OooOo, it’s that spooky time of the year! Bring out the Halloween decorations, prepare your scary movies, and of course… bring on the horror games.
Horror games are one of the main reasons for many streamers major successes. Pewdiepie and Amnesia, Markiplier and Five Nights at Freddy’s, to name a few. But look at the rise of studios and horror games: Red Barrels’ Outlast series in 2013, Puppet Combo’s 90’s inspired horror collection in 2017, and Joey Drew Studios’ with Bendy and the Ink Machine also in 2017. We as players, developers, and audience love our horror game experiences. But why?
The Players and Horror Games
It’s simple. It’s the thrill and adrenaline during, and the reward after persevering a terrifying situation. It’s much like the relief of overcoming a fear. At face value, it’s hard to not be drawn to games, look at the technology that is to come, like the PS5 for example. Apart from that, there is a lot of psychology linked to why the human being is drawn to video games. For example, the ulterior motive for a person inviting their friends to play a game, is to fulfill a need of proven superiority.
Horror games however, require a different psychological influence for a player to be game. In short:
- The thrill: fear triggers a fight-or-flight response. Some horror game players enjoy the ability to control their response in a situation, others enjoy the helplessness. Fear triggers additional psychological symptoms: overwhelmed, anxiety, helplessness. Will the player pause the game and turn it off, or face the girl at the end of the hallway?
- The adrenaline: fear is a survival mechanism, but it also makes someone feel alive when their life is being threatened. A surround sound footstep audio will easily make the their head turn. And when they turn back to the screen there’s someone standing in the corner, they weren’t there before.
- The reward: of the four major types of stress, horror games often cause a player to feel acute or emotional stress. Whether the player has won or failed, not being in a state of vulnerability is its own reward.
Game Developers and Horror Games
We essentially have free reign on the designing of a horror game… chuck a jumpscare here, a jumpscare there, it’s totally fine because it’s a horror game! This genre is actually one of the most versatile and interactive game environments you could create. Plus, the industry is a bit more forgiving with indie studios. You often find that graphics don’t have to be fantastic! If it induces a strong emotional effect OR has a solid storyline leaving the player psychologically imbalanced, it still works.
Many horror games use a first person perspective. First person experiences allow the player to feel more immersed into the game, perceiving themselves as their character and feel as though they have less control of the situation, sort of forced to participate. Studies have also shown that real world dissociation is much stronger in first person than third person POV. Take Silent Hills P.T for example, amongst many horror aspects that were right with this game, the first person mechanic heightened the sense of vulnerability!
Realistic actions are safe. Simple things like:
- Open door
- Turn lights on
- Check phone/Use phone light
- Crouch/hide
Limiting the player to actions that are similar to real world motions adds to the immersion factor. An indie game that does that immerses the player well is The Beast Inside. The actions are realistic, main mechanics are to move items, light a match and candles; and the game setting is very believable. You could take this familiarity to the next level, Welcome to the Game, has a computer desktop mechanic which is very familiar to a millennial market.
Confession of a horror game developer: there is a HUGE sense of accomplishment when a playtester falls for that jumpscare! It’s the easiest genre to induce an emotional-physical-verbal response. The hybrid of fear (emotional) triggering a jump (physical) and scream (verbal), is very satisfying to see in your players.
The Audience and Horror Games
To condense this, it’s quite similar to The Player and Horror Games psychology, with an exception. There are two (2) barriers between the audience and the threat of the game: (1) the screen between the player and the game, (2) the screen between the audience and the player. The audience can still experience the thrill, adrenaline and reward but from a safer position.
It is important to secure an emotion that you want to induce when designing your next game. For us, No Humanity may trigger many types of emotions associated with rage, excitement, or confusion. Horror games is definitely a genre more likely to be a memorable experience for your players solely based on how they felt.
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