Horror Games Megathread

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Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Is there a good summary of how the thread reacted to Outlast 2 anywhere? I've read the now-archived game thread, but it's 3 pages long. How did they manage to screw it up this badly, on so many levels? What lessons are there to be learned from it?

GulagDolls posted:

Someday! Someday!

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Dec 11, 2017

# ¿ Dec 11, 2017 02:26

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 05:35

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

What surprised me most about it was it seemed to remove what little degree of agency, control or meaning that the protagonist had in the previous games. It's just relentless bad decisions and suffering with no real redemption, success or catharsis for the main character, unless you count the "make you realize you didn't stop a priest from molesting and murdering your friend" bit, which is not exactly positive, even if it's not tied to the plot device melting your brain.

Danaru posted:

I still go back and watch Bob and co's stream of Outlast 2 just because watching four people extremely well versed in horror rip it apart is super gratifying Good lord what a shitshow

Link pls.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2017 03:10

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Here are the three blueprints from that video.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2017 19:31

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Arcsquad12 posted:

So, coupled with the video, can we assume that Cassette Guy is Henry from the novels?

No clue, I don't follow the series at all. I just snipped images from the video.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2017 23:30

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

SOMA�s central conceits all being from freshman philosophy courses kinda ruined any appeal for me.

Generally if the horror trope would work if you added �heyyyy mannnn, like what if� in front, it will likely only work for me as satire.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 01:11

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Creators of Amnesia make aesthetically beautiful but hamhandedly dumb game with major �twists � visible from the first couple chapters, news at 11.

The news is that you were dead all along and lacked agency, ooh so spooky, death

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 01:33

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Imagine four teleported brains in tanks on the edge of a cliff. A fifth brain in a tank is in a junction switch box and can access a switch that will drop a trolley off the cliff onto another ten brains in tanks, two of which have extensive rap sheets. If the switch is not pulled, one of the four brains on the cliff will fall off the cliff, only to reregister under a different account name on a perfect simulation of a dead gay forum that is less dead and gay, and therefore not a perfect simulation, but don�t worry,

The brain in the switch box has never heard of identity problems, the ship of Theseus, the teleporter problem, brooms, or intuition pumps in general, and finds this post both confusing and intriguing.

But oh, no! These brains are through a contrivance the only brains in the world, and oh no, they�re dead, sort of! Imagine being dead. How horrific.

Like, if it�s a phobia of yours I can respect that it may be personally impactful, but it�s not a well-crafted narrative and it�s entirely rehashing a collection of very, very old questions in philosophy that have had everything wrung out of them for decades. Talos Principle actually had more interesting things to say.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 10:34

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Cream-of-Plenty posted:

(Discendo Vox gazes upon his (its?) shelf with a furrowed brow. "What freshman-level philosophy book am I going to condescend and bore my family with this Christmas?")

Either�s fine. My point is that this is what the game is doing, and why it�s divisive. For people with any familiarity with the related philosophy question it�s based on, (which is genuinely 101 let�s use this to hook undergrads level) the whole horror hook of the game isn�t just known, it�s boring and condescending .

And it was a copy of Bullfinch �s Mythology this year.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Dec 31, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 11:44

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Has anyone tried Korsakovia, The Chinese Room's most obscure and directly horror-themed game?

# ¿ Jan 26, 2018 19:51

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

the phone's definitely the scariest part.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 03:41

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I think of it as the game which gave us Gaster, which in turn gave us that time a youtube Content Creator gave a copy of Undertale to the Pope. So, mixed emotions.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 05:14

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The worst silent hill is probably one of the incoherent mobile games, or that weird dungeon crawl they released most recently.

I always liked the cult. They have just barely enough ability to work with whatever the town is to pose a serious threat, and they're evil/misguided such that they do real harm, but at the same time it was also consistently clear that their religion was completely wrong. The cult are also victims at the mercy of whatever the town is. If they were actually moustache-twirling villains (like it became in Homecoming with a secret base and such), I'd like it a lot less.

By contrast, while I thought SH2 was well handled, I'm really sick of the "let's explore the protagonist's secret traumas" element of subsequent games, because when that becomes the focus of the plot it's both obvious and really restrictive. It works as a background part of the game, but not as the core narrative.

SH3's probably my favorite, which is no surprise given the above. But since people have such divided perspectives on what makes SH good, it's easy to see why making a new one would be hard.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Mar 15, 2018

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 15:42

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

al-azad posted:

Doesn't someone mention that the natives before the town was built were wary of the place? It's not the town that necessarily has the power but whatever spot grows these weird rear end drug flowers.

The flowers are generally tangential- they're used in ceremonies by the cult, but the location itself appears to be the source of power. As far as the town, it's portrayed very inconsistently. The most recent entries like downpour play up the idea of the location itself having sentience, a framing that gained popularity after SH2. In the original game, the town didn't have any power and it was all Alessa's psychic abilities doing the work.

The most consistent explanation that I've been able to come up with (which is by no means an argument for canonicity or anything) is that the town reflects the psyches of people in it, and their beliefs can have a lasting impression on the town and what it does. What native americans perceived the location to be, and their relationship with it, is never made clear. When the colonists arrived, they committed a whole variety of atrocities in the area and if its latent power weren't evil before, it was rendered that way afterward. In turn, Alessa and the cult have also left impressions on how the town's monsters/imagery etc functioned. Because the cultists believe in some sort of religious ideology, they indirectly project this into the town's creations as well. Their practices have had a sort of placebo effect- believing in them makes them real in Silent Hill, to a degree. That gave them a very limited degree of control, but they never really understand what it is they're messing with. I like the cult as long as they're portrayed in that evil, but ultimately deluded and powerless light- they're very useful narratively speaking, especially if you want to keep every silent hill game from rehashing SH2.

Later games have implied that the town has a mind of its own, and that the scope of its influence has gradually grown, primarily because people are drawn to it from elsewhere (SH2) and it can influence other locations through believers (SH3, 4 and 5).

In terms of a root source, it's been indirectly implied from a few different games and artbooks that the source of SH's effects is either at the bottom of Toluca Lake, or on Toluca Lake Island. Alternately, the lake having such power may just be because a number of shipwrecks and other atrocties have occurred there.

All of this stuff is rewritten and tossed out whenever a development team wanted to reference monsters from past games or justify a different plot element. It's less a matter of "this is mysterious because resolving and explaining everything is bad practice" and more "after the first game the original developers winged it a lot of the time, and when they left the people doing writing weren't very good at it and had a lot more canon to wrestle with".

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Apr 12, 2018

# ¿ Apr 12, 2018 20:12

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Old Boot posted:

I left out some to save space but basi--

I am become Red :spergin:

Thing, better known as :spergin:

head.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2018 23:23

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

There's a history of Overkill/Starbreeze, which is the company that funded DbD, really chasing after streamers and giving said streamers too much influence in the game design. It's been one source of balance changes that screwed up payday 1 and payday 2, starbreeze's premier franchise. Streamers, as a matter of course, include the most obsessive, drama-focused and meta-fixated among the playerbase. When the toys and tools they use to demonstrate game "mastery" for money are tweaked, or when the game is made easier in ways that cater to other audiences, they and their audiences form a terrifying white-hot cluster of entitled rage.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2018 00:20

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

FWIW I can't even imagine the difficulty of maintaining balance and community health on that competitive multiplayer asymmetric format. Even in expert hands DbD would be hellish to manage.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2018 01:39

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

We should get together and crowdsource up a Deep Lore youtuber bait horror game for steam. I bet we can come up with something way more ~~lucrative~~ creative and fulfilling.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 3, 2018

# ¿ May 3, 2018 03:39

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Bogart posted:

A roguelike...atmospheric horror game...about managing a short-wave radio broadcast.

Black August posted:

Seriouspost: Horror roguelike working strongly off of fragmented information and some concept like broken timelines

*Short wave radio is how you get and send messages into the world, which ends up in other games for other players to see
*It is also how plot and clues are doled out, how new places are found, and other certain tasks done
*You have to constantly survive looking/fighting through some important locale near the radio home base, the Dungeon as it is
*Think Noct before it got dumber and shittier

Simple plot, something is breaking down and time has funneled to a single point that involves millions of people/iterations (players) reaching the same timepoint (the game)
You have to solve some grand arcing mystery pieced together by each playthrough doling out some online-keyed unique fragment of whatever (written story line, picture fragment, w/e)
Maybe include stuff like online-only content, hidden websites with new downloads of alternate versions of the game for one-off events, online trackers of amalgamated mystery statistics leading to some end goal, etc
Driving mechanic could be a theme of surviving as long as possible each game until a finite number of resources are exhausted

exquisite tea posted:

Dead Air.

Bogart posted:

Oh man and you could random generate DJ names. That'd be the best part. DJ T-Shirt Bronco. Yung Mattresses

Excellent, this qualifies as a complete design document, and "Dead Air" isn't taken on Steam yet. What's the most primitive, cheap asset structure we could get away with for this? I think we have to aim for at least FNaF to get the streamer dollar. Should we work streamers into the gameplay loop somehow?

# ¿ May 4, 2018 02:33

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

al-azad posted:

I should be asleep right now dammit

Perfect. We're going to simultaneously capture the minecraft and streamer demos.

edit: that number on the clock is significant.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 06:48

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

It'd be interesting to identify the necessary informational elements to trigger and secure that "Deep Lore" impression and response. It's not as simple as just leaving disconnected bits of info out there, at least if you have any sort of plan going.

# ¿ May 6, 2018 16:35

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I see...strokes chin thoughtfully

Outlast 2, then.

# ¿ May 6, 2018 20:00

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Horror Games Megathread: aren't boobs scary?

Horror Games Megathread: tits are boring, bring on the horror-cock

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 17:40 on May 27, 2018

# ¿ May 27, 2018 15:36

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I'm concerned that depictions of nudity in most horror games, though not all, are ethically fraught, and aren't usually worth it for whatever they're supposed to provide. I mean, if you're making Silent Hill 2, ok, sure, that's definitely arguable, but 95% of the time female nudity is straight up "ooh sexy" and male nudity seems freighted with some sort of rape imagery. Outlast is, uh, a pretty good example here. I care quite a bit about how gender is depicted in games, and outlast is just, eurgh.

# ¿ May 27, 2018 17:42

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Those gentlemen are really determined to steal your cargo of screaming baby mannequins.

# ¿ May 28, 2018 00:27

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I am really unclear about this "had to censor" line from the Agony devs. Who is making them censor things, and how?

# ¿ May 31, 2018 15:56

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

A. Beaverhausen posted:

Google is cool

https://www.destructoid.com/uncensored-patch-for-survival-horror-title-agony-cancelled-505126.phtml

This doesn�t actually explain anything. It�s treating the ESRB rating, which is increasingly meaningless, as a big deal. Most other discussion involves PEGI, which is as far as I can tell pure labeling with no functional market restrictions. �Had to� looks a lot like �chose to, loudly, with a press campaign �.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 16:29 on May 31, 2018

# ¿ May 31, 2018 16:21

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Sakurazuka posted:

PEGI is legally enforced in some countries including the one I live in.

I've been to the PEGI site and looked up the organization, as far as I can tell the full scope of legal enforcement is "you have to be evaluated by PEGI". There's no mention of any market restriction. There are a bazillion games on steam with a PEGI 18 rating.

s.i.r.e. posted:

Some of the stuff they wanted to add would probably make the game have an AO rating which is a death sentence for your title because most shops and stores (Steam included) won't stock AO rated titles.

Hatred is on steam. It's AO. Valve just sticks an age gate on the store page, which they already use for any number of games. I've now read the claims by the devs that "leaving this content uncensored would result in the game being banned and us, Madmind Studio, being sued." It's bullshit. They're doing this for attention.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 20:30 on May 31, 2018

# ¿ May 31, 2018 20:25

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The creators of Hatred are tied to anti-immigrant (read:virulently racist) and revanchist groups in Poland. Please don't give them money.

s.i.r.e. posted:

AO sex games though are another thing I believe, Valve's even apparently even cracking down on devs that offer uncensored patches for their games or some poo poo? I don't know.

As far as I can tell, absolutely none of this is the case. A group of anime porn games (not specifically ones with uncensor patches) claimed they were being taken down by valve a week or so ago, but that never actually transpired and there was a bunch of weirdness about their claims.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2018 01:43

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

That's one part of the "there was a bunch of weirdness about their claims" bit. Regardless, it wasn't over uncensor patches and doesn't explain or coincide with the Agony dev's claims.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2018 02:25

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

s.i.r.e. posted:

Were none of the other names for the right good enough that there has to be another one? I thought it was some strange sex thing, lol

It's derived from the horrible garbage alt-right simultaneously-ironic-both-ways virgin vs chad meme.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 15:08

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

There was literally never anything blocking the Agony devs from putting whatever they wanted up, especially on Steam. There is no law that would have blocked them, in the US or EU. It's pure promo.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2018 03:06

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I need an effortpost of recently released or in-development indie horror titles. I'm starting to fear I'm going to miss something extraordinary.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2018 00:27

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

al-azad posted:

I think the solution to the issue with horror game pacing is an anthology format. Eternal Darkness got it right by having a central storyline and then a bunch of side storylines that tied into it. You could explore different gameplay styles, some focused on action others focused on puzzles and scares, and even better you can take away the players stuff inbetween stories without them protesting. You get to control the pacing as a designer and the player feels like they get a new perspective without you cheating.

RE7 was kind of heading in this direction with the tapes but didn't explore it fully enough. I'm imagining a game where you're exploring a spooky mansion, using these scattered tapes about the fate of the people there. Then when you discover the "secret" of the mansion it springs to life and all the crazy poo poo you encountered in the tapes is out to get you kind of like a Wily Castle final level run through everything you just learned.

It's appealing, but the design and buildout burden for that approach is gargantuan, especially if you want modern graphics.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2018 16:44

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Bulkiest Toaster posted:

Well I bought Outlast 2 for 9 bucks. I was seemingly one of the few who enjoyed the first game so I hope this one is worth it.

too much, sorry.

Cream-of-Plenty posted:

From an outsider's perspective (I don't actually own the game), Outlast II seems like it would be a lot better if you could actually fight all of these scrawny dipshit hicks, instead of scampering around helplessly like an idiot rodent.

Basically give Outlast II the combat of Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Ah, I believe you are referring to Condemned II!

sonic emitters: check

Nonsense plot: check

Chosen one: check

Bad depictions of women: check

Holds up.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2018 15:59

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Also Alcoholism Demon.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2018 17:28

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Let's just say he's a virulently bigoted rape fetishist.

*checks notes*

No, sorry, I meant the developers.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 06:06

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Baldi�s Basics? more like Doobie�s Dogs

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 21:37

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Thread question:

Suppose you got license and funding from Konami to do a Silent Hill sequel. Kojima and PT are completely out of the picture, for whatever reason. How would you approach the project?

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 23:38

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I've got a big 'ol design fanfiction rattling around in my brain for a silent hill game, gonna crack open my skull and spill it all over this thread one of these days.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 23:44

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 05:35

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I'd be more inclined to give DBD a shot if there weren't achievements tied to being absolute #1 tier.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2018 18:46

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