Game Design Deep Dive: Horror

Joshua Bycer

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000451108
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Programmazione di giochi

The Game Design Deep Dive series examines a specific game system or mechanic over the course of the history of the industry. This entry will examine the history and design of the horror genre and elements in video games. The author analyzes early video game examples, including the differences between survival, action-horror, and psychological horror. Thanks to recent hits like Five Night's at Freddy's, Bendy and the Ink Machine, and recent Resident Evil titles, the horror genre has seen a strong resurgence. For this book in the Game Design Deep Dive series, Joshua Bycer will go over the evolution of horror in video games and game design, and what it means to create a terrifying and chilling experience.

FEATURES

• Written for anyone interested in the horror genre, anyone who wants to understand game design, or anyone simply curious from a historical standpoint

• Includes real game examples to highlight the discussed topics and mechanics

• Explores the philosophy and aspects of horror that can be applied to any medium

• Serves as a perfect companion for someone building their first game or as part of a game design classroom

Joshua Bycer is a game design critic with more than eight years of experience critically analyzing game design and the industry itself. In that time, through Game-Wisdom, he has interviewed hundreds of game developers and members of the industry about what it means to design video games. He also strives to raise awareness about the importance of studying game design by giving lectures and presentations. His first book was 20 Essential Games to Study. He continues to work on the Game Design Deep Dive series.

1
The Goal of Game Design Deep Dive: Horror

DOI: 10.1201/9781003199250-1

For this entry in the Game Design Deep Dive series, I turn to what may be the hardest one to write about. Horror isn’t the same kind of genre as the other entries: There are no predefined mechanics, and just about every kind of gameplay system could be applied to horror, and I have seen indie developers attempt just that over the 2010s (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1
One of the most iconic moments from Resident Evil with the introduction of the first zombie and a good introduction for this book.

Instead, horror is about a certain kind of philosophy that many developers try to achieve, but few do. My purpose here is not to give you a mechanical breakdown of every possible variation of horror, as that would be impossible. I am going to be discussing the psychological levers you need to pull if you want to generate terror in your consumer. By studying both major and minor examples of horror, you can begin to see the common threads of titles that either work or do not. Creating horror through gameplay is about understanding what tension is and how to manipulate it through atmosphere and design. Learning to control tension can be applied to any game where you want to quickly change the mood and there are plenty of ways of doing that.

If you are a general consumer of the game industry, you may know some of the major names that have appeared in the last 30 years, but as with roguelikes in the second part of this series, a lot of the growth from the genre has come from indie developers experimenting with their own style and storytelling.

Let us begin with the first challenge: tracing the origins of horror in the game industry.

2
The Pre-survival Horror Period

DOI: 10.1201/9781003199250-2

2.1 The Monster Mashup

2.1 The Monster Mashup

Monster iconography has been used across all entertainment mediums for decades. Part of the issue when it comes to defining the start of horror is that many games used horror monsters and properties but were not really focused on scaring the player. I will discuss more on defining what horror is in Chapters 4 and 5.

Many franchises from the 1980s and onward used popular IPs as the basis for videogames. Popular films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jaws, Friday the 13th, Alien, and more had videogame adaptations (Figure 2.1). Despite being based on scary properties, these games were drastically toned down for several reasons. The limitations on technology at the time prevented games from being perfect retellings of the films. The stories were changed to allow for more gameplay elements which gave more power to the players. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, videogame content was rigorously controlled by the parent company of respective platforms.

Figure 2.1
Very few horror properties retained their horror when brought to consoles and arcades in the 1980s and 1990s.

During Nintendo’s control over the console market, they explicitly banned graphic or religious imagery from games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (or more commonly referred to as the NES) and the Famicom, which was the Japanese version of the console. Nintendo’s demand on developers would eventually lead to the great market war between Sega and Nintendo, with Sega being far more lenient in terms of content.

There were many games released that had monster enemies and even some that let players control monsters that were more about action than horror. Both the NES and Sega Genesis had breakout horror-adjacent franchises.

Konami became famous for both console and arcade games and was one of the premiere developers for a time. In 1986, they released the game Vampire Killer which would then be translated and released in the United States under the name Castlevania. The Castlevania franchise followed the Belmont family who were the only ones who could defeat Dracula. Each game featured impressive music and a litany of horror icons like werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Grim Reaper. The series would span multiple games, platforms, and changing genres multiple times.

Figure 2.2
Splatterhouse and games like it were about fighting monsters and overcoming them as part of a power fantasy.

Famously, one of the iconic weapons in the game had to be changed. The Holy Cross was originally conceived to be used as a boomerang-type weapon. Nintendo demanded that Konami changed it to not spark controversy with religious groups. It was changed to be a four-sided weapon and just called a boomerang and has been featured in multiple games.

Originally released in arcades and then ported to consoles, the Splatterhouse franchise by Namco was one of the first games to feature full-on gore in them and mirrored the splatter films released (Figure 2.2). The first game was released in arcades in 1988, and the following two were released on home consoles. The series starred Rick who had to save his girlfriend Jennifer from demons and monsters while wearing the “terror mask” that looked a lot like the hockey mask from the Friday the 13th films. Even though the game was full of disturbing enemy designs, this was not a game about the player being scared and is a good example of the concept of the “power fantasy” that I will return to in Chapter 6. The series would go on to have one 3D sequel for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 released in 2010, but turmoil during development and low sales would end it there.

As a strange coincidence, both Castlevania and Splatterhouse would also get kid-friendly spin off games for the NES: Kid Dracula and Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti released in 1990 and 1989, respectively. Both games replaced the serious stories with cartoon antics.

When most fans and consumers discuss the biggest names of horror in the game industry, there are four games that I will be talking about that each left a mark when it came to establishing and growing the horror genre.

3
The Rise of Survival Horror

DOI: 10.1201/9781003199250-3

3.1 Sweet Home

3.2 Alone in the Dark

3.3 Resident Evil

3.4 Silent Hill

3.5 A Snapshot of Scares

3.1 Sweet Home

In 1989, Capcom released the game Sweet Home for the Famicom and is considered by many to be the first survival horror game ever made (Figure 3.1). Named after the popular Japanese film, the story followed a five-person film crew who arrived at an old mansion to find Frescos and ended up being trapped by a vengeful ghost. To escape, players had to use the team and their unique abilities and gear to solve puzzles, fight monsters, and avoid deadly traps. The player was free to group the characters into different teams to explore the mansion, and each one started with an item needed to solve puzzles. Like a roguelike, the game featured a permadeath system that if a character was killed, they were removed from the rest of the play.

Figure 3.1
Sweet Home would go on to inspire Resident Evil, despite being completely different in terms of design and structure.

Unlike the other games in...