Something I've been curious about for a while is 2D horror
game design and why 2D horror games don't seem to be as common as their 3D counterpart.
Games immerse the
player in the game world and this is an especially important aspect
of the horror game genre. To convey a sense of fear, players should
feel so immersed in the game environment that they feel as though the
scary events of the game are happening to them.
Many horror games
use first person perspective with no Head Up Display (HUD) elements,
such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games, 2010), Slender: The Eight Pages (Parsec Productions, 2012) and Outlast (Red Barrels, 2013). A first person perspective allows to player to witness the
game events from the player character's perspective, arguably
allowing the player to easily project themselves on to the main
character and thus feel more immersed in the game world. Likewise in
theory having no HUD to clutter the screen results in less visuals
for the player to be distracted by, allowing the player to focus
primarily on the frightening events unfolding in front of them.
 |
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) |
 |
| Slender: The Eight Pages (2012) |
 |
| Outlast (2013) |
However, in comparison to 3D, first person
perspective is much more difficult to achieve in 2D games due to the limited degree of movement 2D allows
for. I feel it will be really interesting to explore a solution to this problem. Moreover, designing a horror game will involve undergoing the challenge of creating a visual aesthetic that will contribute to a fear filled gameplay experience.
So for my honours
project I want to explore how visual elements can be used to create
immersion in a 2D horror game.
A few questions to consider:
- How can the the Game User Interface be designed to aid the fear aspect of the game and avoid obscuring the players vision?
- How can the art style compliment the horror genre?
- What makes a game scary?
- How important is narrative in horror game design?
However I'm not entirely sure what this will mean for the portfolio side of my project as I won't be able to program the game. Perhaps an animation that portrays a walk-through of a small section of a 2D horror game I'll design, or maybe a trailer? I'm also a bit stuck on what to look for reading material wise. Lectures for 4th year start on Thursday so I'll find out more then.
My next steps will be to research 2D horror games and examine how their visual style, use of UI, audio, game mechanics and any other attributes I come across all contribute to the fear/horror factor of the game.
--
References
Amnesia: The Dark Descent. 2010. [computer game]. Linux, Mac OS X, PC. Frictional Games.
Outlast. 2013. [computer game]. Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4, PC. Red Barrels.
Slender: The Eight Pages. 2012. [computer game]. Mac OS X, PC. Parsec Productions.
--
Images Used
Frictional Games, 2010. Sewer. [online image]. Available from: http://www.amnesiagame.com/#media [Accessed 8 September 2014]
Gamesradar.com, 2012. Outlast screenshots. [online image]. Available from: http://www.gamesradar.com/outlast/screenshots/ [Accessed 8 September 2014]
No comments:
Post a Comment