Quote:Original post by d000hg Firstly, what kind of game idea lists "realistic shadows" as crucial game element?
Secondly, you said it's always dark. So there won't be any shadows anyway.
Ok, that's just being absurley technical and you know it. Always dark means the sun never shines. Not pitch black. Besides I think you're forgetting a little thing called electricity... you know, the magic that makes the light turn on in your room. Sound familiar?
Secondly, shadows are extrmely improtant for establishing fear. Anyone whose seen a half-way decent horror film should know this.
EDIT: sorry for the hostility of this response, but it gets really frustrating when people cant use common sense and instead act like machines.
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I think it's a good idea man. With post-apocolyptic ruins and crazy beasts, not to mention some evil super-being (be it the devil or whatever)...there are infinite possibilities for your chain-reaction scenerios. Not to mention the good vs evil idea. It just seems like an extremely immersive experience. One question though...if God gave up on us and let the devil have reign, what's stopping the devil from taking over right then right there? WHAT exactly would drive anyone to do "the right thing"? When I was first reading the post I was thinking about what if this is like the prequel to God taking Earth back and defeating the Devil's armies? Then it's like this is the last chance for people to go for "good" or "evil" (whatever people's perception of these things are). I don't know just a thought...but I really like the idea...I'd buy the game.
I was having trouble coming up with that concept of the devil having "absolute power" over the people of earth. That was when I realised that (according to religeons) humans cannot be directly controled by anything other than themselves, putting posession aside. Humans also have free will, so they're not necessarily trying to do the right thing, they're just trying to stay alive.
Also, (correct me if i'm wrong) but I recall the bible saying something about satan having very limited direct power over the Earth, mainly maintaning the ability to trick people. Maybe (theoreticly as of now) god is keeping the devil from taking over, but the bible never says this.
Therefore, I think the devil cannot directly take anything, only by indirect means can he preform this. With no god stopping him though, these indirect threats become far worse, especially when man's weapons get involved.
PS. this is all game description mixed with some logical guesses, not actually what I think.
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A spin off where you are the devil trying to drive people away from going to mars by turning them against each other and throwing your beasts every now and then... You'd be hurt by flash lights and honest prayers.. Everything is extremely bright (after all, you're in the dark and you're the devil..) The scariest thing for you are little innocent children.. Hmm, this might even sell out as a comedic spin off..
Ok, to make it interesting, God doesn't have to leave earth.. Bcz we need monsters. Monsters like Guardian angels, Gabrial, Michael...
Oh, church (or mosque for me) would be extremely dark on the inside though it's well lit out. It's there where you have to wait people to come out from.. Graveyards is where you summon your beasts. Defend them on the way.
In the end you're immortal, so I have no idea how it would end.. Maybe by people leaving off the the planet and u left alone in total despair.. A game where the end is your loss.
Huh wow, I definitely agree with the guy who made the atmosphere comment. You really put a strong image in my mind of this hypothetical Earth. Now this is a game, so whether its possible or not, I could care less. I think this chain reaction thing could be very effective at screwing with the player. You choose not to help the devil, and so he starts screwing with you. You start seeing things in mirrors, as well as having your companions start breaking down. Or you do choose to follow him, only to find it just gets more and more twisted and dark. I have to disagree with the good graphics = not scary comment. Just because they are good, doesn't mean you have to show any more than that rogue-like. It is a truth that a person can imagine something more frightening than you can ever show them. So exploit them and intentionally don't show the player things, but indicate at their existence. Noises, moving objects, etc could be used to convey a frightening presence, and then the player's inability to see it would trigger their imagination to creating something more frightening than anything you could put on screen. It would require a delicate balance of showing/not showing, as well as some other things, but if pulled off could be awesome in my opinion.
Sticking to the original idea, you can add another twist to the story.. Is there really a devil, or are you just hallucinating. Is it that you're bad, and that's leading to your group breaking up; or there's really someone trying to break you. Maybe to reach a conclusion that there is a devil, but he's not responsible for everything bad that happened.. Maybe the devil wants something else than just not wanting you to escape... Hmm, a pride perhaps :P [EDIT] You choose your character's gender, if it's male, the devil is gay :P and still wants to get you - No offense to anyone
Quote:Original post by TheKrust Secondly, shadows are extrmely improtant for establishing fear. Anyone whose seen a half-way decent horror film should know this.
Maybe, but putting "realsitic shadows" as a core feature of a game, is to me like saying "this game will be based around HDR, and also there is a story".
lol no, a core GRAPHICS feature. You can't have a game centered around HDR, but you can have a graphics engine centerd round one. If you want the truth, the graphics pipline in source is really nothing special, it's the HDR that makes it so glamorous. Otherwise, it's just low poly counts and high quality textures.
Shadows are the core of establishing the look of fear. And the graphics engine should be based around accomidating that. The Doom3 engine was and Unreal 3 CERTAINLY is.
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