What disturbs you?

[Axidos]

This is not just curiousity. This is a serious study with a very real purpose.


Closed now - got all the information I need to know we're going in the right direction, and never intended on this becoming more of a suggestions topic. Thanks for all the replies!


-

You see, I'm collaborating with a couple of friends and between us we're designing a game. This is a serious project: Next year I'm beginning a two-year degree in games programming with QANTM (http://www.qantm.com.au/), and I'll be programming the game throughout and after college. It's a firstperson shooter which involves zombies, though the gameplay and concept are quite unlike most games, I assure you, and we're putting a considerable amount of thought into it all.

Now, I intend for these zombies - and the whole game itself - to be at least slightly disturbing or unsettling for the players (not scary, though). To succeed in this, I need to know how to disturb you.


So tell me, Explosm. What disturbs you? I'm not asking for your fears or your room 101, I mean something that - as the dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disturbing) puts it - emotionally or mentally troubles you. This is different from fear, which just generates alarm. People might find a rat scary, but it is not disturbing.

I also don't mind suggestions/ideas as oppose to strict answers.

Edit: Also, here's some information on the game. I've probably mentioned something more in each of my posts.
The game will have a similar style to Half-Life 2, as oppose to games like Dead Rising or Silent Hill. There will be a storyline behind it and a mixture of the action/adventure aspect. Half-Life 2 has heavily inspired me - so you can think of that game when you think of this one - but the gameplay, strategy etc will all be different in this game.

The game takes place inside a science facility where a viral experiment has gone (intentionally) horribly wrong. You're one of the many soldiers sent in to neutralize the threat. However, not far in, the floor caves in (or something similar). You're knocked unconscious and awake several hours later, during which time the shit has really hit the fan. Basically your only goal is to get out of the facility, though considering you know almost nothing about the layout, that doesn't work out very well.

The zombies are mutated by a virus, not raised from the dead. They will be alive just like a human being, although their organs might be in different places. If you fill them with holes they will die and not get back up.

There are various strands, just like there's various types of headcrabs in Half-Life 2, some fast, some slower but stronger, some with altogether new traits rather than just exaggeration of existing human abilities (one spits acid as a basic example).
The amount of brain matter (and sentient intelligence) they have remaining will differ. I may well create braindead zombies, but there will also be zombies capable of speaking.

The game will have uninterrupted gameplay. No sleeping, no cut scenes. The player will be in full control of themselves the whole time. Music will rarely play. This is because things like that make you remember it's a game, and you can't get as absorbed in it. No attempts will be made to make the player feel like they're just playing a game and they're not really there inside that world.
Anyway, music stops you from noticing important sounds (such as the movement of something nearby). If everything's supposed to be silent, then every sound is worth noting.

There will be melee and ranged weapons alike, each with slightly different uses.

I'm not going to post much information on the gameplay itself - I am sharing that only with select individuals - because it's unlike anything I've seen before, and I don't want any aspect of it stolen.

By the way, if I haven't replied to your post, that doesn't mean I haven't read it. I'm reading all of them.

[badumpbumpbump]

This doesn't have to be specifically with zombies, right?
Bugs from Metroid and Metal Slug really creep me out (I doubt this happens to normal people)

[Triple J]

I got an idea for an end level boss.

(high ceiling room)
You burst into a room, jerk to the left and right and see no zombies. Cool. Then you see a drop of blood hit the ground in front of you. You look up and see a person (like a scientists type person who are one of the people you are trying to save or something) that has been attached to the ceiling by a bloody spike through their chest. Then the door across the room is pushed down by a huge zombie-monster thing. And the whole thing is interactive. Boss battle ensues.

[MaxAlcolo]

Well I'm usually not comfortable when I'm in some place and the music just fades away. Then I realise the whole place seems empty and all I can hear is background sounds such has the wind, wood cracking, my own foot steps. A weird, unkown sound once in a while is needed so I don't get used to the silence and to keep me alert.

I know that's not really original, but it always works for me.

[potolife]

I always find it disturbing when there's a sudden lull in action. Immediately, I'm paranoid about what's going to happen and usually end up getting killed because of it. I always find severely deformed people disturbing too. Like you said, I'm not afraid of them, they just give me that creeped out feeling.

[Triple J]

Enemies with Elephantitis. It's a heartbreaking disease and It would just disturb me to be killing those with it.

[Dresden]

Most of the stuff in Doom 3 was pretty disturbing for me. Play that game, get some inspiration.

For example; most of the places you were in were pitch black. You had a flashlight. But it was just a flashlight, it wasn't on your gun. So basically, you could see well or shoot. But not both at once.

Now THAT is disturbing. Or at least it keeps you reaaaalllyyy on edge

[gordanthefree]

I don't know if you are looking for gross disturbing (if you are then have gay porn on most of the TVs if there are any) or for scary disturbing, you could have like 4 feet tall spiders, and SCRIPT JAMMING IN GUNS, that'll be scary, especially when there are about 100 zombies around. You could also have one of your teammates becomes extremely deformed and you have to try and kill him. Also have you ever played FEAR? there is a really good effect where there is like a whistling or a sort of voice in your head. Very disturbing.

[Kenneh]

Things I find disturbing:

+Dead Infants (the ones on the Pain Series)
+Deformed Humans or Monsters
+Shit jumping at you and eating your face and then you'd like see the detail of your eaten face
+Faint screaming
+Inside out people
+Maggots and worms coming out of the eyes and nose of a person not yet fully decomposed

That partially makes up my list, but I wasn't sure if it is what you wanted.

[lolercoaster]

People letting other people die w/o caring.

[gordanthefree]

Ummmm. I don't think that will help him with that in the game

[Axidos]

Thanks guys, all the replies have been quite useful. potolife and MaxAlcolo, those were ideas that hadn't come to me at all. I'll definitely employ them, though I'm not sure just how much music I'll have in the game.

Kenneh, terrific stuff (even a little further than I'd imagined). I'll mull over the idea of a zombie based upon that inside-out thing. There are a variety of different zombies in this game each with a particular function.

This doesn't have to be specifically with zombies, right?
No, I guess not.

I got an idea for an end level boss.
Your average one-on-one boss battle probably won't be found in this game more than once or twice (if at all), mainly because they're boring once the AI is figured out. There will be tough fights though, either because of sheer numbers or the toughness of a small multitude of enemies. Even the final boss won't be on his own, and that won't be the climax either.
Take the Half-Life 2 series for example: they manage to achieve many climatic battles using sheer numbers as oppose to a single thing with brute strength.


JAMMING IN GUNS ... You could also have one of your teammates becomes extremely deformed and you have to try and kill him.
Gun jamming would be nothing but an annoyance. But rest assured, you will find teammates, and some will become zombified - if only to show how the zombification process works.

FEAR - will do. I've also been told I should watch Aliens.

[Triple J]

You have an enemy cornered (not zombie some kind of intelligent life form thing). And they start begging for your mercy, and then the guy next to you shoots it and tells you to keep going.


(assuming theres you and another character on a team at the time).

[LaPhBu]

Honest to God here, shock images disturb me.

I don't know if you can incorporate that though

[Xambesi]

Hearing babies cry causes me nearly physical pain, especially if I can't tell where the crying is coming from.
You should add that to the ambience.

[Pyro]

Something disturbing would be the some enemy crying for help as you kill them or begging you to stop. Not all of them though, that would be just annoying.

Also what might be more scary than disturbing is a bathroom, or some place that has a mirror in it, and as you're looking at the mirror, you'll see something moving in the background, so you'll turn around and try to fight it, but then there's nothing there.

[Richard_Simmons]

Some thing written on a wall in blood. Scary shit.

[FlamingPeanuts]

A whole level to save some random person, or team mate. Who then dies just before you save them in a gruesome way. Make the player become attached to that character some how too.

[John Travolta]

Humanity.

[Dodger]

-Very quiet or no music, music reminds me I'm playing a game, and I can't get creeped out with it playing.
-Shit that justs jumps out when you least expect, most games have monsters pop out at the most predictable times. Look to online screamer videos for inspiration.
-other stuff that disturbs me in real life doesn't on video games, you have to take into account that you can't really feel what the character feels so any form of violence or anything, wouldn't be as effective as in real life.

[Shadowpriest]

Something I'd find really creepy is that whole fading music away thing, if you've played CoD, when you get flashbanged. The noise that remains in your ear that doesn't let you listen to anything else (but make it an exteded period of time), that would be creepy because you'd have to start looking around to make sure the zombies arent coming up from behind.

Another thing I find creepy are things that pop up through walls. Lets say that you're walking through a long ass hallway, you hear the zombies coming from behind you, you turn around to see them and suddenly behind you, something huge comes up from the wall and grabs you out of the scene.

[P0K3M0N_MA5T3R]

With it being a 1st person shooter I think the zombies should be able to walk fairly fast, about the speed of the House of the Dead zombies. Melee Weapons would be good as having to rely on less powerful weapons always makes things more tense. Silence, walking into rooms that are completely silent, then turning a corner only to have the shit scared out you by a zombie appearing from somewhere. Creepy ghostly apparitions, you could have the end of game boss keep popping up in random places like G-man from Half-Life but as a creepy ghost that just appears for a few seconds then goes. Objects which draw you in, like say a really horribly mutilated body, that when players get interested and possibly walk over too it, it turns out it's still alive and crawls along the ground towards you.

[Whorelock]

I think a really cool addition to the game would be that a small percentage of the zombies are like, completely brain dead.
So you could be turning a corner in a hallway, and find a zombie just standing there grunting, or going spastic, but not moving anywhere and doesn't attack you. Then you could either just walk around it or shoot it.

[gordanthefree]

Creaky floor boards and footsteps when you aren't walking, creepy.

Try putting in symptoms of schizophrenia, voices in your head. Make it that you have to sleep now and again, kinda annoying, but it would add realism and you could have it that you wake up in places where there are burning buildings and what not.

Can you also post some things that are going to be in the game so that then we can provide relevant tips?

I think that I agree with P0K3M0N_MA5T3R, for example, when you "kill" the "undead" they'll get back up, so you HAVE to aim leg shots and arm shots rather that killing the thing outright even though it is already dead.

[Richard_Simmons]

When that suspenseful music comes in in a horror game.

[Axidos]

Can you also post some things that are going to be in the game so that then we can provide relevant tips?

The game will have a similar style to Half-Life 2, as oppose to games like Dead Rising or Silent Hill. There will be a storyline behind it and a mixture of the action/adventure aspect. Half-Life 2 has heavily inspired me - so you can think of that game when you think of this one - but the gameplay, strategy etc will all be different in this game.

The zombies are mutated by a virus, not raised from the dead. They will be alive just like a human being, although their organs might be in different places. If you fill them with holes they will die and not get back up.

There are various strands, just like there's various types of headcrabs in Half-Life 2, some fast, some slower but stronger, some with altogether new traits rather than just exaggeration of existing human abilities (one spits acid as a basic example).
The amount of brain matter (and sentient intelligence) they have remaining will differ. I may well create braindead zombies, but there will also be zombies capable of speaking.

The game will have uninterrupted gameplay. No sleeping, no cut scenes. Music will rarely play. This is because things like that make you remember it's a game, and you can't get as absorbed in it. Anyway, music stops you from noticing important sounds (such as the movement of something nearby). If everything's supposed to be silent, then every sound is worth noting.

There will be melee and ranged weapons alike, each with slightly different uses.

I'm not going to post much information on the gameplay itself - I am sharing that only with select individuals - because it's unlike anything I've seen before, and I don't want any aspect of it stolen.

Creepy ghostly apparitions, you could have the end of game boss keep popping up in random places like G-man from Half-Life but as a creepy ghost that just appears for a few seconds then goes.

There is going to be a recurring.. thing in the game. However, most of the time its presence will be quite obscure, and it has a vast significance to it you won't realise until very close to the end of the game.

Honest to God here, shock images disturb me.

I don't know if you can incorporate that though

There will not be shock images. People with their skulls smashed open etc is an extent of emotional and mental disturbance I'm not going to. Anything like this will be done in a fashion such as a zombie with that appearance, considering the player hasn't got a strong emotional connection to said zombies - however, people have strong emotional connections to other people. I want to make people slightly uncomfortable playing this game, but I don't want to freak them out altogether to the extent of Saw or anything. I want most people to be able to stomach this game (even just barely) and play it and enjoy it, not just horror movie diehards.

[Voracious32]

What disturbs me is undead things that have the parts of normal humans, but not in their normal positions. Like ribcages opened up, or skulls on other parts of the body. A less graphic (zombie) thing that I find disturbing is humans/human bodies acting in entirely inhuman ways; slithering, crawling, et cetera.

[gordanthefree]

Try making it a bit intellectual like HF2 (you have to solve riddles to pass certain levels) might be fun.

Also, creaky floor boards are always good. Try having a bit where you are strapped down to a chair and have to listen to nails down a black board. If you trying desperately to get away from sound affects then try gore (i.e. when you kill ANYTHING! blood sprays all over your face).

Destructible environment will make it fun (in all older games when you lob a grenade, nothing blows up really, and the buildings don't catch fire)

[Savvy]

Some of the zombies should be kids. Having to blow a 5 year olds head off with a shotgun is sort of disturbing, even if it is a zombie.

[Quadros]

Ok, serious racism actually physically disturbs me, it makes me very, very uncomfortable. Probably shouldn't put that in the game though. The only other thing that really gets to me is a horrific wound on a living person. I can't watch things like surgery, and and serious wound on a conscious person fucks me right up. We're not talking a gunshot here, we're talking bones snapping and poking through the skin, joints breaking so they go the wrong way, wounds so deep you can see the bone, disembowelments, that kind of shit. The blowtorch scene in hostel is about the most uncomfortable I've ever been.

[Shadowpriest]

Some of the zombies should be kids. Having to blow a 5 year olds head off with a shotgun is sort of disturbing, even if it is a zombie.

Thats a nice idea, having to kill a kid... damn, thats disturbing. Maybe animal zombies too.
I was also thinking that considering you'll have some zombies that speak, you can have them change their voices, lets say he speaks like a little girl, crying in a corner for you to get her, and as soon as you walk in he just screams in a rough voice "Gotcha!"

[Spiffy13]

I cannot stand slitting wrists. I can watch a dude's head get exploded, but watching someone slit someone's wrists disturbs the shit out of me.
And I agree with the killing evil children thing - VERY disturbing.

I love the idea for your game, by the way. I hope to play it!

[Tweek]

As someone mentioned, crying babies/children can be disturbing.

[xCRASHxTESTxDUMMIEx]

Dead Bodies in coffins, They freak me right out and make me feel sick to my stomach.

USER WAS PUT IN TIMEOUT FOR THIS POST. (http://forums.explosm.net/bankamp/)
Reason: Don't post in red. Find some other way to feign originality.

[gordanthefree]

Hows about preforming surgery on a live subject (mabey even a little teammate/5 year old kid)

[Axidos]

Thanks for the posts, everybody. All the good bits are either helping us along on the parts we've already been working out, or giving me new ideas entirely.

Some of the zombies should be kids. Having to blow a 5 year olds head off with a shotgun is sort of disturbing, even if it is a zombie.Thats a nice idea, having to kill a kid... damn, thats disturbing. Maybe animal zombies too.

The game takes place inside a science facility where a viral experiment has gone (intentionally) horribly wrong. You're one of the many soldiers sent in to neutralize the threat. However, not far in, the floor caves in (or something similar). You're knocked unconscious and awake several hours later, during which time the shit has really hit the fan. Basically your only goal is to get out of the facility, though considering you know almost nothing about the layout, that doesn't work out very well.

You'll be exploring many parts of the facility. One of these will be a residential area - open to the sky (though large walls), nice houses... women and children alike fighting against you as zombies.

@Xambesi: At this point, there probably will be babies crying here or there. I'm wondering how people will respond to that though - "my god, man - did you go and make a baby cry just to record it?"

[P0K3M0N_MA5T3R]

Had another thought, a lot of suicides. If there was a zombie outbreak some people would kill themselves. You could have people hanging from roof tops. Maybe you smash a barricade into one room and there is a guy in there who's cowering in the corner, as soon as you burst through he says something like, "stay away from me you freaks!" then just shoots himself in the head. That'd be pretty shocking that he killed himself over what he thought was a Zombie but it was you. Wrist slitting like someone mentioned would be pretty sick, someone in one of the residential areas just slits their wrists to kill themselves.

[John Travolta]

Had another thought, a lot of suicides. If there was a zombie outbreak some people would kill themselves. You could have people hanging from roof tops. Maybe you smash a barricade into one room and there is a guy in there who's cowering in the corner, as soon as you burst through he says something like, "stay away from me you freaks!" then just shoots himself in the head. That'd be pretty shocking that he killed himself over what he thought was a Zombie but it was you. Wrist slitting like someone mentioned would be pretty sick, someone in one of the residential areas just slits their wrists to kill themselves.

What the fuck are you talking about?

[John Travolta]

I got an idea for an end level boss.

(high ceiling room)
You burst into a room, jerk to the left and right and see no zombies. Cool. Then you see a drop of blood hit the ground in front of you. You look up and see a person (like a scientists type person who are one of the people you are trying to save or something) that has been attached to the ceiling by a bloody spike through their chest. Then the door across the room is pushed down by a huge zombie-monster thing. And the whole thing is interactive. Boss battle ensues.

That was on Doom 3.

[GenericInsanity]

Things happening to eyes or fingers really disturb me. Like, listening to the sound of someone's fingers being broken will almost make me physically sick. And I simply cannot watch someone have to do something to their own eye, or harm someone else's eyes. Just thinking about it makes me nauseated. I was fine with everything in the Hostel movie, until the eye thing came up. -Shudder-

[Jackoff Shitler]

One of the most disturbing games that I played recently was this one (http://www.penumbra-overture.com/ageGate.php), I thinkg it might give you some ideas.

What I find extremely disturbing is the combination of these three:

- Pitch black darkness (only the dim light of a flashlight)
- Total absence of music (it give a somewhat more realistic feeling to it, you see it alot on japanese horror movies)
- Hearing faint voices, footseps and the like

Now the latter I'd advice not to just sort them out randomly. If you really want to creep things out there's got to be some real correlation between the random sounds you're hearing and what's going on: namely, if you hear footsteps it should be because someone or something is near and you know it, though you can't see it.
It's great to play with these basic fears of unknown surveillance.

Now as for things that scare the crap out of me: children. Seriously, creepy children are just the shit - think of the movie Shining. I've got goosebumps just thinking of it.
Something else that creeps me out is a flash of an apathetic face on a window or a tv screen.

[Riddlebox]

Silence, and then a child screaming and pleading for help some distance away(maybe in sight but out of reach). Dear god, there is nothing worse than that.

Also, at some point, the character(s) should be in a room and the music stops (or has been off for a while). Then, you hear something comparable to a madman trapped in a room without windows and trying to force his way out. The sounds should be coming from a neighboring room or maybe a hallway, possibly a floor above. Then it gets quiet again, and then the guy (or zombie), bursts into the room. Disturbing thought I'd say. Including maniacal laughter earns you bonus points.

It'd probably be scarier if the guy was insane instead of a zombie because then he could move quickly.

[I_Smell]

When the zombies don't give a shit about each other. I've not played Silent Hill, but I heard there's this part where if you look through a window at a certain angle, you can see Pyramid Head violently raping some lesser demon.

Also, BIG MIRRORS. You should have a room where there's a big mirror on one wall, there's no music and no clear direction of what to do. Then, in the mirror, all the walls start bleeding. Then you start bleeding. That'd be freaky.

When you slightly lose control of your character, but not entirely. Like every button you press gets you closer to killing someone. Or like at one part where there's alot of people still alive, you do something so that the player can't distinguish between the dead and the living. Like in Kane and Lynch where Lynch (or Kane, whatever) sees all the civilians as cops and the player genuinly can't tell who they're supposed to shoot.

Break the fourth wall. Instead of trying to immerse the player into the game, the game should break out. In MGS2, the colonel starts trying to force you to turn off the PS2. The main character, Raiden, doesn't know what he's talking about- But the player does. That's weird. Similarly in Portal (Not played it yet, I hear it's comin out on XBox Live) There's a narrator voice that gives you tutorials and instructions through the game. It's talking directly to the player. Later on though, it fucks up and kills you or some shit. That sounds pretty shocking.

Enemies that genuinly want you to shoot them.

A guy trapped in a clear, bulletproof cabinet. He's still alive and he's banging on the glass and absolutely pleading for you to get him out, but there's nothing you can do but just move on. That'd be pretty sad.
Then when you come back later in the game, he's gone.
I really never play horror games, believe it or not =/

[azunder]

When playing resident evil 4 I used to get pretty messed up watching my character get mauled in some despicable way, perhaps you could include some way of making these scenes compulsory to watch.

Cramped claustrophobic spaces are always good to get the blood pumping and being forced to run from a huge mob, in an area your completely unfamiliar with is somewhat shit-scary.

[Triple J]

I'm surprised no one mentioned clowns. I know they are over used in most games, but walking into a room full of corpses of clowns would freak the shit outta me.

Running into some technical room filled with cameras and stuff. and sitting in a chair looking at all of them, is the narrator. He like attacks you then you shoot him and reality starts falling apart. Like pictures on the walls show the narrator screaming at you without sound.

[Riddlebox]

There definitely needs to be a part where everything goes to shit. Like I mean, it's all calm (suppose you just fought your way through a room of zombies) and things seem like they will be alright for a while. Then, you walk down a narrow hallway with doors on either side (I still don't know the setting for this game) you walk past the first couple doors and then you hear the doors banging open behind you, and movement from the closed doors you haven't yet passed. It's a long hallway too, and you've got to run down it, with the zombies chasing you (or you could try and shoot your way out). That would scare the Christ out of me.

Knowing where this is taking place at would be nice. Is it one particular building, a whole city? What?

[MaxAlcolo]

Knowing where this is taking place at would be nice. Is it one particular building, a whole city? What?

It takes place in a big scientific facility, but it also has a residential area. So you can expect some inside and outside action. The whole thing is surrounded by big walls though. A bit like you'd imagine Area 51 to be.

I'm not sure how complicated this would be, but making the character breathe heavily when you move and look around a lot would make me start to me feel the same for sure. Not necesserally breathing fast in a exhausted way, more in a stressful way.

[Spiffy13]

It takes place in a big scientific facility, but it also has a residential area. So you can expect some inside and outside action. The whole thing is surrounded by big walls though. A bit like you'd imagine Area 51 to be.

I'm not sure how complicated this would be, but making the character breathe heavily when you move and look around a lot would make me start to me feel the same for sure. Not necesserally breathing fast in a exhausted way, more in a stressful way.
Sounds a bit cliche to me, no offense.

[BKS]

This fat slob of a thing, just dripping and oozing some black vicarious liquid, and it just lets out this painful, wailing moan. It'd literally be fused with an object, like it's so fat it just decided to settle down, and it's constantly retching up vile slug like creatures. In fact, you could go as far to say that this thing was once a man, turned man-slug. Again, the constant drool, and the way it just shifts about and jiggles as it moves. It's tongue is abnormally long.

Horrendous.



Number two would be this creature, large, twisted and knotted bones with like, a greyish-tan skin pulled tight. It's got a distended jaw, and it just keeps clicking its teeth as it stalks around, constantly dislocating itself and bending, changing its shape. Its hands have deformed into what appear to be either a tentacle or perhaps just mushed rot.

[Riddlebox]

Number two would be this creature, large, twisted and knotted bones with like, a greyish-tan skin pulled tight. It's got a distended jaw, and it just keeps clicking its teeth as it stalks around, constantly dislocating itself and bending, changing its shape. Its hands have deformed into what appear to be either a tentacle or perhaps just mushed rot.

Reminds me of the Flood. Any title for this game?

[Axidos]

BKS, I'll mull over your ideas. I like them both. The virus will do all sorts of things to its victims - its very purpose was to evolve, so various strains will split off and adapt into all sorts of forms, none limited to the normal human body structure.
The teeth-clicking zombie - I can just imagine that as one which would race at you at a breakneck sprint the moment it laid eyes upon you, your only warning being its constant clicking. Already gotten an idea for that - at one stage, the player enters an echoey room, hears a clicking noise somewhere (hard to pinpoint, due to echoing). Player would enter, search, then all of a sudden, many, zombies' worth of tooth-clicking... room doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore. But the paths will, for the most part, probably be linear, so good luck.

Sounds a bit cliche to me, no offense.None taken, if you were talking about the location. I never said anything about area 51 though. Just a science facility, because that's the best place for this to occur, and the residential area will have the walls - not the facility. We haven't worked out what the surroundings are yet (they're not that important, you won't be in them for long), but it's isolated.
I personally hate cliches. They ruin games and movies for me unless they're done well. We're striving to avoid them - or at least, do them well when we can't - for example, zombies are a cliche, but we're being imaginative with them.

Reminds me of the Flood. Any title for this game?Not yet.

When the zombies don't give a shit about each other.
...
Enemies that genuinly want you to shoot them.
Will do - in a combat situation, stronger zombies might knock smaller, more useless zombies out of their way, but if they were to go harming each other, all you'd have to do was sit tight and wait for them to do your job themselves.

One of the most disturbing games that I played recently was this one (http://www.penumbra-overture.com/ageGate.php), I thinkg it might give you some ideas.
I'll add it to my list. I've mentioned in other posts there's going to be children and a residential area, and there's no music, partially because nearby enemies will make noises.
Pitch-black rooms will be used sparingly.

Things happening to eyes or fingers really disturb me. Like, listening to the sound of someone's fingers being broken will almost make me physically sick. And I simply cannot watch someone have to do something to their own eye, or harm someone else's eyes. Just thinking about it makes me nauseated. I was fine with everything in the Hostel movie, until the eye thing came up. -Shudder-
I'm not sure if this counts:
Despite the various strains of the virus, they will all carry one signature mutation to the face (they were all originally one single virus, all just evolving on their own): the eyes sink back into the skull so as to disappear altogether, and the bone of the eyesocket will reshape itself. It used to reform into a hollow, plus-shaped hole, which I noticed had similarities with a clown - later on, I also realised it had similarities with a horse's anus, so we changed it.

[MaxAlcolo]

When I mentionned Area 51, it was only to explain the big walls around the residential area.

If in the game you get to come back into rooms you've already been before, I really think somethings should be changed the second time, to let you know things happened after you went by the first time. Blood, corpses, objects destroyed, etc.
Otherwise you get the feeling that "I've already cleared this room, so I'm not worried at all".

[paper dreams]

If the character was in a room with a frosted glass wall, so you can see things going past but you cant see exactly what it looks like. Its also good if the thing going past cant get into the room you are in so you know sooner or later your going to run into it, builds a bit of suspense.

Another variation on this could be looking through a window in a door and seeing nothing but then something suddenly appears at the window, not trying to get you, just staring at you.

That would creep me the fuck out.

[Idioteque]

The headcrab zombies in Half-Life Two freaked me the fuck out. Partly because of the fact that I knew that these were just ordinary people until the Combine got to them, but also because they could still talk, even though their organs were ripped out. The Ravenholm level gave me nightmares for ages.

Also, Fear has some great ideas when it comes to freaking people out. Two scenes I remember vividly. One of which has you crawling through this enclosed space, when you hear a noise behind you, if the player spins around to see what it was, a demonic girl flits across the screen. The second instance is a hallucination where you jump out of a vent into a room, and the room fills with blood. As you swim across this lake, a bloody skeleton suddenly grabs you.

Those two scenes seriously disturbed me, but they may be a bit too "Japanese Horror film" for your game.

[Jackoff Shitler]

What I meant by face in a window was something like this:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/940/ghost31dl4.jpg

Only lots more vivid and suddenly vanishing so you don't really know what was it or who the fuck was there.

Disturbing stuff.

[Riddlebox]

BKS, I'll mull over your ideas. I like them both.


You don't like mine? I thought I had some pretty good ones :( .

[OddKid506]

The idea of people being fused to walls and shit freaks me out. Like the random torsos and body parts in Quake 4.

Oh and people being slowly devoured by flesh eating insects.

Possibly the feeling of being watched, like having some follow you around in the shadows, but never they get close enough to make out any distinguishing features.

[Shadowpriest]

Another thing I'd find disturbing is (lets say some of the zombies can be animals, and some of these animals are parasites) the zombie going inside your (or another character's) body and you can see it crawling around, until it suddenly pops off some other part of the skin. Or it could eat your body from the inside.

[Triple J]

Some kid of enemy that has like ADHD or something and is laughing not exactly clownish or evilish, but more like a deep constant "Heh heh heh heh heh."

If you standing in a room where there are a bunch of corpses of enemies you killed, and then a single enemy walks in, looks at all the dead bodies, looks at you, and shoots himself in the head.

[Spiffy13]

If you standing in a room where there are a bunch of corpses of enemies you killed, and then a single enemy walks in, looks at all the dead bodies, looks at you, and shoots himself in the head.
Love this idea.

[MaxAlcolo]

If you standing in a room where there are a bunch of corpses of enemies you killed, and then a single enemy walks in, looks at all the dead bodies, looks at you, and shoots himself in the head.

But that's assuming the zombies will be armed with fire weapons, and I don't think Ax mentionned that. I remember hearing about a zombie spitting acid though. They could still commit suicide, but if you're going to have that one zombie shoot himself with a gun, you must make all zombies equipped with guns, or at least one kind. I still like the idea though.
Also, zombies using other zombies as human shields, dead or alive.

One question: Are your zombies seeking for brains, or do they just want to eliminate you ? Depending on the answer, the way they act should differ.

[jewishjosh]

If in the game you get to come back into rooms you've already been before, I really think somethings should be changed the second time, to let you know things happened after you went by the first time. Blood, corpses, objects destroyed, etc.
Otherwise you get the feeling that "I've already cleared this room, so I'm not worried at all".

Wouldn't it be better sometimes to have things the same, to lure you into a false sense of security?

If you die and get sent back to a checkpoint, next time you reach the place where you died the enemies should come from different parts of the room, or in a different order. That way the gamer has to be alert instead of memorizing where everything will be.

[MaxAlcolo]

Wouldn't it be better sometimes to have things the same, to lure you into a false sense of security?

If you die and get sent back to a checkpoint, next time you reach the place where you died the enemies should come from different parts of the room, or in a different order. That way the gamer has to be alert instead of memorizing where everything will be.

Yeah you're actually right, a mix of both would totally confuse the player as to what's coming next.

[pranshee]

scripting that in my Point of view would be almost impossible.

Will there be multi-player?

Also, 2 minute story line objectives, the player will think "this is WAY to easy" and bam, the door will be locked or something.

I feel that zombies are a bit cliched. Try something new :D, mabey giants, or each virus infected victim developes into something new (explanation: everyones DNA is different, virus has to affect it in a certain way) so you have got mutilated things following you around.

Zombie weapons !YEAH! you can pick them up, and BAM, you kill a zombie, they could be more powerful than normal human guns, but each time you use one, you come 1 step closer to becoming a zombie yourself.

[Pieman]

Innocents dying in games really fucks me over. To add on to the Schitzo and children stuff; You're walking down a corridor when voices whisper in your head. They grow steadily louder amd them suddenly stop, theres a tiny noise behind you. Paranoid as you must be you turn and shoot, hitting a little girl square in the chest.

And no zombie girl bullshit, an innocent girl that was hiding until she saw you and went for help. Could lead to an awesome relative boss match.

[MaxAlcolo]

I feel that zombies are a bit cliched. Try something new :D, mabey giants, or each virus infected victim developes into something new (explanation: everyones DNA is different, virus has to affect it in a certain way) so you have got mutilated things following you around.

You obviously didn't read Ax's first post, especially the quoted part.

[Axidos]

Oh, by the way, I should mention I'm giving credit. I don't intend to rob you people of your ideas.

You don't like mine? I thought I had some pretty good ones :( .
I'll only reply to your post if I actually have something to say on it. It'd be spamful to reply to everything. I like your corridor idea and we've got something similar planned.

zombies equipped with guns
...
Also, zombies using other zombies as human shields, dead or alive.

One question: Are your zombies seeking for brains, or do they just want to eliminate you ? Depending on the answer, the way they act should differ.
Zombie with guns: Now there's an idea.
Zombies using others as shields: There's also a good idea, which I'll probably reserve for the handful of especially tough-to-kill zombies.

The zombies mainly intend to spread the virus so that it can use a fresh body to evolve further, but there's nothing wrong with them beating you senseless as well.

scripting that in my Point of view would be almost impossible.

Will there be multi-player?

... each virus infected victim developes into something new ...
Scripting his idea would be easy. I just set a variety of possible spawn points - the player knows where they could spawn, but not where they will. I'll use this sparingly though - it's a hassle and it limits my control over the scenario.

Multiplayer: Yes. Absolutely. Both co-op and player-vs-player. There is nothing shittier than finding an awesome game, but being unable to play it with somebody.

Zombies types: As I said in my first post, there will be several different types of zombies, and few of them will be the shambling, moaning type.

Zombie gun: Sounds like something that would be quite difficult to balance. Health kits and related objects will be infrequent. There will be enough to help you along with the zombies all trying to kill you, but there won't be enough if you're doing something to get yourself killed as well.

Some kid of enemy that has like ADHD or something and is laughing not exactly clownish or evilish, but more like a deep constant "Heh heh heh heh heh."
I'll add that in, and see if I can come up with more stuff like that. Some zombies have various degrees of intelligence remaining, meaning some could do something particular that others don't, whether it be cosmetic (speaking mainly) or functional (their combat style, etc).

Another variation on this could be looking through a window in a door and seeing nothing but then something suddenly appears at the window, not trying to get you, just staring at you.

That would creep me the fuck out.
Creeps me out too. You've just helped me further the opening sequence slightly.

[pranshee]

You just gave me an idea to give you and idea, make some zombies more intelligent than the average player, make them use strategies that people would never think that zombies would use.

FREQUENT POWER CUTS :D, especially in the middle of a mass rape style battle.

[MaxAlcolo]

Oh, by the way, I should mention I'm giving credit. I don't intend to rob you people of your ideas.
...
Zombies with guns part.



First of all I don't think people think you're stealing their ideas. I, myself, am quite enjoying this thread. I doubt we all plan on making a video game, so why would we keep everything for ourselves ?

And I thought about something regarding the zombies using guns. If it takes place in a science facility, you would mostly find scientists in there right ?
I might be wrong, but I've never heard of a scientist carrying a gun to work.
So since some zombies will have more of their intelligence remaining, at least a part of them should remember how to use a gun. Those could pick up the weapons of your dead allies and use them on you until they run out of ammo.
I think that would prevent some players from complaining about how they got them.

But basically, it's your call.

[paper dreams]

The part in Lord of the Rings were all the orks are crawling down the columns just before the Balrog finds them unnerves me slighty.
Maybe you could have a type of zombie that scrabbles up walls and stuff, maybe up into ventilation shafts so you can hear them crawling around but you cant see them.

[Dresden]

Yeah, for the crawling zombies... picture the really fast ones in Half-Life 2 that climb all over the rooftops in Ravenholm.

Or another cool thing HL2 had; the zombie with like 8 poisonous headcrabs crawling on it, and it'd throw the headcrabs at you. Maybe do something like that. Shrug.

[Triple J]

Some kind of level where it is flooded to knee high, and when you drain it you see guts and corpses all over the floor.

[Spiffy13]

Some kind of level where it is flooded to knee high, and when you drain it you see guts and corpses all over the floor.
This guy is the master of ideas.

[Triple J]

You said at the beginning you are just going in with a bunch of other people.
You should have your character meet them again. But they are infected with the virus thing. These are people that your character was in the same squad with at the beginning of the game so it would be pretty emotional.

[paper dreams]

You could have one recurring character that is really messed up looks wise and just wanders past completely ignoring you, maybe talking to themselves.

[Imthedriver]

I will tell you one thing that really creeped me out. It's a move it was about night terrors and how something in your closet comes out only in the dark. I couldn't sleep after I watched that movie. so basically my idea is have zombies who after afflicted with the virus can't be in the light. They would try to grab you from the shadows and pull you into a dark room to kill you that would freak me out more than anything

[Shadowpriest]

Since this takes place in a science facility the zombies would probably infect some scientists. With that in mind, some of these zombies might be friggin geniuses, so maybe in some parts you can see them building weapons or some other stuff to use against you.

I can totally picture this in my head: You walk into a room, you hear a bunch of clanks and a wrench, then when you look at the end of the room you see a couple of them working on a machine, and as you walk in they hear you, turn around, grab the machine and start using it against you even though they never even finished it. (Basically a sub-boss, the weak spot would be around the unfinished parts of the machine)

[badumpbumpbump]

This was already used in a previous video game, but having a hallucination where you talk to someone who is not there is really creepy. Especially if they're dead.

[gordanthefree]

You walk into a room, dead bodies lying on the floor, you go into the next room, here a click behind you, and then the bodies get back up and try to fight you. That would be scary.

[Ziggy St. Valentine]

You're given an antidote so that you don't become infected, but its highly untested and has horrible side effects such as halucinations, headspins, etc etc. These side effects occur at the most unwelcome times, such as a halucination when you're trying to sneak past some enemies, or you're head starts spinning and the screen goes all blurry during a fight when you're drasticly outnumbered. Not neccisarily disturbing, but would be cool to add to the game.

[Prankenberry]

While playing Blood Omen 2, I always found it disturbing to have to drain blood from people chained to the wall, it was one thing to eat the guards trying to kill me, or humans that were dumb enough to go walking into the mist, but innocent people chained up like a cow getting ready to be made into school lunch meat just creeped the hell out of me.

[Triple J]

You could have side missions once you beat the game playing as one of the infected. Like you play out the entire period that the main character was knocked out. It's not exactly creepy but it would be cool to play as one of the people you just played entire game killing. And then you could get to like kill innocent people.

I can't wait for this game.

[Riddlebox]

I think it'd be pretty awesome to see a small town or city being over run by zombies, people running out of their houses and screaming. It'd also be pretty cool if you could go into some of these houses to try and save people, as a sort of side mission. The people you save wouldn't be main characters, but sort of like a squad that follows you around. Depending on whether or not you saved them they could be in the cut scenes, and maybe give them dialog you wouldn't usually hear as a sort of easter egg. That is, if at some point you reach a town.

Otherwise, if you're just going to focus it around this 'facility' you could do the same thing with some surviving scientists.

Also, being able to look out a window and see a group of survivors struggling to ward off a group of zombies would be cool.

[gordanthefree]

Random lights flashing in the distance, looking at them and seeing nothing, upon turning around, the flashing re-begins. Turn around again and see a group of zombies with torches.

Creepy

[Dresden]

Torches? In a science facility? They'd have bunson burners and hotpads! Hehehehe.

Anyway...any area where you enter and it's absolutely pitch black, and for some reason any flashlight you have just hardly seems to illuminate anything. You can hear sounds, but can't really tell where they're coming from. Maybe a very occasional flash of light from a mostly-broken ceiling light or something just to very slightly reduce the tension. Or increase it.

[Axidos]

And I thought about something regarding the zombies using guns. If it takes place in a science facility, you would mostly find scientists in there right ? I might be wrong, but I've never heard of a scientist carrying a gun to work.
There would also be a local security force.

You said at the beginning you are just going in with a bunch of other people. You should have your character meet them again.
We've got most bases covered in terms of meeting your teammates again. And by jove, your knee-high-in-something idea is neat.

antidote
The mechanics of the infection are pretty much worked out too, and your idea would pretty much discourage the player from using the antidote lest it lead to them dying horribly.

[gordanthefree]

pitch blackness might get a bit annoying after a while, especially if you get used to it.

[paranoiaphobic]

Suicide scares me. 'Specially the sight of people hanging from a rope. Silence is also creepy (like someone before said).

[dalton]

I would suggest a woman screaming in the background occasionally. Maybe a random rock-fall now and then. Just anything that disturbs the peace. It usually makes me jump out of my skin.

I would also suggest having one section early on when there are hundreds of zombie/evil things which are easy to kill. This would build confidence in the player so they'll want to keep on playing.

[Shaori]

Things that really creep me out in a game:
-Seeing one of the characters I knew from the beginning of the game being killed/mutilated.
-Seeing a dead body on the floor, thinking it's dead, and then it gets up.
-My character being unable to move cause its chained to the wall or something, and then hearing things coming to get me.
-Having killed someone I thought was evil, and then finding out they weren't.
-Being completely outnumbered and about to die/seeing another character in that situation.

[Dresden]

One scene in a game that really had a strong impact was at the end of Half-Life 2 when you and Alyx are held against the wall, helpless, while that Combine thing kills Dr. Vance. And Alyx crying over his dead body. So basically, seeing a character you've come to know get killed.

[Googles-my-bitch]

A creepy scene that I can think of: The character is walking down a long, dark hallway. He starts to hear the echo of a girl/young woman humming a cheery tune. As he gets further and further down the hallway, the corpses/blood increase, untill its almost at the point where he can't walk further without stepping in/on something. At the end of the hall the character opens a door and see's the woman/girl holding a cleaver/axe (or not, to suggest she innocent) , covered in blood with no expression/emotion her face. The character might walk up to see if she's alright, or stay back if she has a weapon. When the character attempts to talk to her, she interupts and coldly says "Why? Why did you let them die?" After a moment of silence she would scream "THEY'RE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! Why..." She reaches into the shadows and pulls out a bloody weapon, coldly says "Why couldn't you stop me...?" and either commits suicide or lunges at the player(possibly at a time when he's unarmed?)
(If this is the kind of idea you're looking for, I have a lot more, but will post them later.)

[Jaster99]

The most freaked out I've ever been in a video game was while playing Bioshock and that first splicer starts digging into the bathysphere and all you can do is sit there and watch as she breaks through. So in your case maybe having someone trapped in a room and the zombies just start breaking through the door.

[dalton]

googles my bitch's comment was quite disturbing

[Triple J]

If you find yourself in a room that is like a hospital room(like a place for someone who is really radioactive) you think theres no one in it, you walk around and you look in the widow to see the reflection of someone rising in the bed and screaming their lungs off. But they don't attack you, just point at you and scream.

[paper dreams]

You could maybe have a part of the game where you have to rescue some people who are hiding out in a room, but when it comes to getting them out they don't to leave cos they are too scared to leave the room so you eventually have to leave them there.
Later on you could either come across some of them zombified or return to the room and just find their bodies in the room.

[BKS]

Inanimate moving, like mannequins just turning to look at you, or being there one second, then gone another.


Example, walk into the dorms, see a teddybear sitting on the chair, turn around, noises, turn back, gone, desk soaked with blood or some shit.

[Richard_Simmons]

When characters have those freaky hallucinations, like flashbacks of his family dying or something tragic or like a psycho attacking him and then he blinks and its is gone. Make him as crazy as possible.

[AngelRedFlame]

Well, there are a lot of things which get my skin to crawl, and get me to feel paranoid. I really like the fact that there won't be much music, that sounds like it would be incredibly eerie.
But, I agree with some things here. Such as zombies looking human, but not moving in human ways, i.e. crawling, slithering, etc. That always gets me.

Also, if you allow the character to hallucinate. Even if he isn't batshit crazy himself, and is a fairly normal guy, I'm sure in a situation as scary as that he'll be on edge at all times, and would be seeing/hearing things. It would also be good if he muttered to himself in sort of a whisper sometimes, adding to the creepy feel.

Also, I would think it would be incredibly creepy if suicide was included, such as someone hanging from a rope from the ceiling. But, instead of them just dangling there, dead, they too could be a zombie, but stuck. They could flail, and foam at the mouth and whatnot.

Otherwise, large injuries and deformities are always disturbing. Sensitive things, too, like the eyes. Something like the eyelids being gone, or the lips being mutated, can be really disturbing with a good close up.

In any case, this definatly sounds good. Keep us updated!

[Triple J]

What if a bad guy came out of like no where and started tugging at your guns.
Like a mini game. But cooler then Call of Duty.

[Axidos]

Ok, some people are repeatedly posting about craziness and hallucinations. They will probably not happen. This is not FEAR.

Also, the only sounds you will hear will be diegetic (http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm) (that's a link, if you don't know what that means), with the exception of general ambience (birds, wind, etc) and the rare occurrence of music. That way, the player knows pretty much every sound they hear will be significant in some way.

It would also be good if he muttered to himself in sort of a whisper sometimes, adding to the creepy feel.
Won't happen. The player could dismiss nearby sounds as their own character's sounds, or think their own character's sounds are the sounds of somebody nearby. The character will make minimal noise other than the basic, easily recognisable things (footsteps, guns, etc).

Something like the eyelids being gone, or the lips being mutated, can be really disturbing with a good close up.

In any case, this definatly sounds good. Keep us updated!
Actually, eye and mouth are two specific parts which are mutated on nearly every zombie. All the zombies are infected by various strains of a virus which was once just one strain, which had a signature facial deformation.

Also, on the note of keeping you updated:
I will reveal as little as possible about the game, until probably toward the end of the year when I might start a topic in Showcase. And don't expect a demo or anything playable for a year at the very least (probably two).

So basically, seeing a character you've come to know get killed.-Seeing one of the characters I knew from the beginning of the game being killed/mutilated.
Will most probably happen at multiple points.


-


Anyway, as for now, I believe I've collected enough information. A lot of disturbing things and ideas are along the lines of our own thoughts, so we know we're on the right track.
Other than that, this has become more of a suggestions thread than a survey thread, which I didn't count on.

Thanks for all the help, guys.