Yesterday we had our first class of 4th year and I had the opportunity to talk to our lecturer, Lynn, about my idea of looking at immersion in 2D horror games. She asked "How do you measure immersion?"
Carrying out a project like this would involve a lot of user testing with hundreds of people to prove my game is immersive. This would take away from the art side of the project which, as a computer arts student, isn't ideal. I was also advised to steer away from vague buzz words like "immersion" and "visual style."
However Lynn pointed out a whole bunch of other aspects of my 2D horror game idea that I could look into - Mise en scene, creating atmosphere, pacing in horror games and 2D first person perspective. She also advised studying lots of horror games (which I've been doing for a while - expect a blog on my case studies soon!) and looking in to older games such as first person shooters which used 2D first person perspective before 3D graphics were an option.
I think I'm leaning more towards focusing on atmosphere as I think 2D games have a lot to offer in that respect - Lone Survivor for instance does a fantastic job of creating an unsettling atmosphere and Limbo has a distinct surreal dream/nightmare like atmosphere.
Today I'm at the library looking up a whole bunch of articles and journals pertaining to horror games, 2D vs 3D, mise en scene and atmosphere.
So far my reading list consists of:
Journals:
- Agency Mechanics: Gameplay Design In Survival Horror Video Games (Habel, C and Kooyman, B. 2013)
- The Effects of Disassociation, Game Controllers and 3D Versus 2D On Presence and Enjoyment (Williams D. K. 2014) [Turned out to be pretty irrelevant]
- Horror and Hedonic Ambivalence (Strohl, M. 2012)
- Origami Fiction: Psychological Horror in Interactive Narrative (Perez, B. 2014)
- Resident Evil's Typewriter: Survival Horror and Its Remediations (Kirkland, E. 2008)
- "Did This Game Scare You? Because it Sure as Hell Scared Me!" F.E.A.R., the Abject and the Uncanny (Spittle, S. 2011)
- Sign of Threat: The Effect of Warning Systems in Survival Horror Games (Perron, B. 2004)
Books:
- The Art of Game Design (Schell, J. 2008)
- Deleuze and Horror Film (Powell, A. 2005)
- Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (Perron, B. 2009)
- The Ultimate History of Video Games (Kent L. P. 2001)
- Screenplay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces (King, G and Kryzywinska, T. 2003)
Articles
- Alone in the Dark Post-Mortem
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/173722/Video_Alone_in_the_Dark_A_classic_postmortem.php
- Scary Game Findings: A Study of Horror Games and Their Players
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6480/scary_game_findings_a_study_of_.php
- Alien: Isolation - Back to Ridley Scott's Haunted House in Space
http://www.develop-online.net/interview/alien-isolation-back-to-ridley-scott-s-haunted-house-in-space/0188509
- How Alien: Isolation is Using Audio To Manipulate Players' Emotions
http://www.develop-online.net/interview/how-alien-isolation-is-using-audio-to-manipulate-player-emotions/0195322
- Revival Horror: New Ideas in Fear Making
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5772/revival_horror_new_ideas_in_.php
- Flashback: Why 2D Games Should Be Revisited on Next Gen Hardware
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130407/constructing_artificial_emotions_.php?page=2
I'll be updating this throughout the year as I go. I plan on making a separate post with all my notes (most of it will be under a read more jump don't worry!) so that I have them written down in one place and saved online, which I'll also update throughout the year.
I've also decided I want to actually make my game. Learning to code will effectively double my workload but it would great to have something playable for the showcase at the end of the year and will be an invaluable addition to my skill set. I'm thinking about using Gamemaker as I've heard it's artist friendly (i.e. relatively simple to get to grips with) and there's tons of tutorials available.
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