Reborn Game Pioneer

Chapter 425 The Knowledge of Horror Games
"The topic of horror games is either big or small. If we talk about everything, we will definitely not be able to finish it in two hours, so today we will focus on several main elements of horror games."

"Different people have different understandings of what elements a game type needs to have. I am only talking about my personal understanding. As for whether I approve or not, you need to think for yourself and make your own judgment."

"Based on my personal understanding of horror games, I have summarized five major elements for it. These five major elements are: background, scene, enemy, me, and movement."

Seeing that everyone was confused, Gu Feng smiled lightly and began to explain: "The background is the background of the story when the game happened. When many people hear the background of the story, the first thing that comes to mind is RPG games, or action games, or even many games. Designers of horror games are completely unaware of how important a good story background is to horror games, in fact, the importance of story background to horror games is no less than that of RPG.”

"Speaking of this, many students may ask, you have said so much, what kind of story background is considered a good story background? It is not difficult to answer this question. We can understand from another angle, what kind of story background Which one is the scariest?"

"Is a story that is purely false and has no basis in reality scary? There may be various deformed monsters in this story, with hideous eyes, disgusting tentacles, and teeth like a meat grinder. Mentioning these things, I think many students have already seen some pictures in their minds. Yes, many foreign games and film and television works like to play this kind of thing. Is it scary? It may be a little bit when watching it, but it may be more physiologically disgusting. Look After that, you still have to go to the toilet and sleep at night, and there are basically no subsequent shadows. The reason is very simple. We all know in our hearts that these are fake, so naturally we will not be afraid."

Everyone nodded thoughtfully, feeling that what he said made sense.

Gu Feng continued: "Since it's not fake, what about reality? The ogre in the Southwest a few years ago, the Ripper in Europe in the 19th century, the murderous clown in the United States 20 years ago, and the doll head case in Newport in [-] , you must have heard of one or two of these cases. They are all brutal murders that happened in reality. Doesn’t it feel more terrifying than those disgusting monsters just now? The reason is also very simple, since it is real What happened, none of us know whether there is such a demon hidden around us, especially when it happens in the city or street where we are, or even the protagonist is someone we know, even if the killing method is not cruel, this Something that is so close at hand is enough that people will never forget it for the rest of their lives.”

"However, although reality is more terrifying than fiction, it is not the most terrifying. What is more terrifying than this is the things that are fictitious and real. For example, ghosts and zombies. Most of these things come from feudal superstition and folklore. Although in this age of believing in science, everyone knows that these things are false, but because they have heard about them since childhood, even if they know they are false, they will always feel a little bit embarrassed in their hearts. It is beyond reality but not divorced from reality. Whether it’s false or false, true or false, when something like this appears, it’s more likely to stir up the deepest fears in people’s hearts.”

"Just like a paper wedding dress, the story background of the game is a tragedy caused by feudal superstition, plus some folklore ghosts seeking lives, etc., the tone is set, even if it is just telling the story normally, the players can make up their minds through their own imagination You can scare yourself half to death..."

"After talking about the background, let's talk about the scene. The scene here actually refers to the atmosphere of the game. How to construct a scary atmosphere? Students who have played horror games must be able to quickly tell something, the dark environment , eerie background music, strongly suggestive scene details, and monsters’ low roars from time to time. As the most basic elements in horror games, most games can pass the test on this aspect..."

Gu Feng was talking eloquently on the stage. From time to time, people entered the auditorium quietly from various entrances. In less than 15 minutes, the auditorium, which had nearly half empty seats, was already full. The latecomers included both students and teachers. Even though There were no seats left, but people continued to come after hearing the news. They were either sitting on the stairs in the middle aisle, or standing in the aisles on both sides and the aisle at the end.

There are not so many teachers and students in the entire Art Department of Shanghai University of Science and Technology, not to mention the Game Academy. This shows Gu Feng's current reputation among young people.

Some of these people who come to listen to the lectures simply come to admire the talented people, and some of them really want to learn something. Most of the people who come to learn something bring paper and pen. They listen the most attentively, and they will lower their heads to take notes from time to time. These people Most likely they are students from the Game Academy.

Gu Feng explained one by one the five elements of horror games he mentioned, from the virtual and real background, to the dark and gloomy scenes, from the powerful to unbeatable enemies, to the weak to weak protagonist with no fighting ability, and finally the protagonist’s command of Anxious action.

Before listening to Gu Feng explain these things, most people actually have some common understandings about horror games and horror movies. These understandings are very vague, but they can all be summarized into the five major elements mentioned by Gu Feng.

In the past, they loved and hated, were anxious and angry about some situations in horror games or horror movies.For example, from the perspective of God, I watched a lone woman walking in a deserted alley late at night and was followed; There is a high probability that there is danger, but the protagonist is a skilled artist and has the courage to neither call the police nor call anyone, but insists on exploring alone...

Although the processing of these examples seems old-fashioned and cerebral, it has to be admitted that this seemingly unsmart approach can indeed bring the expected psychological experience to players and audiences, the kind that not only improves the protagonist's IQ and The feeling of being in a hurry and being frightened and worried about the fate of the protagonist is exactly what they want to see.

Listening to Gu Feng's explanation, and following Gu Feng to analyze a horror game from a designer's perspective, many things that were just obvious at first suddenly became obvious.

According to Zhao Feng, making horror games is a science that is easy to get started but difficult to master. The biggest difference between it and other game types is that other games only need to think about how to make the game fun, while making horror games , the priority of "horror" is slightly higher than "fun". How to skillfully provoke players' fear is the first thing designers should think about.

(End of this chapter)