'go north, find sanctuary.'horror, open world, and survival games all seem to have the same cliched mechanics and design. I'm tired of it, so I'm attempting to make my own.
'and thus' is a non-linear, open-world, survival horror game I'm developing. There's no overarching 'creepy story', jump scares happen as a result of your poor decisions (instead of 'gee I don't know what to do now so I'll just run around until something happens'), and threats will all have original designs, with a focus on mystery and the supernatural to invoke 'scariness' rather than gory, obvious monsters.
Your goal? Go north.
To survive, follow two simple rules:
If it looks dangerous, it is.
If it's dangerous, run away/hide.