feelings of tension, limited resources, and the need to plan things out ahead of time are not considered financially viable any more because they don't keep you on a mechanical leash like CoD or tell you to go nuts like Skyrim.

 

[RedSwirl]

I really wish Amnesia would get a console port.

 

[bryehn]

I think it's the survival. Survival is hard, brah.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

No I don't think it's because of the scare factor. Plenty of horror movies have had great success in the mainstream.

Honestly I think it's because true horror games have a much slower pace and require you to take your time, and THAT is what casuals hate. They need explosions and stuff to move constantly in order to stay seated on a 10 hour game.

I don't think the word casual applies when they buy enough games to dictate genre change.

I get what you are going for here, but it doesn't do your position any good when you start using words that don't mean what you think they do.

 

[nel e nel]

I don't think the word casual applies when they buy enough games to dictate genre change.

I get what you are going for here, but it doesn't do your position any good when you start using words that don't mean what you think they do.

This. There seems to be this willful ignorance of the fact that the 'hardcore gamer' is actually the minority now.

 

[Kusagari]

When companies consider mainstream success 5 million+ these days, then yeah.

 

[ArjanN]

not as popular as pg-13 action movies.

This. Horror IS a niche genre.

 

[BradleyLove]

The very basis of a Survivor Horror game goes against everything new mainstream games are built around. Ease of use. Ease of entry. Pick up and play, and constantly move forward design.

Suvival Horror itself is the barrier, not the "horror" aspect.

The last great Survival Horror on consoles is Siren:Blood Curse, although I would call that game stealth horror. Although in that game there was always get from point A to B in the missions, the way the levels/play grounds were designed, called for careful, methodical, patience, planning. Use of first person, sight-jacking, constant vigilance. This is against everything in the nouveau design school.

The main staples still remain. Survival Horror games by definition are not user friendly to control. Even Blood Curse which was heavily streamlined, the characters still moved cumbersome, with long and semi-realistic animations, attacking with melee weapons was wild and unpredictable, direct scuffles with Shibito weren't built around any new found combo systems. It was mash until dead, or sneak and perform a one hit kill.

Even though Blood Curse had two cameras ( behind the shoulder - my favourite ) and directly behind the back. None were the "ideal" view for seeing everything. Scurrying around in the darkness, and blind corners, hearing the heartbeat noise, and vibration, knowing this creature is behind the corner, and you are deathly afraid to circle the camera these are tricks used to ramp an already nerve racking, heart pumping scare fest.

The old Resident Evil, Adventure style survival horror of plopping you in a location and making you figure shit out; has all but disappeared, despite Adventure titles seeing a resurgence, however, not with this arcane insane mind bending puzzles and random item combinations of the 90s.

Everything now is meant for instant feed back and stimulus to empower the player and keeping them moving forward, forward, an illusion of progress. Where every fiber of the Survival Horror genre is to take away as much if not ALL the power from the player as possible, make them work for it, while trying to figure out what the hell is actually going on.

This.

If the next COD had a horror setting but played exactly the same, it'd still sell millions. It's the survival aspect that turns off the masses, not horror.

 

[semiconscious]

The modern casual gamer is overstimulated, and needs constant feedback and action. My guess is that anything less than a Call of Duty style pacing subconsciously makes them feel they're wasting their time.

not a bad call. it's the more deliberate pacing of horror games, more than the actual horror, that's probably seen as the problem ('won't hold their interest')...

 

[Kelegacy]

Any sort of depth and required thinking is a barrier to mainstream success, and survival horror requires both.

These are the people that make Justin Bieber a success and care so much about who Kim Kardashian is dating. They aren't exactly deep people to begin with and there is a reason we refer to them as sheep.

 

[Inanna]

Dead Space was kind of horror and people loved it, I don't get why developers don't take more risks like that. And I also hate what's happening to Dead Space, its becoming less horror and more action thriller. Sad times!

 

[Waaghals]

I think the survival part of survival horror is just as much of a turn off as the horror part.

Always having to frantically look for items, conserving your ammo, perhaps even reloading a save because you spent too many items clearing the last section, the list goes on. Relatively few people enjoy that kind of gameplay.

The demographics that makes up 80% of the COD games sales bases certainly won't.

 

[we.are.the.armada]

I think that lack of empowerment is the barrier. The point of horror games is to be vulnerable and weak against the environment and opponents within, so once you add cover-based shooter elements and arsenals that put the game into your favor it diminishes the horror.

 

[JMizzlin]

i rarely play horror games alone, either. they're better as a shared experience.

Agreed 100%. Some friends and I just played through Amnesia and are looking into further horror games and movies together, something we wouldn't have done by ourselves individually.

It'll be interesting to see how Dead Space 3 balances co-operative gameplay with horror. The shoot-fest E3 demo didn't give me much hope, but maybe they can maintain the scary nature of the series while making it more enjoyable?

First few posts nailed it, though. Don't really have much to add.

 

[Droog]

Dead Space was kind of horror and people loved it, I don't get why developers don't take more risks like that.

Because too many pubs think if they're not making the kind of sales that a COD does, then that game isn't worth making; "There must be something wrong with it so we'll make it more like that other AAA game and then we'll make the same amount of money that they do too! WHEEE!" Then they're surprised when it flops badly (i.e. Syndicate).

And I also hate what's happening to Dead Space, its becoming less horror and more action thriller. Sad times!

See above. And I agree with you.

 

[someguyinahat]

Yeah, but that's ok. Some people just don't like to be scared.

I think it's the survival. Survival is hard, brah.

I fall into the first camp here. For me, being scared isn't fun. I don't even like horror movies all that much. However, I would by no means say that horror games should have more mainstream appeal by turning down the horror. If you want to be scared, fantastic. Don't make it less scary in the hopes someone like me will buy it.

In regards to the survival aspect, I enjoy playing permadeath roguelikes. I have no idea if it's the same thrill of survival as a survival horror, but it's pretty exciting getting backed against the wall by a tough monster and trying to figure out what you can do. The only thing is, you can usually see the monster coming, and you're allowed time to go through your inventory/spell list instead of having to react fast.

People can survive without horror, have horror without survival, or get both. Vive la difference!

 

[Parfait]

I don't like horror at all whatsoever in most of its current forms. It's not fun, it's not even interesting to me. Jump scares are worse.

That said, I really enjoyed Resident Evil Code Veronica back when I was a kid. I look at the resident evils since and i'm just disappointed. They are neither survival nor horror.

You know what game did survival horror right? Dark/Demon's souls. Dragon's Dogma at low levels at night. The first time through any area is always the most tense, and yet i loved it so much.

 

[Dance Inferno]

I'm not so sure it's the "survival" aspect that's a barrier, just because most of these games are advertised as action-heavy experiences. I mean look at this trailer for REmake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFhQrp5Bhhk

That's about as action-packed as trailers get. But you wouldn't buy this game if you don't like being scared, because that trailer makes the game look terrifying. I would argue that the make-or-break decision is whether to market the game as horror, because that is what will make or break the sale.

Speaking of which, I really need to find a way to replay REmake. Too bad it's not on XBLA or PSN.

 

[codecow]

I believe that if the right people tried making something like the old adventure-style survival horror games that it could be done to a high quality level for a small fraction of the budget of a "standard" 3d title. The asset list is pretty small, especially if text is used instead of spoken voice to fill in the gaps and the programming is no problem for one person if they're not in a huge hurry to finish it.

 

[Mupod]

I believe that if the right people tried making something like the old adventure-style survival horror games that it could be done to a high quality level for a small fraction of the budget of a "standard" 3d title. The asset list is pretty small, especially if text is used instead of spoken voice to fill in the gaps and the programming is no problem for one person if they're not in a huge hurry to finish it.

If only I could somehow make Frictional and Tripwire work together on a survival horror game. Penumbra/Amnesia get the atmosphere and puzzles right, whereas Killing Floor's weapon animations/sounds are top notch. KF's enemies would not be out of place in an RE style game either.

Of course one makes multiplayer shooters and the other makes singleplayer games where you're about as dangerous as a baby with a feather duster. But the precedent is there, so something like what you described could definitely happen.

 

[PrinceOfApathy]

Sorry, wrong thread.