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[Magnesium Ninja]

I've been puzzling over how to focus the player's attention on certain events recently. I'm concerned that a lot of the things that occur in the game are going to be missed by people merely because they're not looking at the right place at the right time.

I've been looking at other good horror games made recently. Using Amnesia as the obvious example, what the game does is force your camera to look at a certain thing when an event is occurring that they want you to witness (Like the lantern first making its appearance). It works, but I don't like how restricted and scripted it makes these sections feel.

It's been suggested that all horror events have sounds to accompany them, so that even if you miss the visual you still get the audio, and that might be even more frightening. What do you guys think? If we take this route, how can we determine if the player has actually seen what happened? Should the main character comment on scares at all?

The frequency of dialogue is another point of contention. Is it better to have the character speak of his feelings toward various events, or should we just let the player himself react however he wants? Obviously for the sake of story progression we need some dialogue, but how much is too much?

AGGHJHSKJ so much design, so much design 

[Gentleman Owl]

I've been puzzling over how to focus the player's attention on certain events recently. I'm concerned that a lot of the things that occur in the game are going to be missed by people merely because they're not looking at the right place at the right time.

I've been looking at other good horror games made recently. Using Amnesia as the obvious example, what the game does is force your camera to look at a certain thing when an event is occurring that they want you to witness (Like the lantern first making its appearance). It works, but I don't like how restricted and scripted it makes these sections feel.

It's been suggested that all horror events have sounds to accompany them, so that even if you miss the visual you still get the audio, and that might be even more frightening. What do you guys think? If we take this route, how can we determine if the player has actually seen what happened? Should the main character comment on scares at all?

The frequency of dialogue is another point of contention. Is it better to have the character speak of his feelings toward various events, or should we just let the player himself react however he wants? Obviously for the sake of story progression we need some dialogue, but how much is too much?

AGGHJHSKJ so much design, so much design 

Are you talking about focusing the player's attention to in-game events (like a new door opening or rubble breaking away)? Or about how to focus player attention on items to pick up and places to explore (static environment clues).

If you're asking about visually directing the player on static clues, this article is quite helpful:
http://games.ucla.edu/resources/visually-directing-the-player/

[eyeliner]

This game looks nice. Atticus could be a bit more devilishly handsome, though.

[Magnesium Ninja]

Are you talking about focusing the player's attention to in-game events (like a new door opening or rubble breaking away)? Or about how to focus player attention on items to pick up and places to explore (static environment clues).

If you're asking about visually directing the player on static clues, this article is quite helpful:
http://games.ucla.edu/resources/visually-directing-the-player/

We've been dealing with both recently, and what I'm trying to figure out right now is how to highlight in-game events, like you mentioned. I appreciate the article, there were a couple points made that I hadn't thought of

To give a direct example of what I'm working with right now: There's a point early in the game where you get an item, and almost immediately afterwards a door nearby swings open (oooh scary). It's meant to both alarm the player and give them a sense of direction, but if you aren't looking at it you won't even notice that it occurred. Sound alone might help notify the player, but I'm worried that if they don't also see the door opening, they won't understand what happened.


@Eyeliner: Thank you! Atty is handsome enough. Could you hate a man with a goatee like that?

[Mars]

Well, the good thing about survival horror games is that you are so focused on whats happening in the game, that the user will most likely see everything that happens, even the smallest things! Ambient sounds are essential for the atmosphere of the game to work properly, and if you take away the music in the game, you will somehow force the player into listening every other sound without being too drastic (or make the music very grim, dark and low).

Edit:

You can also use a light system (lets just call it that), using your own example maybe a dim light would cross by the door. Maybe you can focus the player attention to electronic devices with blinking LED's, maybe metallic things can randomly shine, maybe you are in a room and suddenly the lightbulb explodes leaving you in the dark and then you hear it... (I'd crap my pants), maybe you need to cross a path where the lightbulbs are failing (blinking) and if that is not scary on its own, you can make creatures appear and dissapear in between the blinking.

Its all about the atmosphere, I think.

[Magnesium Ninja]

Very much so agreed. I've been playing around with some lighting cues lately, but I can't do a whole lot until I can get the whole team together in the same room to work on some things.

I'm working on a tentative engine that auto-focuses the player's flashlight on certain objects (not the entire view, just the flashlight/beam) for when I really want certain things to be visible. I'm hoping this'll provide a proper balance between interactivity and visibility. We'll see. It's not like this is the first time we've made a design change!

I'm going to have to start pulling people in for core testing, it's hard to anticipate what players are going to do in the game. Core testing is terrifying.

[Gentleman Owl]

Very much so agreed. I've been playing around with some lighting cues lately, but I can't do a whole lot until I can get the whole team together in the same room to work on some things.

I'm working on a tentative engine that auto-focuses the player's flashlight on certain objects (not the entire view, just the flashlight/beam) for when I really want certain things to be visible. I'm hoping this'll provide a proper balance between interactivity and visibility. We'll see. It's not like this is the first time we've made a design change!

I'm going to have to start pulling people in for core testing, it's hard to anticipate what players are going to do in the game. Core testing is terrifying.

Here's an idea,

If from early on in the game you teach the player that a certain sound means that something has opened up - in later segments of the game when the same noise has played, the player will understand that an area has opened somewhere.

In addition to the sound, you could have a hint / alert system that you could open and read. Logs could mention that a new area has been opened and suggest that you investigate. Whether this breaks the tension / suspense that you want to create will depend on how you go about it.

[Magnesium Ninja]

We've got a few indicators in game already; notes directing the player towards certain areas, character monologue, lighting cues. I don't want to go overboard with direction, because part of the fun of horror is getting completely and utterly lost during your travels.

I managed to get a decent camera focus engine working. I like it, but it'll need to be coupled with some other effects (like sudden intensity flare or a sharp intake of breath) to really create the atmosphere we want. Still, it's a start!



This unfortunate girl had the poor luck of running into a monster in record time! Ah well, somebody has to die first, right?

Working on redeveloping the lighting scheme for the end of zone 2 right now. I've made some good progress, but I've got a little bit more to do before I can call it finished. I'll try to grab some screenshots of it once I'm finished

[C.A. Sinner]

We've got a few indicators in game already; notes directing the player towards certain areas, character monologue, lighting cues. I don't want to go overboard with direction, because part of the fun of horror is getting completely and utterly lost during your travels.

Yeah that sounds sufficient to me. The thing is, it's almost inevitable that some players are going to get stuck at some point unless your levels are 100% linear. Imo, the player should always be able to discern where to go from the information they have available but there's no need to beat them over the head with it.  

[Magnesium Ninja]

Of course! The game is semi-linear; there's only one route you can take but there are a bunch of locations that have no bearing on progression. There's also backtracking, and I can imagine some players will get worried, but as long as there's some sort of constant reminder of the task at hand I don't think people will have difficulty remembering where in the map everything is.

Not sure if a world map (not auto-updating, more a "you are here" type thing) is a good idea or not. It might help, but I'm afraid it'll help too much. I don't want to overdo it if it's not necessary. The less complicated, the easier it is for us to design and the better the experience.

[Magnesium Ninja]

We completely revised the ending of the second zone over the past couple days. Before it was a really ludicrous concept involving pushing a crate off a platform to break through the ground (yeah. horror.) Now it's something a lot more logical and, I hope, obvious to the player.

I'm also planning on designing a larger area immediately following the drop to improve the pacing. I want to introduce the axe in a slower, more tense manner, so I'll probably force you to go hunting for it (not directly, you'll be looking for something to help you clear wreckage or something). With any luck this will spread out the action a bit and keep the player on edge for a while. After that, it's back to story progression and DESIGNATED SAD MOMENT.

:D

[Magnesium Ninja]

Hey look, giant golden directional arrows!

We've done a bunch of work these past couple days. A lot of level design revisions, as well as a stronger emphasis on player guidance because we never really indicated what the goal of the area is supposed to be.

I also completely changed the ending to the second zone to provide more logic and better pacing. I'm excited to get this new mini-area tiled.

Tomorrow we're getting together in the same room (gasp) to work on a pivotal segment of the zone. I might post info on it, I'm not sure yet.

[eyeliner]

The snap is great, though the light emitted from the lamps is strange, with the cone and halo. Could you make the halo less obvious? Or merge both the halo and cone?

[Magnesium Ninja]

Yeah, the light maps we've made are a little non-specific presently. We're going to (at some point during development) create a bunch of specific lights for every source, so it should look nicer then!

Out of curiosity, what is the general opinion of the giant golden arrows? They're meant to provide occasional directions to the player (if you click one it tells you rooms that are in that direction). Are they too apparent? Too out-standing?

[eyeliner]

I think they merge ok. I'd prefer to see them side by side, but that's minor.