By now, it has gotten to the stage where we have needed to concern
our self's with involving monsters in the game. Provoking fear, being
the main purpose of involving monsters, can become a matter involved
rather deeply with emotions and phobias.
Monologophobia (which
can refer to repetition/the same) is a phobia that, along with many
other phobias, can be integrated quiet well into the game and used in
context of the idea of pursuit from the monsters. Monologophobia is a
fear that I used specifically in one of the basements as the basement is
like a small maze, and all the corners and walls are very similar
giving the feeling of being lost and presenting Monologophobia. Then
with the idea of having a monster in there with you that could be
anywhere, brings out those fears to the surface and the players mind
wanders into, most likely, a place where these fears are always nagging
at them. If mastered, it can be a perfect circle.
Another thing
that was meditated on was the actual design of the monsters themselves
and their influence in the game. The monsters hold the biggest sway in
the fear factor in this game, so a lot of time was taken to perfect the
monsters and their influence. Their appearance is the most important
factor in my opinion; it is what we observe and become confronted by in
the monsters the most. So with this in mind the monsters were based on
basic child-hood fears eg: the boogeyman, Frankenstein, general monsters
etc. Many horror games these days are 'over-doing' (so to speak) the
monsters or zombies they involve in their games by taking on the tactic
of provoking disgust by making the creatures completely torn, flayed,
skinny, half dead, twitchy, and pretty much an over-flayed corpse-thing.
There isn't much wrong with that approach but if not used right, it is
very short lived and it has also been used up and people are just about
used to it. Having a new approach to the look of the monster keeps the
fear of the unknown by easing the monsters into the players experience
rather than loosing it out in a sudden burst of scare to chase the
player and desensitize the payer for the rest of the game and render it
not as scary an experience as it could be.
As the game goes down the long road of development, new concepts and
ideas are being surfaced and integrated to make it a suspenseful and
fear-filled game as possible.
