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Culminus I don't culminate! Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
I don't culminate!
#26: Mar 18th 2013 at 3:21:13 PM

My idea, is to never involve (active use of) guns. Survival Horror genre is too crowded with guns, and for no apparent reason, you can find bullets in often the unlikeliest of locations, like on the floor, on the bodies of fallen obstacles, and such.

Thus enter my idea called Flashback. You play as an amnesiac guy who does know who he was and what he did - he just happened to forgot what caused everything. He was at the Pentagon when everything went down, and he got an impact on the back of his head. 3 days later, he forgot everything. Then the news started going on about Iran and North Korea forming a warring alliance against USA. However, what's really happening is far beyond zombies and viruses.

As the poor guy ventures closer and closer into either country, he will discover that nothing is as it seems, and the closer he gets to the source, the more he remembers, and the more his soul screams.

Same as usual.... Wing it.
Alma The Harbinger of Strange from Coruscant Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
The Harbinger of Strange
#27: Mar 19th 2013 at 7:28:45 AM

Not trolling. Think Saw with asshole victims, a vigilante will kill you if you don't carry out a series of ironic punishments on their chosen victims If your life worth more than crashing the stocks of an embezzler then making him Driven to Suicide? Can you stomach reenacting the concentration camps on that Neo Nazi so you can live? Would you dare have a pedophile raped...you get the idea.

It sounds like a good idea, but the Moral Guardians would positively shit bricks.

Then again, survival horror games seem to fly under the radar of the M Gs, especially in Australia. Our classification board is just weird—Dead Space, which has got to be one of THE most senselessly gory games I have ever played, passed through without so much as a delay.

How about a survival horror from an alien's or monster's perspective? Sort of a Humans are Cthulhu thing. It wouldn't be very effective if the humans are portrayed realistically—but you could portray them as the creature imagines them. For example, a Gray Alien crashes his UFO on Earth and has to run from the hostile human government, which wants to dissect him. He sees them as vicious monsters which sort of look like him, but also really don't.

edited 19th Mar '13 7:32:33 AM by Alma

You need an adult.
Enlong Court Dragon from The Underground Facility Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Court Dragon
#28: Mar 19th 2013 at 7:57:44 AM

Not sure if this idea counts as survival horror, but it could definitely be horror if done right.

Okay, so here's the premise. The game is a text-parser-based adventure game, with accompanying graphics. You know the kind. Anyway. What's happening is that, on screen, you can clearly see a horrible monster that, with every turn (or long enough time left idle) is pursuing you and trying to horribly kill you. However, the parser refuses to acknowledge the creature's existence. Trying to LOOK at the beast results in a generic "I don't see anything like that here" response. trying to directly interact with it (like, say, throwing something at it) elicits similar responses. So fighting is useless. The only thing you can hope to do is to effect the monster indirectly. Like by breaking a support such that a wall collapses to block its path for a moment. The idea is that the dissonance between what you can see and what the game acknowledges to be real causes a sense of unease and tension.

For example, you could at one point enter a room that the monster has been through, which has been utterly devastated. Twisted, broken wood, shattered glass, a wall torn open, etc. But the game gives you a description like "you are in a lavishly furnished dining room. Fine china is set upon the table, and a lovely chandelier hangs from he ceiling."

I have a message from another time...
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Alma The Harbinger of Strange from Coruscant Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
The Harbinger of Strange
#30: Mar 19th 2013 at 8:28:01 AM

[up][up] I LOVE IT. And it seems like something a small indie team could do. Oh, but if I had the skill.

You need an adult.
FuzzyBoots from Outlying borough of Pittsburgh (there's a lot of Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
#31: Mar 19th 2013 at 8:46:29 AM

I've had an idea bouncing around in my head since I watched House on Haunted Hill (1959) of having the game be a short haunted house simulator. Randomly generated house with secret passages, innocent guests, and a handful of things trying to kill you, whether supernatural or simply murderous guests. You have a gun with very limited ammunition, as does everyone else. Scares in the house spike your fear-meter which not only does the usual stuff like blurring the interface and causing your breathing to get louder, but also results in flashes out of the corner of your eyes, moments when the innocent guest you're walking with looks like they're going for their gun or transforming, basically increasing your paranoia and making you more likely to accidentally shoot someone. Similarly, when someone else has been walking through the hallways and has their gun out, you really want to call out to them first from cover, just in case they're jumpy themselves.

Because the game is short and randomized, there is no saving. You play and you either survive or you fail, and you never know for certain who's the good guys until they've proven themselves, and trying to push past the scares means it's that much more difficult to tell who's on the side of angels or not.

EviIPaladin Some Guy Or Something from Middle-Of-Nowhere, NS Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Noddin' my head like yeah
Some Guy Or Something
#32: Mar 19th 2013 at 9:43:34 AM

I had an idea for a fake Action Horror game that is really a Survival Horror one.

Basically, you are some super good looking soldier guy who goes around kicking the alien invaders' collective asses. Everyone loves you. Now the game starts at the beginning of the final push to get those horrible aliens off your beautiful planet. The first hour or two is spent just blazing through the alines like they are made of rice paper. But then stuff starts seeming... Off. Your teammates start sounding bitter and resentful and sarcastic when before they had only sung your praises. The ammunition in the guns doesn't match up with what the read-out says. The aliens, looking exactly as they did before, take full clips of your gun to kill when before you could knock 'em out in a few bullets.

After another hour of this, you seem to just hit a wall. There are too many aliens and you cannot kill them all or even get past them. Your allies have disappeared when you weren't looking. So you have to hide and slowly sneak around the city that the aliens have taken as their homebase. There are no humans here except you. And yet... Hope is not lost.

You encounter a ragtag group of aliens who think that this whole invasion thing is lame. They help you by giving you access to some of their weaponry. Still, it isn't easy to kill like it was before and the weapons are low on charges without any way to recharge them except in the main barracks which is guarded so heavily that going after it would be suicide. However, after a rallying speech about fighting for what is right and just, you convince them to accompany you on an assault on the place.

This goes about as well as can be expected. As you order the charge you look around and see no one there. Not only that, but you don't have any weapons. Oh, but your charge declaration wasn't for naught; the aliens heard you and are now actively hunting you down. Your only choice is to try and flee the city, but the path you took before seems to have disappeared. Everything is a mess and you can only hope to survive.

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val
tsstevens Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did from Reading tropes such as Righting Great Wrongs Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: She's holding a very large knife
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
#33: Mar 19th 2013 at 5:49:03 PM

''It sounds like a good idea, but the Moral Guardians would positively shit bricks.

Then again, survival horror games seem to fly under the radar of the M Gs, especially in Australia. Our classification board is just weird—Dead Space, which has got to be one of THE most senselessly gory games I have ever played, passed through without so much as a delay.''

Well we're meant to be getting a R rating so it might be a work we can see sometime in the future. I know Manhunt was banned but you still get it if you looked, I have a copy of Magna Cum Laud somewhere and I've even seen Mortal Kombat 9 and they had boarder security working to stop it ever reaching our shores.

It seems that violence is less of an issue and it's the sexual themes that get up the Australian censor's noses. Thrill Kill was banned for that reason, and IIRC the character model at least in MK 9 was sexualized then later censored, so that might have set the alarm bells off.

Your idea of a alien Survival Horror game has a lot of merit. The one thing I would wonder is if they had the technology to get to Earth then wouldn't they be advanced enough to defend themselves? Have knowledge of humans? Other than that I can picture something like having to fend off the wildlife near the crash site, then go all Bear Grills and survive until they make it to civilization before the humans react to their odd appearance, the police respond and the alien is forced to defend themselves the only way they know how. Cue the Torches and Pitchforks in trying to take down who we see as a huge threat, the army and scientists after it, shady types who want to exploit the alien's powers and those who are trying to defend it. Maybe throw in a Karma Meter where if the alien targets criminals then the police will be less inclined to come after it, use it's powers to help the community and it will rise to defend it, agree to share it's wisdom with scientists assuming it's not a trap to capture it.

Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
pvtnum11 OMG NO NOSECONES from Kerbin low orbit Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: We finish each other's sandwiches
OMG NO NOSECONES
#34: Mar 19th 2013 at 6:09:15 PM

Anything that uses the Player's fears against them. But short of the game asking you from the start "what are you afraid of" and then tailoring itself to you, it would use the universal fears. Darkness, the unknown, body horror, sense of helplessness and futility, things like that. Also, it wouldn't play the same way twice. A jump scare early on might not happen the second time you play it, or what used to be an unlocked door is locked the second time, stuff like that. All in an effort to make it a different - and unknown - experience every time, further capitalizing on the fear of the unknown and lack of control.

However, some Hope Spots should exist. The ability to hide, run, jump, evade, escape. The needs to eat, drink, treat injuries, sleep, all need to be sated in some way.

Weapons: For-real weapons should be a rare treat. Improvised weapons, like a piece of wood or a jagged piece of metal, should be a feature. However, the things trying to kill you (or worse) may not even care that you're armed, either with a firearm or a piece of lead pipe. Some might go down. Most won't. Either there's too many, or it's too big or fast, or the injuries you sustain mean that your death merely comes quicker, even if you defeated that particular threat.

Environmental hazards need to exist, too, probably far more prevalent that actual enemies. Radiation, poison gas, fire, sharp bits of glass all over the floor and you have no shoes, rotted floorboards, whatever. A constant level of unease and tension, wearing down the Player themslves, until they finally say "Enough!" and put the game away.

edited 19th Mar '13 6:09:33 PM by pvtnum11

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#35: Mar 19th 2013 at 6:51:30 PM

Twenty four hours exiled to the streets of the Ferguslie Park Housing Estate in my home town of Paisley. Think a Scottish version of Fort Apache - The Bronx.

Pretty much every post-apocalyptic trope you could think of, yet isolated in an ocean of relative prosperity, and bordered by two massive supermarkets and an airport.

julyjack73 Since: Nov, 2010
#36: Mar 19th 2013 at 7:14:19 PM

I want to see survival horror mixed with the gameplay from stealth-based games, though it's probably already been done.

MarkVonLewis Since: Jun, 2010
#37: Mar 19th 2013 at 7:42:46 PM

A game where you have to make it through 4 years in Air Defense Artillery.

Trust me that will horrify anyone.

tsstevens Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did from Reading tropes such as Righting Great Wrongs Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: She's holding a very large knife
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
#38: Mar 19th 2013 at 8:12:36 PM

A military style Survival Horror game? I like it. We had Spec Ops The Line of course and there were games like Viet Cong and Shellshock but how about a sub sim like Das Boot or one set in Vietnam where you not only fought the enemy but had to avoid traps, survive in the jungles, and they threw in all the horrors of what occurred without going over the top and being gratuitous? Or a flight sim that had a stress meter and flying too many missions or doing too many bad things or going through too many carrier landings or other stressful parts of the job led to playable hallucinations, conflict within the team and if you let the meter get too low game over?

Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
OdieEsty Why would I write that? Since: Mar, 2012
Why would I write that?
#39: Mar 19th 2013 at 8:14:12 PM

I want a survival horror game built entirely around the environment. It would be like Tomb Raider except without any enemies whatsoever and structured like a Metroidvania.

Remember! Hyperbole is an exaggeration made for comedic effect, and shouldn't be taken literally!
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#40: Mar 19th 2013 at 9:48:55 PM

Anything that uses the Player's fears against them. But short of the game asking you from the start "what are you afraid of" and then tailoring itself to you, it would use the universal fears.

...Silent Hill Shattered Memories, sort of? At the very least it had a neat way of implementing player feedback.

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
Alma The Harbinger of Strange from Coruscant Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
The Harbinger of Strange
#41: Mar 20th 2013 at 7:48:45 AM

I like subtle Interface Screws—things that make you wonder if it's deliberate or if there's something wrong with your game or computer. Did I just see that, or am I going crazy? In FEAR 2 Reborn, the screen flickers lightly a few times before you go rogue—stuff like that.

@ Evil Paladin: There would be a reason for all the weirdness, right? I mean, it's not really a Survival Horror if there's no reason for the sudden hikes in difficulty and the disappearances of your weapons and allies, it's just "Fuck You, Player".

The one thing I would wonder is if they had the technology to get to Earth then wouldn't they be advanced enough to defend themselves?

You could say that the alien who crashed was alone, that it was a scout sent ahead of the rest of its people to investigate Earth, and that all or most of its advanced technology and weapons were lost in the crash—so it's cut off from communication with the rest of its race and unarmed. As to whether the aliens would have prior knowledge of humans—not if the alien scout is the first to lay eyes on them. It might be necessary to invoke some sort of Schizo Tech to explain why the aliens would send one of their own to Earth instead of viewing it from a distance with telescopic imaging—maybe they have FTL travel, but no space telescopes.

Or it could be a Tomato Surprise kind of thing, whereby the humans are literally depicted as alien monsters, because that's how the protagonist (an alien) sees them, and it's only at the end that it's revealed to the player that it was Earth All Along.

Weapons: For-real weapons should be a rare treat. Improvised weapons, like a piece of wood or a jagged piece of metal, should be a feature. However, the things trying to kill you (or worse) may not even care that you're armed, either with a firearm or a piece of lead pipe. Some might go down. Most won't. Either there's too many, or it's too big or fast, or the injuries you sustain mean that your death merely comes quicker, even if you defeated that particular threat.

I was thinking Goddamn Bats might more effective than super-tough enemies. That is, enemies are weak, but numerous. You would see one on its own and think nothing of killing it, but the noise it makes or the smell of its blood once it's dead attracts more of the same, and then their cries will attract even more, and so forth. The player would be quickly overwhelmed and, given the scarcity or ineffectiveness of weapons, forced to run.

And then, once the player is used to fighting the Goddamn Bats, the game sends in a VERY large and tough enemy, forcing them to readjust their strategy. Defying the player's expectations and preventing them from "getting used" to the horror should be a central part of a survival horror game. This wasn't really possible earlier, when technology would only allow for so many environments, a limited number of enemies, etc., but there's so much more we can do now with video games.

How about randomized enemies and/or maps? With a large enough pool of parts for the game to build from, the game could have an endless amount of different enemies and maps—though odd randomizations might be narmy.

Running should be implemented in EVERY survival horror game... The player should never be forced to fight. Being able to run from boss battles would be an interesting feature... Maybe defeating the boss requires the player to learn its weakness or find a special item, and rather than not letting you fight the boss until you're prepared, you can begin the fight anytime, at a severe disadvantage if you so choose.

edited 20th Mar '13 7:54:50 AM by Alma

You need an adult.
EviIPaladin Some Guy Or Something from Middle-Of-Nowhere, NS Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: Noddin' my head like yeah
Some Guy Or Something
#42: Mar 20th 2013 at 12:09:55 PM

[up]Well, the main inspiration for it was Spec Ops The Line. The idea behind it being that the first part of the game where everyone bows to your will is more imaginary than real. In reality, you are just another soldier who dreams of being some big war hero. The sarcastic teammates? Tired of you telling them how great you are. The read-outs not matching up? Just your misunderstanding of how the gun works. The aliens being stronger? They are tough fuckers, much to your character's surprise but not to your allies who have been fighting a while.

Adding to this, the aliens' homebase has a relic within the barracks that charges their weapons... But has the unfortunate side-effect of distorting reality to the weak minded. The aliens have mostly adapted to this although there are brief moments when you can exploit their weakness. Of course, due to the... questionable intelligence of the protag, you are getting Mind Screwed far more than they are. This is seen in the whole situation of the rebellious aliens and your knowledge of the landscape.

The obvious end goal of the game is to escape the city but with that comes the knowledge that your protag will likely be forever changed due to the exposure to the relic and will in all likelihood manifest this in the form of being mentally shattered for the rest of his days.

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val
Eventua from The Thirty One Worlds Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
#43: Mar 21st 2013 at 6:00:30 AM

So, I just heard about a game called 'Pulse', which has some survival horror aspects. Basically, you run around and the protagonist is blind, but uses echolocation - anything that makes noise (footsteps, adorable critters, hitting walls etc.) creates sound waves that allows you to create a mental image of the landscape.

At first I was like, "I had a really similar idea just a few days ago!" and was kind of sad, then I thought "Actually, not only was my idea fairly different in the details, why am I angry about this? Unlike my ideas, which due to my lack of skills and patience means they'll probably never exist, this is a thing they're *actually trying to do*, and it *looks awesome*!"

Link to Pulse: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teampixelpi/pulse-reveal-the-world-through-sound

My idea was similar, but different. You play as a blind alien creature, who instead of reconstructing the world based on xyr (protagonist is hermaphroditic/inter-sex) memories, instead has the inherent ability to use echolocation. This results in the environment being entirely monochrome, for example, and because of a memory based around it, means that mental images stay in place (rather than fading quickly)...

...except, well, they don't update. If you 'bark' to get a detailed image of the area in a cone, then it doesn't update, even if there's a monster moving directly over that area.

You also make use of scent to help pick out specific things (that would either look to the play like wispy strands of colour, or else tiny floating 'shapes' connected to what look like gas vents). The thing is, some of the monsters chasing you are ethereal, or silent, or scentless, meaning you get no warning they're there.

What else... oh, yeah! The game has some other survival aspects. You have hunger, thirst and stamina metres, as well as a 'waste' metre. Due to how the alien in question keeps itself cool, cleans xyr body of poisons and relieves xyrself of waste, you have to routinely spew a sort of noxious green slime that attracts the attention of monsters (though can also be a useful deterrent if you time it right, and is thus your only form of defense).

LASTLY

Lastly, I really like that idea of the text adventure where the image shown doesn't match up with the monster. That... that's genius, man. Or woman, um, yes. o_O;

Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#44: Mar 21st 2013 at 7:16:47 PM

[up] That is an awesome idea.

You could have sound be the monochrome outlines and scent be colour, maybe?

Also, wouldn't you be able to get 'updates' from things in the environment that make noises? Monster footfalls, loudspeakers, &c? (I'm imagining setting traps and detectors as being integral to the gameplay now. I don't know if that was part of your original idea though...)

edited 21st Mar '13 7:17:01 PM by Noaqiyeum

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
Alma The Harbinger of Strange from Coruscant Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
The Harbinger of Strange
#45: Mar 22nd 2013 at 10:38:46 AM

Hm... While I really love that idea, I'm thinking using survival mechanics (food, rest, etc. meters) might make it too hard. Navigating with scent or echolocation is already a new and revolutionary idea, one that will take getting used to. Punishing the player for not remembering that their character has to eat as well is kinda cruel.

You need an adult.
Eventua from The Thirty One Worlds Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
#46: Mar 22nd 2013 at 12:28:44 PM

There would probably be actual gauges for the survival aspects, methinks.

As for the updates, there might be some aspect of that (kind of like what Pulse currently does, but probably blurrier and shorter lived/less effective range? Maybe? Definitely monochrome, at least), and definitely aspects of setting traps.

Ultimately, there would be a big focus on balancing how clear your view of the world is (based on how much noise there is and how many scents there are) versus how much information there is to attract monsters.

And I'm unsure about making scent 'coloured' since part of the fun of it would be the total absence of colour (and would make the game more colour-blind friendly, I think? Too few games have a colourblind option as it is).

Perhaps, hmm...

Alma The Harbinger of Strange from Coruscant Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
The Harbinger of Strange
#47: Mar 22nd 2013 at 2:46:21 PM

Pulse has potential, and I'm going to donate to the Kickstarter. I really want this game to succeed... And I just can't say no to that cute little guy.

The environments are a little hard to navigate when they get "busy" due to lots of sound sources causing many overlapping semitransparent surfaces, but I definitely like the idea.

I haven't actually finished the demo... Or the "beta", as it were. I got to a part where I seemed to be in a small enclosure in a large room which the monster couldn't fit into, and there was a diagram on the wall, seemingly an instruction on how to proceed, but I wasn't sure what it meant. I will tackle it again later.

Edit: Awwwwwww, fuck. No Paypal options for Kickstarter. BUT I WANT A MOKO PLUSHIE.

edited 22nd Mar '13 4:27:10 PM by Alma

You need an adult.
TAPETRVE from The city of Vlurxtrznbnaxl Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: She's holding a very large knife
#48: Mar 22nd 2013 at 3:27:09 PM

Funny, I had an idea similar to the concept behind Pulse for a System Shock clone. If you max your psionic skills, you would end up clairvoyant, but otherwise completely blind, similar to the protagonist from the Roger Corman flick X! The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. So you would basically perceive your surroundings only as a mix of shapes and colours and in order to get a clear picture, you'd have to use other peoples' eyes by possessing them.

edited 22nd Mar '13 3:27:25 PM by TAPETRVE

Fear the cinnamon sugar swirl. By the Gods, fear it, Laurence.
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#49: Apr 1st 2013 at 4:48:42 PM

An idea I've had bouncing around my head for a while, combining Survival Horror with Puzzle Adventure.

It's an Escape from the Crazy Place story. Little or no exposition or background is provided; your character is left open for sort-of role-playing. (I use the setting as a writing exercise, to explore characters and get to know them better based on what they think and do.) Your guide - whom I will call 'Help' - is faceless, voiceless, and nameless, communicating with you through text and diagrams displayed on television screens scattered around the facility. Help makes itself out to be the director here, but won't elaborate on where 'here' is, claims not to know why or how you arrived, and doesn't seem to have a lot of direct control, though it promises to help you get out as best as it can. Help is telling the truth.

In some parts of the facility there are also invisible messages written on the walls. It's ambiguous whether these messages are from Help or from someone else, but they are helpful as well.

The only real tool you have at your disposal is Ink. You can paint surfaces with it, using a sort of oversized brush pen with limited reach. Each of the nine colours has a different function; you can carry a supply with you that is functionally limitless, but you can only carry a certain number of colours at once.

  • White - Erases all colours of ink.
  • Gold - Invisible in the light but glows faintly in the dark, bright enough to see shapes and silhouettes but not enough to set off anything light-sensitive.
  • Violet - Glows faintly in the light and the dark, revealing things that are invisible.
  • Red - Metallic, attracted to magnets? (Haven't worked out yet.)
  • Green - Absorbs and softens noise? (Haven't worked out yet.)
  • Blue - Slick and icy. (Not in a temperature way... I think.)
  • Orange - Sticky. Makes walking slower, but allows walls to be climbed.
  • Silver - Conducts heat and electricity, and reflects light.
  • Black - Shields the effects of anything which it is painted over, but does not erase it.

Environmental tools, hazards, &c:

  • Alluvium - Alluvium structures change shape or position when exposed to heat.
  • Electromagnets - Attract or repel metal objects.
  • Inkwells/Inkfonts - Sources of different colours of Ink.
  • Lamps - Provide light. Obviously.
  • Outlets - Provides power to anything they're connected to. (For gameplay simplicity, circuits are not required.)
  • Quicksilver - A dense fluid that solidifies when a current is passed through it.
  • Screens - Display messages from Help.
  • Shadowplastic - Shadowplastic becomes intangible when light doesn't shine on it.
  • Speakers - They only play white noise, sometimes accompanied by eerie screeches or modem sounds or indiscernible voices muttering in the background. However, when turned on they attract freaks that respond to sound.
  • Switches - What kind of puzzle game doesn't have switches?
    • Handswitches - Trigger when flipped by the player.
    • Photogates - Trigger when light shines on them.
    • Pressure pads - Trigger when something weighs them down.
  • Thermoplates - Act as a source of heat.
(I kind of want to involve amber and jade, too. Not sure how.)

Enemies take their inspiration from the Red Freaks of The Bright In The Screen, mixed with Silent Hill. Each has a unique pattern of behaviour that reacts to the player's actions, presenting hazards and sometimes advantages as you explore the facility. Nothing you can carry will deal with any of them permanently, making it necessary to deal with them using each other or the environment or else simply avoiding them.

  • Caprice: A large, winged cricket with human arms and legs and an extremely gleeful anthropomorphic face. It lunges toward the nearest source of light with single-minded determination, emitting a shrill, whistling squeal as it does so; when it reaches its goal, it stops for a few moments, then promptly sees the next brightest light and leaps away again, constantly darting back and forth between them. Anything in its way is trampled.
  • Carpet Monkey: A doll- or baby-like figure with a tail and no legs, and a few simple facial expressions.
    • Ordinarily it sits in a single place, crying desperately as if scared and in need of help. When approached, its cries become more lonely and plaintive, as if to say 'I see you, please don't leave me here'; and, if you pick it up, it clings to you and begins to giggle and babble happily. However, other freaks hear its cries and tend to move towards it in accordance with their own patterns - all three sounds are equally attractive - and when they find it they kill it (and presumably eat it).
    • Its cries range in a spectrum from happy to frantic, depending on proximity to both the player and to other freaks, so it can be used as a freak detector when you are carrying it.
  • Clutterbug/Clutterfly: A hulking insect that flutters through the air, its wings emitting a constant drone. It hunts for anything that catches its attention, then swoops down and carries it back to its nest, biting to death any intruders it finds there (even live creatures it had previously collected).
  • Dada: A bedsheet ghost, translucent but blurry. Two glowing spheres float in the 'head' and resemble eyes; anything else is too vague to make out. From beneath the sheet protrude two stubby legs that don't seem to support it as much as simply push it along as it floats about, and an assortment of jellyfish-like tendrils that drag and writhe along the ground.
    • It feeds on ink, always moving toward the nearest source, and erasing/licking it up as it passes. (It drifts up walls and along the ceiling to follow ink trails, always orienting itself with its base to the nearest surface.)
  • Fraideycat: A shadowy, angular black beast. In the darkness, it wails timidly and runs away, always seeking to hide as far from the player as it can so long as it remains in the shadows. If forced into the light, however, its behaviour reverses, and it snarls and rapidly sprints toward the player and attacks. (If it happens to pass through shadow again on the way, of course, it promptly hides in it.)
  • Junkie: A wiry, crystalline humanoid that mopes listlessly about, or staggers toward the nearest source of electricity if there is one, clawing in frustration at anything that gets in its way. When electrified, it is paralysed and dangerous to touch, and prevents anything further away from receiving power.
  • Wallflower: A cluster of floral vines that crawls slowly along the walls, moving towards heat and away from noise. It is very ignorable, save for the fact that it is sensitive to the presence of the player and other freaks, and promptly curls up and covers itself in a shell of spikes for whatever is disturbing it to impale itself on.
  • Others...?

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tsstevens Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did from Reading tropes such as Righting Great Wrongs Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: She's holding a very large knife
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
#50: Apr 4th 2013 at 4:40:59 PM

I have a killer idea for a survival horror game: Saw using the Kinect.

Just imagine it, instead of using the controller to disarm the reverse bear trap on the protagonist you are the protagonist and have to do what it takes yourself. And if you fail, it's your image on the screen that cops it.

Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours

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