Topic: How do you make a Platform game genuinely scary?

[C Belmont]

Castlevania’s 2D games have had some pretty spooky looking stages but I don’t think that I’ve ever actually been frightened while playing through any of them. The only Castlevania game to ever make me jump out of my seat in fright was Legacy of darkness and that was 3D, which makes me wonder: how would you go about making a platform game scary? And do you suppose only having two dimensions to work with makes it more difficult to create a frightening experience?

I'm sort of looking for ideas that I can use in a game project of mine so any input would be much appreciated

[A-Yty]

Do it like SCVIV, but instead of aiming for a melancholic, eerie atmosphere with some random kind-of-funny-weirdness (a flying horse head etc.), pump the whole thing full of Scary Steroids.

[Inccubus]

I'd say take a queue from a combination of elements from Clock Tower and Metroid 3.
Metroid 3 has the atmosphere down pretty well. Especially in the crashed ship level.
Clock Tower does the scary moments great especially with scissor man.

[A-Yty]

Clock Tower is a platformer?

[Opium]

I think atmosphere is how you make anything scary, from movies to video games - 2D or not.  The number one component of atmosphere in those media is music/sound, esp. when used to build suspense.

[Inccubus]

Clock Tower is a platformer?

Sort of. It's a 2d scroller. The important thing is that it got the 'scary' down pretty damn well.

[A-Yty]

Well yeah and I would have also mentioned it, but I was under the impression this thread is about platformers. I'd say CT is more like a stealth point-n-clicker.

[Inccubus]

Well yeah and I would have also mentioned it, but I was under the impression this thread is about platformers. I'd say CT is more like a stealth point-n-clicker.

You do have a cursor interface, primarily, but that's neither here nor there. The SNES version could just as easily have had standard side scroll controls.

[A-Yty]

But moving between platforms is what platformers are about, yes? Like Super Mario or Castlevania. I'm not trying to be smart aleccy or anything, but you don't do that in CT. You move between areas, but you don't jump or otherwise move quickly between scattered surfaces.

[Inccubus]

That is true, but like I said that's neither here nor there. The tone of the game really has little to do with the interface. The important thing to making any game scary is the way it's presented not how you control the protagonist.

BTW, a great example of a scary game with platforming elements is Alien 3 for the SNES.

[Vampire Killer]

Do it like SCVIV, but instead of aiming for a melancholic, eerie atmosphere with some random kind-of-funny-weirdness (a flying horse head etc.), pump the whole thing full of Scary Steroids.

Scare-roids?

And Cv4 actually did scare me at one point. The part right after the grim reaper, when you're leaving his area and those torches start lighting just as you walk past them. And right when the first one lights that really creepy music starts playing. That creeped me out.

[Inccubus]

That's a really awesome scene. I think the prologue did a great job of setting a creepy tone for the game too. Uses a slightly slower version of the same song as the torch scene too.

[PFG9000]

I don't think that Castlevania is really supposed to be scary.  It's an action game.  And platformers tend to be action games, not horror/suspense games, because navigating platforms is inherently an action-ey concept.  But that's not the question, so I'll drop it.

Atmosphere is absolutely key.  Having things like fog or interesting lighting effects (low lighting, flickering light, moving light sources, etc.) and subtle music, if any music at all, will contribute to that atmosphere.  Color schemes need to be appropriately muted or realistic, and sound effects should be impeccably placed.  All that jazz.

[KaZudra]

Play Limbo and all your answers lie there.

[X]

Another good game which is a platformer, that has a really good atmosphere and music is Nosferatu for the SNES. I did jump at parts of the game, but that was only during sections where the enemies were hidden in the roof and they just appear out of the blue and grab you.