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Horror Narrative

So since I am making a horror game, I need to know what kind of narrative I should right. One of my previous post, I wrote about "What is Horror" which covers many of this. Now I would to dive deeper into this.

Certain design choices made before production due to time and resources constraint.

  • First Person Point of View
  • No Dialog
  • One repeatable Level [Check My Previous post for the layout]
  • Its an Horror Game
  • One Ghost / Young Girl
  • Lack of Props 
This means, I have to design Narrative through Visual Means, I cannot take the easy way out of dialog and words. I have to show Emotion and Story through Color, Layout, Lighting, Atmosphere and Sound.

So before I start, I would like to share the common Problems for the Horror Genre.
3 Reasons Why Today's Horror Films Are Just Not Scary Anymore

Usually people who make horror focuses on JUMP SCARES. Well this is not good. As when the scare is done, it feel the viewers with immediate relief which may spoil the horror mode for the rest of the movie. This why I cite PT Demo; yes there is small scare here and there, but the game always kept a sense of tension, anticipation of fear for the player/audience. Same goes to movies like the The Conjuring and Insidious. This why I feel The Sixth Sense made a big of an impact when it first release to the market.

Here is James Wan[Director] and Leigh Whannell[Writer]  discuss about the horror genre and their views and twist on them. This is key for them to pull off string of successful horror movies.
Insidious (2011): Making Of with James Wan and Leigh Whannell (Horror 101: The Exclusive Seminar)

I will set The Conjuring as one of best Horror films of recent time. The movie does not have gore, does not have many jump scares. But it always kept a certain creepiness to it; that constant tension of something is about to happen, I am going to be really scared in a moment. This constant anticipation of fear is what I think is lacking in my horror films and games. Below you can see a full breakdown of The Conjuring. I believe you can find similar technique use in The Sixth Sense too, as M. Night Shyamalan, is one of the master's of suspense. We eagerly wait for something to happen and that wait keeps us going throughout the entire movie.
The Conjuring - Film Analysis Part 1 - 4

  1. Its important to set the tone of the movie straightaway
  2. Visual Setting Up the Scene is vital to making the tone work
  3. There is many Visual Way to show there is Spiritual Presence in the Scene
    1. Camera Angles [Point of View of the Ghost] // [Something more dominating that Player]
    2. Color [Darkness Vs Brightness]
    3. Sound [White Noise]
    4. Stuff Moving by itself [Triggers for the game]
    5. The 4 part video covers so much visual narrative. Its worth the look.

Color is important to tell narrative visual. 
Check out this video for more info on that
  1. The Association of Color to it character and emotion
  2. And the Transition and progress of the character through this colors.
While watching this video, I got some idea on how I mean design the corridor scene.







I have been watching Gotham, the TV Series. Well their set designs are good. One particular shot I think works well for the Tilling and a type of light for the game. Can see how the abandon feel is achieved.

The scene color, tiles, and lighting works for our game. 


Sorry for over use of pictures here, it for my production reference. This is more on understanding how to design the tone of the place. How light and color effects the place. A more in depth study on lights will be done on the next post.

An idea how the elevator may light up. The eerie feel and focus of the elevator from player point of view. The video will show how the tension may play out.


For a horror game, base on what I learn, a Low Saturation is important to set the visual tone for horror. Plus, adding certain color association is key to establish danger and objectives for the game. And if there is more time, I will use transition of color to show progress of the player and the girl.

And while you are there do check his other video about Character and Emotion via the views the Great Hayao Miyazaki


This video, will show the basic convention of horror and ideas to solve it. Some of the solution may help you along the way.Let's Discuss Horror
  • The Key for me
    • Horror is not jump scares its the constant dread, anticipation of fear and the anxiety we go through while experience it. 
Next Post, I will continue Part 2 of Horror Atmosphere, Where I will focus on the lighting and sound for horror.

Cheers,
Narishvin.
 





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