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The best way to learn something about games is to ask a game designer. On his blog, the author of the Dead Secret game Chris Proett told about the horror everything you need to know – we translated a note and convey his word to him. To begin with, a little theory, about the importance of thinking in context and about tricks that our body plays with us.

Theory of fear

Stress, stress, intrigue are the most important components of any terrible game. The best in the horror genre slowly but surely pull the voltage spring, and then let go – little by little, quickly, never until the end. In some way, this is a peak of involvement in the game: the player is so captured by the process that he experiences real physical stress.

The horror design is designed to involve the player to the limit and make him emotionally invest in the game. Be sure, the best horror games will certainly take advantage of the fact that fear does not leave indifferent, and will try to get into the player in the soul. Horror can take on topics that are unbearable in other genres. The player is scared to open to everything else that the game wants to convey to him.

Of course, most frightening moments in games are a direct consequence, rather, not design, but the laws of the genre. The atmosphere, atmosphere, characters – they are all needed like air to hook the player before moving the hair on the back of the head. But there are other tools in the game arsenal: interaction with the player and game mechanics. The task of intimidating the player in the game is not limited to the narrative, it covers all aspects of the game design. Therefore, the creation of voltage in the games of designers is so much occupied.

Here I will consider the mechanics of terrible video games. It will not be about the plot, not about the narrative, but about the systems designed to make the game strong. The article can be considered a combined review of the schemes with which we experimented in the work on the horror detective Dead Secret (The game was released for Gear VR in October 2015 and is expected on Steam and PlayStation in 2016). This is not a list of standards for a gameplay, it is just part of the ideas – how to use a game mechanics to pump voltage.

Attention!

The schemes below are designed so that the player gets carried away by his video game until a complete disconnection from the world. Thomas flu (developer Amnesia: The Dark Descent , Soma ) calls this a "effect of presence" – a sense of personal presence in the game world. In addition, they are designed to constantly knock the player out of balance.

In the game mechanics, the system is often calculated by repetition. Repetitions are routine, and the routine calms down. To scare our player, you need to inspire him: he does not control what is happening, the rules may change at any time, he does not and cannot have complete knowledge about the game. Horror-game has to maintain a fragile balance-to cause a player a sense of vulnerability and helplessness, without rolling into an unsystematic inferior, it is not clear that.

Think in context

Your most important game design is to draw all the attention of the player to the plot canvas, and not to the system supporting it. We need the player to think as an avatar, and not as a decisive puzzle person from the side. Many of the ideas listed here try to “move” the player’s thinking from a systematic approach to solving problems (thoughts about parameters, design templates and tactics with strategy) to the contextual approach (“From whom this note?"Or" How can I get out of here?").

Some of these design solutions poorly show themselves in other genres, because they do not allow the player to collect the game like a rubber cube. But such restrictions have their own goal: the Rubik's cube and the understandable game do not scare, or it is a matter of finding out which ancient relics are useful as weapons against the one who has many names.

Loss matters

One way to configure the player on the game context is to Raptor Wins Casino make the loss significant for both the player and his avatar. The “end of the game” usually means death for the hero, but how to make such a virtual death important for the player?

A popular approach – relatively far from the conservation points and make the player lose progress when the character is death. This is effective, especially when the conservation points are interesting in themselves, but the idea of ​​these points as such is somewhat outdated. Dark Souls – A more modern embodiment of the principle "tension will cost you dearly".

Another method is to make a loss itself a source of stress. In Indie Horror Five Nights at Freddy’s And Slender This is achieved by the fact that when losing your face jumps something terrible. We have chosen this method for Dead Secret to allow the player to persist at any time. In this model, so that the player is nervous and tried to survive, the threat of a frightening event is used.

Concealment of the rules

If you do not show the player the numbers that are behind what is happening in the game, he will be forced to think not systemically, but contextally. How much health I have left? Whether I can see me to the enemies? Am I going the right way? How many shots are required to fill up the boss?

In other genres, easy access to all this data is usually considered a sign of a good interface. In Horror, it is preferable to issue such information abstractly and in the context of the game. Resident Evil And Silent Hill , For example, according to tradition, approximate categories are used to describe the state of health status (“normal”, “anxious”, “dangerous”), even if in fact, health points are monitored in the usual way. In Resident Evil, the character's condition is in addition to the animation. How much you have left, you can’t determine it, but if your hero bends on the go and holds onto his stomach, then he does not really.

Concealment of information and rules does not allow the player to lay a safe route for the game. It deprives certain system certainty. When a player cannot know for sure how the in -game system works, he has to make decisions in accordance with the environment and plot.

In Dead Secret, I tried to achieve this, excluding the concept of "security rooms". There is no place where the player would be sure that nothing threatens him. The killer in the hood and in the theater mask can appear anywhere, at any time. At least I need that the player thinks so.

When the heart beats more often

There are quite convincing studies that suggest that people who are in a state of physical excitement are much easier. Here a mechanism called "Error of the attribution of excitement" is triggered here. This requires a state of physiological arousal: when the player’s heart beats more often, adrenaline is released, the player begins to sweat. If he is in this state to show something terrible, he can experience a false emotion. There is a chance that his brain will confuse a purely physical reaction with fear and make the player be afraid.

Attribution error is a powerful means of controlling emotions. But there is one prerequisite: all this works only in public who do not realize their condition. Psychologists have proved this experimentally, injecting adrenaline subjects. Only those who did not know that they were injected to cause false emotions. To use the attribution error in the game, you must excite the player so that he does not realize this.

Two -factor model p. Shechter and J. Singera describes emotion as a combination of physiological arousal and its cognitive interpretation. An attribution error can occur when the brain uses a directly accessible context to explain physiological arousal.

Typically, such inconspicuous excitement is achieved using complex and unpredictable game systems. Condemned , for example, uses a rigid combat system, the rates in which are very high. Any small opponent can defeat the player if he calls. Resident Evil is stingy with resources and not easy to manage, which gives drama to every meeting with enemies. Siren deprives the player of forces so that going into battle becomes risky. Physical activity like hardcore buttons also helps.

And these thoughts can take away in the most unexpected directions. Night of the Sacrifice – The banal toy about the House with Ghosts – it sucks to seem much worse due to the fact that the player has to walk on the spot on the WII Balance Board, and walking makes the heart beat more often.

The next time the game seems to you too hard, check if you have your palms. Hold on to the controller too much? The heart is pounding? It may well be that you entered a state when what is happening on the screen affects you much more than.

Character design

The player should be scary for his avatar – it means that we need a character who is easily imposed. The hero’s design affects game systems, especially the enemy fighting and design. To make a strong character feel vulnerable, you will need an enemy even more powerful.

You have a game about the cool mercenary who can jump from the second floor and rush grenades at the door that has just knocked out? On health, but you will have to come up with such a large and terrible threat that even your uber shooting will become uneasy. Or to decrease the hero of steepness, take away the firearm from him so as not to invent something completely incredible on the role of enemies. Here, for example, the Resident Evil, where on the one hand there is an elite police, and on the other – violent mutated monsters.

And vice versa: threatening the deprived of strength, a "normal" character is much easier. Silent Hill heroes are ordinary men and women, because the probability of survival of such heroes in the upcoming severe trials is small. Preference is given to Dubue, not a firearm, so as not to strengthen the characters too much.

In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the player appears in the image of an unarmed man with an oil lamp – not the type from which you expect victories over the world evil. IN Fatal Frame And Clock Tower These are almost always lonely schoolgirls in terrible places. Siren – teachers, students and other not too outstanding personalities. The combat system and design of opponents in these games correspond to the image of the player. In many of these games, there is not even the opportunity to repulse the enemy.

It was very important for Dead Secret to make the main character Patricia a successful and self -sufficient person. To weaken her, without encroaching on a worldview, mind and an ardent nature, we … broke her hand.

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The following part we will talk about the importance of science, how to joke the jokes with perception and create a comprehensive impression.