Inverse Psychological Horror Game

[Ninjat_126]

This sort of game would be quite fun. Not scary for you, but still very entertaining.

To possibly make it scary for the player, perhaps have another killer more powerful than you trying to make traps for you and your victims. Or for multiplayer fun, have a team of psychos terrorize a whole builiding of people for points.

That could be the plot: You've convinced yourself you're the only person who can track down this killer. While trying to find him, you end up shooting up a bunch of gang members and get the police involved.

Moral choice comes from who you end up fighting: Killing police is worse than killing gang members, killing civilians is worse than both, torture+murder is worse than killing and live torture/display is worse than even that.

In the end, you can:

1. Turn in the killer and escape unharmed. (Clean Pacifist)
2. Turn the killer in and be arrested for assault (Mostly Pacifist)
3. Turn in the killer, but arrested for murder/mass murder yourself. (Killer)
3b. Be executed at a crime scene by a police officer. (Cop Killer)
4. Kill the killer yourself.
5. Torture and kill the killer spectacularly/brutally.
6. Forget about the killer, go on a rampage yourself.

 

[KingofMadCows]

This could be an interesting system. Fear and paranoia can each have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, fear increases enemy movement speed but decreases accuracy. Paranoia sharpens enemy senses but also gives them delusions and hallucinations, making them more likely to attack or kill their own people.

However, the game would definitely be scarier if you played the victim or one of the victims.

Fear and paranoia would work the same way. Different paranoia levels could triggered events that have the potential to increase paranoia or fear. For example, when paranoia gets up to a certain point, you experience delusions and hallucinations. Of course you don't know if it's a delusion/hallucination but you have the option to investigate it. If it turns out that it was a delusion/hallucination, your paranoia goes up. If it turns out that it wasn't a delusion/hallucination, then your fear goes up if it's something dangerous/scary like blood dripping from a mutilated corpse, but it goes down if it's something innocuous like a branch scratching on a window.

 

[Vern5]

The game should be nightmarishly hard to complete without using some really clever thinking on higher difficulties. Easy should be hard-ish, but Impossible should be exactly what it says on the tin.

The point isn't mindless violence, it's mindful violence with emphasis on psychological warfare, interrogation and stealth.

I think the game would do better if it was one of those "Easy to pick up, Hard to master" type affairs. So you can go through a level and, just being a little careful, carve up everyone like turkey dinner and call it a day. That would be the cheap way out of each level.

On the other hand, you could boost your points per level by actively trying to scare your victims before picking them off and making sure the victims see the results as well. You would need to be some disturbing hybrid of Director and Murderer, applying your own pacing so as to milk as many points as possible from your demoralized prey.

The points could go towards powerups (but that doesn't seem fair) or more levels with special qualities to them.

The point of the game should be horrifying murder with finesse.

 

[Ninjat_126]

The game should be nightmarishly hard to complete without using some really clever thinking on higher difficulties. Easy should be hard-ish, but Impossible should be exactly what it says on the tin.

The point isn't mindless violence, it's mindful violence with emphasis on psychological warfare, interrogation and stealth.

I think the game would do better if it was one of those "Easy to pick up, Hard to master" type affairs. So you can go through a level and, just being a little careful, carve up everyone like turkey dinner and call it a day. That would be the cheap way out of each level.

On the other hand, you could boost your points per level by actively trying to scare your victims before picking them off and making sure the victims see the results as well. You would need to be some disturbing hybrid of Director and Murderer, applying your own pacing so as to milk as many points as possible from your demoralized prey.

The points could go towards powerups (but that doesn't seem fair) or more levels with special qualities to them.

The point of the game should be horrifying murder with finesse.

That would work. Getting a "bad" ending for killing everyone and everything should be easy on the lowest difficulty/realism level. To get a satisfying ending, you need to master the game and score well on a hidden points system.

 

[StBishop]

The idea is simple: kind of a playable slasher film, with you as the killer. The main focus is combining stealth mechanics with brutal displays of violence to psychologically torment as many enemies as possible. Begin speculation!

Enemies have two morale 'bars', one for paranoia and one for straight up fear.

The Paranoia system tracks how nervous and paranoid a single enemy is. Paranoia is increased by subtle displays, like suspicious noises, unexplained bloodstains and disappearing squadmates.

Fear/Horror is increased by displays of violence. Mutilated corpses, bloodstains, screams of agony and similar things will increase this.

These two 'bars' are interlinked, raising one will usually raise the other. However, the proportions in the bars will affect the Sanity Break system. A character with low morale will possibly undergo some sort of sanity break, which can manifest as pretty much anything from shooting themselves to trying to wire an entire building to explode.


Gameplay mechanics are completely focused towards freaking out your enemies and outsmarting them. For example, there is a hotkeyed button specifically for mutilating corpses, an action to write messages in blood, another to pin bodies to walls with nails or their own bones.

Health is realistic. Not the "die in 2 bullets or regenerate" realistic like COD, realistic as in "one bullet and you die or are crippled". Getting shot is not something you're supposed to do. Fortunately, enemy aim degrades under stress, and you can equip body armour and take cover behind objects.

Any sugggestions/improvements/feedback?

PS: If anyone wants to go out and make a freeware game of this, then feel free. If you plan on making money, maybe at least be nice enough to speak to me first.

This sounds like a horrible game, I'd never play it, but I'd never have the option as I live in Australia.

 

[Ninjat_126]

This sounds like a horrible game, I'd never play it, but I'd never have the option as I live in Australia.

Any specific problems? Don't you like the violence, or don't you want the challenge...


I'm expecting a lot of people to have problems with this. Please be specific on what they are.


Also, anyone who knows Jack Thompson's email address, feel free to send him a link to this thread.

 

[XX Y XY]

BRAINSCAN. Watch it

 

[Trolldor]

Sounds dull.

Games like this don't work versing bots/AI.

If you want this to be a hell of a game it's going to have to involve human-controlled 'victims' with the bars affecting their view, aim and proficiency etc.
And there will need to be a corresponding bar for you - say a bloodlust bar, which if it reaches max disables all stealth and forces you out of your hiding spot or something.

 

[KaiRai]

GENIUS!
Make it happen Ninjat! It sounds awesome I like the moral bars idea too.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Sounds dull.

Games like this don't work versing bots/AI.

If you want this to be a hell of a game it's going to have to involve human-controlled 'victims' with the bars affecting their view, aim and proficiency etc.
And there will need to be a corresponding bar for you - say a bloodlust bar, which if it reaches max disables all stealth and forces you out of your hiding spot or something.

The "Bloodlust" bar is already in the design.

But why wouldn't it work against AI? Player controlled enemies wouldn't be scared, they'd just have annoying accuracy detriments placed on them. AI can be quite intelligent with modern technology, and fear would just be more coding.

It's hard to make players really, truly scared of another player, to the point where they will commit real-life suicide simply to escape. The Hidden:Source could be scary, but you were never fearing for your life, only for the virtual life of the player in-game. That won't cut it here.

 

[OutforEC]

Sounds dull.

Games like this don't work versing bots/AI.

If you want this to be a hell of a game it's going to have to involve human-controlled 'victims' with the bars affecting their view, aim and proficiency etc.
And there will need to be a corresponding bar for you - say a bloodlust bar, which if it reaches max disables all stealth and forces you out of your hiding spot or something.

The "Bloodlust" bar is already in the design.

But why wouldn't it work against AI? Player controlled enemies wouldn't be scared, they'd just have annoying accuracy detriments placed on them. AI can be quite intelligent with modern technology, and fear would just be more coding.

It's hard to make players really, truly scared of another player, to the point where they will commit real-life suicide simply to escape. The Hidden:Source could be scary, but you were never fearing for your life, only for the virtual life of the player in-game. That won't cut it here.

Only thing I could come up with off the top was if it was a team-based scenario with the 'goods' vs. the killer, and getting horribly mutilated by the killer resulted in a more severe detriment to the rest of your team, either in the form of harsher handicaps or increased sanity loss (or both). Then suicide would be a strategic option, even if not a visceral one.