/x/ - Paranormal★

Have the game based off somewhere in real life, first of all. Preferably not where you live, but somewhere small. Have the character(s) go around investigating books and stuff like that. Start it slow, and build up to something greater. For example, begin by explaining that young women are going missing. Have newspapers seem like they're hiding something, driving the player to investigate other information outlets, eventually fighting against the "greater good"

>>43012

Oh, so there'd be some kind of cult that kidnaps girls in order to sacrifice them to an evil entity? And the mayor and police are part of the conspiracy? Sounds pretty boring, to be honest. Reminds me of something from Buffy the Vampire Slayer…

>>43013

What if the police are in on the scheme only? The mayor knows, but is unable to do anything because it would create a panic and ultimately get himself killed, so he has to enlist help secretly.

Money/bitcoin could get transfered to the player's account "anonymously" with vague messages as tips or thank yous.

>>43015

That might be an improvement, but it's the basic plot that doesn't seem very appealing to me. It's more like a crime story with a little bit of paranormal thrown in, than the sort of game /x/ might like. Just my opinion anyway.

>>43017

Thanks for the suggestions. Mindless fun is probably the way to go.

>>43032

So, I either butchered that link, or you can’t link to an archived thread. In any case, here is the second most recent Horror Thread from /v/: https://web.archive.org/web/20181120110332/https://8ch.net/v/res/15620490.html

>>43032

>Reminds me of a line from HPL’s ‘Out of the Aeons’ (which he ghost-wrote for Hazel Heald): “There are things about the world and universe which it is better for the majority not to know.”

I think he said it better in 'Call of Cthulhu'…

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

By the way, do you think it's possible to make a game that faithfully captures the creepy atmosphere and cosmic horror of Lovecraft's stories?

>If you want to go for real horror, the implication or threat of horror might be the most effective.

As the great chess master Aron Nimzowitsch said, 'the threat is always stronger than the execution.'

I'm gonna go eat something and then read that /v/ thread, thanks.

>>43033

There were some interesting posts in that thread.

>>43035

>By the way, do you think it's possible to make a game that faithfully captures the creepy atmosphere and cosmic horror of Lovecraft's stories?

I think so, but it would probably not be a big hit. I think only a smaller, indie developer would have the balls to do it; a bigger studio game would be too focused on making a profit.

An audience vaguely familiar with HPL’s works/cosmic horror might expect tentacled eldritch horrors. I think it would be best to steer completely free from showing any monstrosity directly -- instead it is (strongly) alluded to, & we see the real life consequences of their existence, or at least the effects of others belief in them.

I think the biggest flaw in the story ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ was to have Cthulhu wake up, only to immediately be forced to return to his slumber in R’lyeh when it sinks again. As your quote points out, the threat Cthulhu represents should be enough. Those who follow him represent a great enough threat -- they are everywhere and will kill to protect their secret. The narrator’s realisation that the stars are almost right again should be a cliffhanger ending, similar to ‘Dagon’, where the narrator is losing his mind, terrified of what he has seen, and even committing suicide when he suspects something is coming for him.

>>43058

I know what you mean, but wouldn't that get old after a while though, if the creatures were never shown? Even Lovecraft himself didn't take it that far (which may or may not have been a mistake, but that's not for me to say). I think there's definitely a kind of pleasure in getting teased with the threat of a fate too horrible to describe, but like you said, it's not for everyone, and it might be difficult to translate it into a gaming experience.

The writing would have to be top-notch since it would have to carry the story almost single-handedly. It would require careful planning on the writer's part and I suppose at least some experience with writing horror stories. Another challenge would be - let's say the game doesn't focus much on action/combat, if at all, but more on exploration and investigation - okay, so we're trying to appeal to the true Lovecraft fans by not making Cthulhu a final boss that you defeat by pressing the correct combination of keys, instead the game is more lore-oriented.

My question is: wouldn't that end up disappointing both the Lovecraft fans and the casual gamers? The former might not be able to fully enjoy a story that they already know by heart, while the latter would feel cheated if they couldn't use a well-timed grenade to kill a Great Old One.

>>43131

Basically, you're saying - correct me if I'm wrong - keep the player constantly guessing, not knowing where his death will come from or exactly how to prevent it. Make him feel vulnerable. Avoid overexposing monsters and make them as mysterious and unique as possible. That seems like great advice to me, thanks. I'm going to read that blog by Frictional Games, but so far all I've learned is that college is a scam (which I already knew).

>>43134

lel

You managed to condence what I was trying to convey in a wall of text in a single paragraph!

Something that could contribute making the player feel on edge, or even scare them, could be enemies that behave in ways they don’t expect them to. A blind enemy that has to feel its way in the darkness, looking for the enemy, or uses echolocation to navigate in the dark, instead of just running towards the player. Or mentally unstable NPCs/enemies, lobotomised or insane characters, who won’t attack unless provoked/attacked, but could follow the player, creeping on them, possibly drawing attention to the player and alerting more dangerous and hostile enemies.

Keeping the player constantly feel on edge and unsure is probalby the key here; never let them feel safe unless intended. If they learn how the enemy is programmed to behave, they will relax, and the enemy will lose a part of what makes it scary. If the player picks up a new item or completes a goal they are likely to expect an enemy to show up, so for once subverting expectations is not a bad idea.

Around the time around the release of ‘Amnesia: The Dark Descent’ they wrote a lot of really interesting entries that could be useful: https://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010/

And here is a more recent entry, talking about the importance of player’s being able to plan ahead in games: https://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2017/05/planning-core-reason-why-gameplay-feels.html

>>43146

Wow, those guys have put a lot of thought into the psychology of player-game interactions. Yesterday I was toying with a simple idea - since this would be my first attempt at making a game, it's best to keep it simple - that could incorporate some of the mechanics we're discussing: the player starts at the center of a maze and has to find his way out, escaping from monsters and solving various kinds of puzzles in the process. It could even be a multi-level maze with more than one floor, and each floor would present new challenges and threats.

The environment itself would be an enemy, with some areas being so dark that the player can only see what's right in front of his nose. Not all NPCs would be monsters, some would be other humans that are also trying to escape, and each one of them would behave differently, have its own skills/knowledge, and be helpful, neutral or hostile depending on the situation. The player would have to wonder how much can he really trust the people he encounters.

Similarly, there'd be a huge variety in how the monsters behave, in terms of aggressiveness and intelligence. Some would mind their own business and not attack unless provoked, while others would be vicious predators. As for the plot, it could be a 'The Cabin in the Woods' or 'Jurassic Park' type of setting: big facility where the government/secret organisation/corporation is storing the monsters for some reason or another, and a technical malfunction forces the workers/visitors to escape. I've always been a fan of stories like that, but maybe it's a bit overdone at this point.

What do you think? Does this sound like it has potential to be fun?

make a game about a guy that gets lost in the Yosemite national park and end the game as him becoming a missing411 case.

>>43155

You mean he gets stalked by Bigfoot while exploring the woods and then once he gets caught the game is immediately over, and there's a scene in the end credits with the newspapers talking about the latest mysterious disappearance in a national park?

>>43154

Your idea reminds me of two films in particular, ‘Cube’ & ‘Dark City’.

The majority of ‘Dark City’ is surprisingly heavy on cosmic horror, but towards the end it loses its Lovecraftian touch. Still, both are terrific films and I highly recommend seeing them. There is also the more subtle scenes in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, which are way more disturbing and unsettling than what most any modern horror film can come up with.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BOTH FILMS BELOW

In ‘Cube’, none of the people who have worked on the mazelike cube know why, or who, if anyone, is coordinating it all -- that idea is very interesting IMHO, making it a mystery instead of just saying it was aliens/eldritch horrors from beyond our universe.

The setting and aesthetic of ‘Dark City’ is very appealing; a massive chaotic city under a neverending night-sky -- impossible to navigate since it is constantly changing and leading to dead ends and new places. The motivation and the look of the ‘Strangers’ should not be the same; talking about the soul and having humans be anything special in the grand scheme of things in an anathema to cosmic horror IMHO.

The idea that we are in a simulated reality is one that could also be used -- see the interview where Elon Musk talks about the subject: he seems certain that if we are currently in a simulated reality, we will be at some point in the future, saying it is inevitable because of technological progress:

Joe Rogan & Elon Musk - Are We in a Simulated Reality?: https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=0cM690CKArQ

Elon Musk: “I think most likely … there are many, many simulations. These simulations are, you might as well call them reality, or you can call them multiverse.”

Joe Rogan: “These simulations, you believe are created? Like someone has manufactured them?”

Elon Musk: “They’re running on a substrait. That substrait is probably boring.”

Joe Rogan: “Boring? How so?”

Elon Musk: “Well, when we create a simulation, like a game or a movie, it’s the distillation of what’s interesting about life. It can take a year to shoot an action movie. And then that’s all distilled down to two our three hours. So, let me tell you, if you’ve seen an action movie being filmed … it looks boring. Super boring. … there’s lots of takes, everything is on an greenscreeen -- looks pretty goofy. … But when you add the CGI and have great editing, it’s amazing. So, I think, most likely, if we’re in a simulation, it’s really boring outside the simulation. ‘cause why would you make a simulation that’s boring? You’d make the simulation way more interesting than the reality.”

But, what if the substrait -- the actual base reality – is so miserable, horrible and/or unbearable that anything would be better than it, and that is why we are here? That for some reason we have sought refuge in this simulation from a reality we want to escape, or a prison? Could this reality be the ‘peace and safety of a new dark age’ we have sought refuge in after having pieced together too much of the truth?

>>43163

To preface this, I rarely comment.

I've lurked fullchan since hotwheels, and halfchan since moot.

In total, I've commented less than 10 times.

Your post - the reasoning at the end, absolutely frightening.

I love it.

Well done, anon, you've made /x worth while tonight.

>>43163

But if that was the case, wouldn't we have made the simulation a happy place to live? Instead it's exactly the opposite: every major religion and philosophy has tried to provide a satisfactory answer for why so much suffering exists in the world. The basic assumption has always been that the material world is fundamentally imperfect and a flawed reflection of the higher reality. It's certainly not peaceful and safe, in fact it's exactly the opposite: a world where peace and safety are pretty much impossible or only temporary at best.

>>43163

Pretty dumb rationale at the end. If this is a simulated reality that is meant to cut out all the "boring" bits, then why is real life so mind numbingly boring so much of the time? In fact life is probably boring more often than it is interesting, and action movies aren't meant to have any boring parts at all if they can help it. And his "many, many simulations" idea is itself dumb, since no universe could logically contain enough computational power to faithfully simulate all the particles within itself even once.

Amazing what the stigmatization of religious faith can do, make genuinely intelligent people believe a ridiculous theory like this that is

1) Even less falsifiable than religion

2) Absurd on it's face (because in case you didn't know, computers can't generate consciousness)

>>43163

Off-topic: we should watch 'Dark City' and 'Jacob's Ladder' next time we do a streaming night.

>>43175

Have you watched 'Altered States'? I think you'd enjoy it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States

>>43180

So, I did watch Altered States, and I did enjoy it. If they had cut the An American Werewolf in London part, where he runs around as a primitive human ancestor, and even wakes up naked in a zoo, it would have been a really creepy horror film. Very interesting premise, that reminded me a lot of Beyond the Black Rainbow. I wonder if the book is worth reading. From what I have read the author was so displeased by the changes that he took his name off the script.

If OP is still around, I just remembered seeing an interview with Pixel, the one-man dev who made Cave Story, where he talks about his practical approach to making a game.

GDC: Cave Story and the Triumph of Pragmatic Game Design: https://web.archive.org/web/20160525235024/http://www.1up.com/news/gdc-cave-story-triumph-pragmatic-design

I want a game thats like the show supernatural but open world where you go around hunting demons

With guns and you have to prepare

>>43007 (OP)

long ago i wanted to make a Silent Hill like game (normal place with some creepy parallel version(s) )

But with the visual style of Legend of Zelda games (the Snes or the GBA ones)

>>43655

>implying you can escape

Yeah I'm still around, life just got in the way (in a good way). I'm glad you enjoyed the movie!