Having talked about combat for a few weeks I will now move onto something else: Save systems in horror games. I will briefly discuss the various save systems available and how they affect the scare factor.
A History of violence. Part 3
In this blog post I will focus an underused combat mechanic: Chase Sequences. This type of “combat” is very common in horror movies, but quite rare in horror games. I will briefly discuss how we used it in Penumbra, problems it causes and how some other games have implemented it.
A History of violence. Part 2
In this part of “A History of Violence” I will briefly investigate some of the types of combat found in horror games, compare them to films and discuss how they impact on the scare-factor.
A History of violence. Part 1
Ever since I started working on horror games (first was a simple 2d game called Fiend) I have been thinking about what kind of combat one wants in a horror game.
‘Penumbra: Black Plague’ Developer Diary #3 – Screens
One of the main features in Penumbra: Black Plague is the physics. This is a feature that adds a lot of immersion and gives new opportunities for gameplay. However, it has not been without problems to implement it and that is what we will focus on in this diary entry. We will go through some of the different problems we encountered and explain how we solved them.
‘Penumbra: Black Plague’ Developer Diary #2
The voiceovers are an area that has received more attention in Black Plague than it did in our previous Overture game. In Overture we had one character speaking to the player through a radio, in Black Plague this has been extended to around five characters speaking to him through various media. As we are working with a small budget we have not done any animated and synced characters. This is also a design choice as we believe horror is created by being lonely and isolated in an unknown territory, so don’t expect any friendly chats over a cup of tea!
‘Penumbra: Black Plague’ Developer Diary #1
Black Plague is a sequel, however we did not just want to settle with what we had and only make minor improvements. Instead we aimed to really evolve as game creators and that has meant identifying imperfections in our previous game and remove them completely.
