While conduction the previous interview with David Budd I was able to have another member of David's team, Trey Blankenship, answer my questions about their work on Depth, a modification for Amnesia: The Dark Decent. Even though the two were asked the same questions, their answers cover different topics in horror gaming. In this interview, Trey Blankenship discusses more mechanical elements and design.
Dan: What is your role on the team?
Trey: I am the programmer for tam Lucid Genesis
Trey: I am the programmer for tam Lucid Genesis
What is the project called?
The project we're currently
working on is a survival horror game named Depth.
What is the project about?
The project is about creating
a survival horror game where a major part of gameplay is the
implementation of a sanity meter. The game is that a child wakes up in an
orphanage and finds himself trapped in a city that is under siege from animals that
are almost alien compared to what he's seen before. As the game develops, he
finds that the monsters are actually mutated sea life attacking humans as
revenge for polluting the ocean.
Is the project a full game or a
modification?
The project started out as the
prototype of a full game built in the Unity Engine, but after the team assessed
the time we had left versus the amount of work we had to do to make the game in
Unity, we decided to make the game a modification of Frictional Game's Amnesia:
The Dark Descent, which implemented the gameplay features we
wanted.
What is it like working with a
team to create a horror video game?
In truth, working on a team making
a horror game is not much different than working on a team on any other
project. The only real difference I saw was that the assets your art team makes
for the game are considerably more unnerving than in other projects.
Is horror more difficult a
genre to work with than action?
I feel that it is more difficult
to work with the horror genre because the team needs to do more research and
that the game's design needs to be more strict, placing as much attention to
atmosphere and writing as to gameplay. If you don't keep the goal of the game
in mind, I think what will happen is that the game will end up being like DooM
3. The very beginning of the game is actually kind of scary because
the only two weapons the player has are a flashlight and a pistol, and the
player cannot use them both at the same time. Considering that DooM 3 is
one of the darkest games in a literal sense, you find yourself
spending most of the time staring at a very poorly lit level that may or may
not contain zombies, zombies with guns, or demons. That part of the game is
scary. It's the most tense point in the game, as you find yourself with two
weapons that don't do much against your enemies, who are faster and better
armed than you. However, around the time you pick up the machine gun off the
body of the possessed riot cop you just killed, any tension is lost. In the
end, the game reveals itself for what it really is: a so-so first person
shooter with survival horror elements and a really crappy lighting system that
disappoints both horror fans and fans of the first two DooM games.
The point is that team needs to keep the original design goals, that is, never
give the player the means to confront the enemies directly. When this happens,
the player feels empowered and starts taking on threats directly rather than
trying to run away from them. Another thing that the team needs to keep in mind
is that the player must feel an empathetic connection to an avatar, or else the
player will not be scared. The player avatar must be written such that the
player can relate to them.
What constraints, if any, are
present when working with horror?
From a design standpoint, the most
important constraint one needs to keep in mind while making a survival horror
game is that the player must be weak or otherwise unable to confront whatever
is threatening him. That being said, I don't think a game where the player is
being menaced by the color blue would make for a scary game. The threat needs
to be tangible or something that people generally agree on as being scary. For
example, the darkness. Despite most people outgrowing their fear of the dark in
adolescence, adults can find darkness scary for very similar reasons that
children can. The reason most people are afraid of the dark is that we can't
see in the dark and we don't know what is in the dark. It's not that you're
afraid that you're alone in the dark; it's that, at a very primal level, you're
afraid you're not. It is a part of the self-preservation instinct that is
common to all animals. For a less advanced animal, the darkness can hide
predators or other threats to its survival. Even though humans have no
natural predators, the instinctive fear of the unknown, and thus the dark,
remains as it is a deep part of our psychologies. At one time, our survival
literally depended on it.
What is a unique aspect of the
horror genre that sets it apart from others?
There is not one single defining
trait that separates survival horror games from action games. Instead, it would
be more meaningful to say that there are several aspects about these games that
make the genre unique. The most prominent characteristics that define the genre
are ammo starvation, dark and claustrophobic levels, a constant sense
of isolation, unpleasant stimuli, some aspect of gameplay that makes
controlling the player cumbersome, and a weak player character attempting to
survive in the face of far stronger or faster enemies. One might think that
clumsy controls would hurt a horror game, but there is a point where just
making the control scheme a little more difficult to manage, particularly
during a tense moment, such as running away from a monster, that make the game
terrifying rather than frustrating. It has to do with humanity's
universal fear of losing control of its actions. In essence, in an action game,
the developer tries to get the player to attack any threats directly. In a
survival horror game, the developer's goal is to cripple the player to the
point that the player needs to run away and hide from threats rather than
confront them.
Are there any mechanics or
elements that are easier to accomplish when working with horror?
I can't think of many that would
be easier, but I can list mechanics that would be more difficult to achieve
without the game losing its atmosphere. I feel like I have already listed them,
however.
How does one go about creating
a project that is meant to frighten an audience?
Beginning a project that is meant
to frighten its audience can be somewhat of a challenge. One has to know what
they're doing, or else the end product will not be scary. For one, it requires
a more talented art and design team than if one was making a puzzle game. As
stated before, atmosphere is a large part of what makes horror games so
terrifying. Also, a team has to have good writers who can write characters that
the audience can relate to. More or less, the goal is to not make a character
that the player controls, but make an avatar that the playerbecomes.
Any advice for someone wanting
to do a project like this?
From a design standpoint, my first
advice is that you do your homework. Understand what people are afraid of and
why. How can you implement your findings into your game design? How can you
implement your findings into gameplay? How can you implement your findings
into environment and character designs? If you have any other questions,
here is an amazingly well written article on Gamasutra that goes into even more
detail than I did.
I appreciate both Trey and David taking time out of their schedule to discuss horror game design. I highly suggest reading the Gamasutra article Trey mentions for further reading on designing horror games.
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