First off, I would like to defend the "Swamp of Doom" because I would never put something in the game just to fill up some area. It would most DEFINITELY be linked to the plot on some bizarre level if not apparently obvious .

As for the following thing, I like it. Keep introducing new ways of things being able to happen to the player. I am thinking that new skills that will further the abilities of the monsters to hide would most definitely be beneficial to the player. they would learn some skill that allowed them to see if there are any monsters currently using their hiding skill, but the monsters continue to find new ways of hiding .

That can get a bit vindictive though. New levels of monsters, or creatures could know different ways of hiding and so the player would have to check for them all. I like the idea of being able to scare a player by making them sure of safety and then proving to them that they are not safe. This has happened countlessly in Diablo and II. I walk through a room and see and hear nothing. I start attacking baddies in a new room only to find a solitary zombie that must have been hiding in the corner has managed to sneak up behind me... this could go hand in hand with the toying idea, because the creature could just sit and wait to see if it has been spotted and try to look convincingly absent from the scene.

They could then slowly approach the player from wherever (unseen) and surprise them from behind. Toying can also be extended to include injuring the player a bit then sitting back to see what the player will do, before approaching and reattempting the same thing or maybe a different tactic

If it was obvious to the player that the creature was just playing with them and not seemingly worried about its own health then perhaps the player would consider that they are not yet a match for the creature and this would increase their fear or wariness of the said creature.

Enough speculation anyway

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche

The idea of scaring the player is a matter of the game''s mood. While mood is something which the designers of Horror titles pay careful attention to, this aspect of game design is often ignored in other genres.

In some games, mood is simpler, and therefore seems less important. But this is not the case. Even in the simplest, most abstract games, mood must be carefully considered.

At first, it might seem that a game such as Tetris has no mood. Does the designer try to scare the player? Is there eerie music in the background? Certainly there are no characters. So how can mood be important to a game like Tetris?

But there is an element of mood in Tetris. There is the uncertainty of planning ahead for the arrival of a piece the player cannot identify. There is the tension of having misplaced a piece. There is the stress of increased speed. Tetris has a mood. And that mood becomes progressively more intense as the game continues.

Certainly the mood of a game like Tetris is not overly difficult to create and maintain. But it is important nonetheless. And just as there is a mood in such a seemingly simple game as Tetris, so too there is a mood in every game.

Sometimes that mood is fear, sometimes comedy, sometimes even boredom. But whatever the mood, it is important that the designer pay attention to it.

We have been exploring ways in which the designer can scare the player. I would suggest that the lessons we draw from this discussion can be applied to virtually every single game. I believe that the more attention a game designer pays to the mood of a game, the better that game will be.


Jonathon

quote:"Mathematics are one of the fundamentaries of educationalizing our youths." -George W. Bush

I think that the main way to scare someone is to hit them with something that they didn''t expect. Always be prepared, is the motto of the Scouts, but what if it is an event that the player couldn''t have prepared for... This goes somewhat along the lines of the monster not being in the same place each time, or can be more extreme in that an exit that a player was sure was there, has miraculously moved elsewhere...

Just be sure that there is good reasoning behind these events and the player wont think you are cheating them... Make the player trust you, and don''t abuse that trust. There needs to ALWAYS be a good explaination behind what goes on.

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche