The style of horror in NN

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JPrice
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The style of horror in NN

Post by JPrice »

I was just thinking and had a general question on the type of horror that you have planned in 'Neverending Nightmares' Matt.
Were you planning on keeping it more traditional psychological based horror a la Silent Hill 2 or were you considering branching out into more esoteric styles on occasion?

Something that came to mind to me was like the occasional fourth wall breaking style found in games like Eternal Darkness and how there aren't many games that really utilise that these days. I've always been fascinated by the idea of breaking down that boundary occasionally to generate fear into the player, coaxing them into thinking that something terrible is happening. Whether it be losing video near an enemy and hearing horrible sounds of your character dying or an actual technical fault (BSOD) being fabricated only to jarringly be brought back into the game. Even if it's something minor as well like losing control of your character, just that idea of forcing the player to step outset of that comfort zone where they know it's just a game and they can quit at any time has been fascinating to me.

Although I can totally get why you wouldn't consider a style like that however as it is something that is surely difficult to get right, considering you would be tampering with a players interaction with the actual game which in turn could lead to some misconceptions or frustration on their end.

This is just one example of a different style of horror though, so if there is anything else you had in mind to be utilsed in 'Neverending Nightmares' I'd be interested to hear it :D
(Assuming you'd want to disclose that information anyway, I know there needs to be some surprises left under wraps hahaha ;))
"Always look on the bright side of life"
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matt
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Re: The style of horror in NN

Post by matt »

While I think they did a really good job with breaking the 4th wall in Eternal Darkness, that is a different direction that I want to go with Neverending Nightmares. With Neverending Nightmares, I'm trying to go for total immersion. I want people to forget they are playing a game and be in the actual world we are creating.

We are trying to do this with all aspects of the game - no hud, no button prompts, no loading screens, no "you are dead" screens, etc.

However, I guess we are going to add a bit different style of horror than Silent Hill. Since the game takes place in an actual nightmare, we are going to play with the notion of reality. I don't want to give too much away, but we are going to try to do things along the same lines as Eternal Darkness - but in the game world. I don't want to give any examples. You'll see when we put them in the game. :)
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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JPrice
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Re: The style of horror in NN

Post by JPrice »

matt wrote:Since the game takes place in an actual nightmare, we are going to play with the notion of reality. I don't want to give too much away, but we are going to try to do things along the same lines as Eternal Darkness - but in the game world. I don't want to give any examples. You'll see when we put them in the game. :)
Ahhhhh see now that's what I was hoping to hear! I appreciate that you don't want to spoil anything in regards to those elements, it'll be really cool to see how it pans out without any knowledge of where it'll appear.
Can't wait to see what's in store in regards to the distortion of the games reality :)
"Always look on the bright side of life"
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matt
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Re: The style of horror in NN

Post by matt »

While we don't have anything super trippy yet, there will be an interesting twist in the story that will be in the next build that will call into question everything you think you know about the game. :) There is plenty of more twists coming though. heheheh
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
Harry Sunderland
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Re: The style of horror in NN

Post by Harry Sunderland »

matt wrote:While we don't have anything super trippy yet, there will be an interesting twist in the story that will be in the next build that will call into question everything you think you know about the game. :) There is plenty of more twists coming though. heheheh
The revelation that Thomas is Rick Rocket.
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matt
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Re: The style of horror in NN

Post by matt »

hahahahah, maybe he is! There's no way to disprove that like all of those Universal Pixar theories or whatever.
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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