Until Dawn
I’ve started my research with games that are similar to my idea. The first one that came to my mind was Until Dawn from 2015 where choices of the player decide on the fate of eight friends who decided to spend time together at a lodge on Blackwood Mountain where a tragedy occurred a year prior. The mechanics used in the game such as world exploration and quick time events together with the rich storyline and butterfly effect make the player really feel the pressure of danger lurking over the characters and contribute to the overall immersion in the game. As the story progresses, the player learns about the tragic events that have happened at that place and explores the psychological breakdown of the characters. It dives into the influence of past actions on current behaviour and uncovers the truth about the antagonist’s mental state.
The choices player has to make in the game are morally difficult and it is also an element I would somehow like to include in my game but it still needs more thinking through.
Outlast
This first-person psychological horror game from 2013 tells a story of a journalist Miles Upshur who decides to investigate a remote psychiatric hospital located in the mountains of Lake County in Colorado. The game makes use of a lot of stealth-based mechanics such as hiding in lockers, sneaking past enemies, staying in shadows or hiding behind/under things to survive. It is also possible to outrun the pursuer, however, there is no option to attack him.
While researching information linked to Outlast I’ve stumbled upon Emma Catharine Fennell’s article in which she criticizes the game from a psychology major’s point of view – she explains the depiction of mental health hospitals and its patients in the game is very stereotypical and presents them as crazed, unhinged and neglected, as a result deepening the stigma around mental illnesses.
Reading the article made me stop and think again about the potential high difficulty of designing a horror game revolving around psychological issues without casting any more stigma on them. From the beginning, the aim of my horror game concept was to deepen understanding on how different human minds work, but now I will also remember to pay extra attention not to unintentionally achieve an adverse effect, adding on to the stereotypical depiction of mental illnesses.
Emma Catharine Fennell’s article: https://worldsofwordcraft.wordpress.com/tag/outlast/
