Category: Research

Scaring an audience in games in comparison to scaring an audience in films, is a drastic difference. In film, you observe what’s happening to the protagonist as they already have a set destiny to follow, whereas in games, you are the protagonist, therefore you are responsible for what is going to happen to you. However, making a game terrifying can serve as a difficult task. If the game offers too many jump scares, it comes off as cheap and lazy. The trick to making a game scary aren’t the monsters or the main antagonist of the game, but the environment that surrounds the player. Think about it like this: imagine you, as the player is standing in a creepy, desolate motel corridor. How can we make this experience scarier? By turning the lights off? Including a door creak and have that door open slowly? Does the music crescendo?

Environmental story telling

By looking into games like Silent Hill that pioneer environmental story telling, we can get an understanding of what it means to scare the player.

If we look into this image we can analyse and break down what makes this environment feel so other worldly and distant:

The thing that stands out to me the most in this environment is the fog. The fog in Silent Hill has been used to make this town feel more mysterious and strange. It has also been used to confuse the player’s depth perception as well as fear what hides behind the fog as sometimes, the player can mistake silhouettes for something more sinister. The fog offers something that darkness cannot, whereas the lack of light is prevalent during the night, Silent Hill uses this tactic to make the player be scared during the day as well as the night, thus making the player stay in a constant cycle of being paranoid- no matter where they explore.

Artistic direction

Faith uses a very simple artistic direction, yet it works so well, particularly when the developers want the player to feel a sense of peril.

Although the game itself showcases a simplistic aesthetic, the thing that catches my eye the most are the animations and how smooth they look in contrast to the main aesthetic of the game. Sometimes this wouldn’t go hand in hand. However, since this game is a horror game, there is something eerie about the animations being unnaturally smooth- especially when the majority of the game looks like it’s been animated on Flipaclip. So when the animation plays, it appears much more disturbing and like it doesn’t belong in the game.

Create a connection

It’s easy to dissociate the protagonist from yourself if you can’t find them relatable. So when you write a protagonist, make sure the player can relate and sympathise with them. A great example of a protagonist most people can sympathise with is Ethan Winters, from the Resident Evil franchise.

We as the players find it much easier to sympathise with Ethan and his back story as most players can relate to him. The age rating for Resident Evil Village is 18 and above, this means that some players could be parents themselves. It’s also important to make the protagonist and the player feel like they’re on the same boat; an environment that is new to the protagonist should also feel new to the player as well.

How is this relevant to my project?

Looking at effective ways on how to make the player feel uneasy is essential to my project as I see myself looking at the horror genre to make this game. I want to be able to make my player feel a sense of peril as soon as they discover a new environment and know that the place that they’re going to explore is dangerous. Knowing what art direction I want to look into is also important as it can heavily impact the emotional response from the player and set the atmosphere for the game. E.G if I choose to go with a creepy art style the player will be constantly paranoid throughout the game. Lastly creating a connection between the protagonist and the player can serve useful as players can sympathise and develop an attachment to the protagonist, making them think about their actions more thoroughly.

The fourth wall is an imaginary wall that separates the audience from the story 

We have seen it multiple times in media, whether it’s from movies, books or games. But what is it about this technique that makes it so scary every time that it’s used? Breaking the fourth is a dramatic technique used often in media when character’s display an awareness that they are in a work of fiction. By using this technique, it connects the character to the audience on a deeper level. It feels as if you have a deeper relationship with that character than the relationships that they have with the other on set characters because. It’s like looking into a part of their personality that other set character’s cannot look into. 

I will be reading an article by Ken Miyamoto about this technique from a cinematic perspective, taking notes of key points and briefly expanding on them. 

1. Intimacy with the characters 

When the fourth wall is broken and a character steps forward to talk to the audience, it comes off as alarming yet you can feel a connection being made with the audience. When that layer of character peels off it feels like you’re meeting the “real” character. 

2. Information and exposition 

It can also be used to explain complicated terms and difficult information without having the facts watered down too much. This also allows the characters to give some exposition. 

3. To unsettle the audience 

This technique is used more in horror or psychological horror movies; They often stare at the camera for an uncomfortably long period, which creates this uneasy feeling for the audience. It pulls the audience away from the cinematic experience and makes them feel as if the character is staring at them on the other side of a window. 

Daryl Talks Games 

However, what actually makes breaking the fourth wall so terrifying? I am now going to be dissecting why this feeling is weird and unnatural for us and how this tool can be used powerfully. To explore this question, I will be watching a video essay called “Why you get spooked by 4^th wall breaks” by a YouTube channel called Daryl Talks Games, where he goes through the human psychology and why we give such visceral reactions to certain scenarios. 

The channel uses a social experiment under the pretence that it’s a gameshow as a way to investigate anonymity, which was conducted by Derren Brown. In this experiment, there is a room with an audience wearing masks that have been given a device to choose either a good outcome or a bad outcome and Chris; A man who doesn’t know that he’s being recorded for the night. However, the subject of the experiment is not Chris, it is the audience. 

Throughout the night, the audience tries their best to make his night a living nightmare, he gets drinks spilled on him, getting overcharged at the bar and accused of sexually assaulting a woman. From there on, the choices get more and more cruel, but of course, the audience chooses the less favourable outcome for Chris. Here, it becomes easier to tell that the audience does not care about Chris’ feelings or his safety, their intentions are sinister and twisted. All of these decisions were impacted because the audience were wearing masks, figuratively and physically. They were in a remote location away from Chris and do not know this man. These cruel decisions were easy for them to make because it was easy for them to hide themselves away and blend in with part of an audience. When people are anonymous, it’s easier to make them feel less responsible for their actions. 

All of their choices were fine by them until Chris gets kidnapped- an outcome chosen by the audience- and tries to run away from the kidnappers and gets hit by a car, sending him flying. We see the audience gasp in horror and shock, realising that their carelessness had led up to this point. Fortunately for the audience, no one was harmed and they used a stunt double to pre-record the incident and the real Chris was compensated for the night.  

The host then talks about the reason for their decisions being so sinister is due to “deindividualization”. 

When someone is behind a screen, controlling someone else’s actions, you can do whatever you please because it’s not like you’re personally interacting with them, because the avatar/character are just pixels. Much like Chris not knowing that he’s in an experiment, Mario doesn’t know that he’s from a game and part of a multimillionaire franchise. Because of this very reasoning, it’s easy as players to manipulate characters however we want due to us having that mask of anonymity, which makes it more frightening when they finally break that wall. 

Another reason for fourth wall breaks being so terrifying is something called “dual function of gaze”. Our eyes’ main function is to observe and we can also use our gaze to communicate with each other. When someone is near us, we are held accountable for where we choose to look, which is why you’ll rarely feel uncomfortable looking at someone’s Instagram pictures but when being opposite them in real life, you may have difficulty looking at them in the eye. When you’re playing a game, you’re free to look wherever you want on the screen without the fear of being judged. However, when the fourth wall starts to peel off, you’ll start to feel uneased when the character looks directly at you and may want to look away even when no one is really there.  

Yet, fourth wall breaks can more threatening, when the character starts to display too much self-awareness of their situation. Ever wonder why we have monitors recording you in self-services? To answer briefly, this is because when we are aware that we are being recorded, it’ll make shoplifters less likely to steal. This makes sense, because when we are reminded of what we look like to everyone and the whole world, we are also reminded that our actions will be seen. Games, unlike movies have the opportunity to break the fourth wall that films can’t replicate, developers are given the opportunity to reveal something personal of the player. So when Monika from DDLC, calls you by your Steam name, you are reminded that you are being watched, not only that but you are also reminded of all the things you did behind the mask, removing the sense of anonymity. Before as the player, you probably were sitting down comfortably, but now you feel more responsible for your actions. When you play games, you don’t really think that your actions have consequences, but for the characters in the game, their entire world relies on you. Similarly in Undertale when the fourth wall crumbles, you are reminded that your actions matter in their world and the guilt consumes you and when it’s broken, you may even feel exposed for your actions. 

Review a game that breaks the fourth wall 

How can I use this technique to enhance my player’s experience? 

In my game, I want to use 4^th wall breaking as a way to connect the audience to the characters. Although I haven’t thought much about how I am going to utilise this technique in depth, there are still a few ways how I can incorporate this idea.  

One of the ways is by using a horror scene and one of the characters become aware that they are in a game and aware that you are a player controlling an avatar; I can have the character stare at the screen and request the player for their “real name”. Another way I could use this technique is by creating a character that is the “funny character” and have them break the fourth wall, it creates this extra layer of depth and a feeling of unease and unnatural because this character is acting “out of script” and “aren’t supposed to do that”. The other idea I have is the Ring Leader break the fourth wall already but acts as a guide and have him break the fourth wall again but this time in a more unsettling way. E.G the ring leader teaches you how to play the mini games and he admits that he kills one of the NPCs and refers to them as NPCs.