By: Aaron Berstein
BLUE BELL, PA--Last week, eight out of twenty Montgomery County Community College (Montco) students are scared of horror survival games. Immersion puts them into the character’s shoes and throws them into a story of constant uneasiness that game designers do to purposely scare the player. “A player fully immersed in a survival horror game is not safe on their own sofa; they are engrossed in the environment. The sights and sounds in an immersive game trigger actual reactions from the player” says Mark Black, a Game Design student at Montco.
The only way to immerse the player into the game is by using the story, music and environment. For example, Slender has the right atmosphere to make the player feel uneasy at all times. A misty forested region, a long armed, suited man without a face chases you and ultimately murders you. “I had to close the game my first time I had a jump scare” says Myles, a Computer Science major at Montco. Another example can be found in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, where the character is constantly running from monsters and trying to solve a large mystery hidden in his past that he forced himself to forget. “Amnesia was tense. The ‘water monster’ was heart pounding. I’m not sure if it was ‘scary’ because of the invisible monster or because it was hard… or both…” says Matt Murray, a Communications student at Montco.
Immersion can be as simple as giving paranoia to the player or having scary things jump out and start chasing them. Outlast had a great example of this throughout, with disfigured mentally instable people chasing you, simply to kill you because you’re an outsider. “Dark scene, big mutant creatures started running at me at ungodly speeds. I stopped playing right then” says Jeremy Rossi, an Engineering major at Montco.
The only way to immerse the player into the game is by using the story, music and environment. For example, Slender has the right atmosphere to make the player feel uneasy at all times. A misty forested region, a long armed, suited man without a face chases you and ultimately murders you. “I had to close the game my first time I had a jump scare” says Myles, a Computer Science major at Montco. Another example can be found in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, where the character is constantly running from monsters and trying to solve a large mystery hidden in his past that he forced himself to forget. “Amnesia was tense. The ‘water monster’ was heart pounding. I’m not sure if it was ‘scary’ because of the invisible monster or because it was hard… or both…” says Matt Murray, a Communications student at Montco.
Immersion can be as simple as giving paranoia to the player or having scary things jump out and start chasing them. Outlast had a great example of this throughout, with disfigured mentally instable people chasing you, simply to kill you because you’re an outsider. “Dark scene, big mutant creatures started running at me at ungodly speeds. I stopped playing right then” says Jeremy Rossi, an Engineering major at Montco.
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