Hallucinations?
by Gareth Hewes · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 04/28/2006 (12:07 am) · 22 replies
Okay, this is all theoretical, but survival horror fan as I am, I just had to throw it out there.
In a multiplayer (LAN or small-team based online) game, one technique I was thinking of as I was sitting, staring at the peeling veneer on my bench at work, was that an excellent way to really infuse a game with creepiness, is to simulate hallucinations/altered reality. In single player, this has been done quite a bit in such games as Call of Cthulhu, but when expanding to teams, then you can make the effect more subtle, and more importantly, personalized. By which I mean that if you wanted a player to see something, then you could have the network send a command to make it visible to him/her, but noone else. Then, when they're going "what was that?", then everyone else will be like, "what are you talking about?".
That is, if TGE has networking capabilities like that. Which is mainly why I bring it to you guys. I wouldn't imagine it would be impossible to do something like that, since the server is responsible for sending individualized commands to the client, right? Admittedly, network gaming is still new for me, but if I can implement something along those lines, then that would be the first step.
But to elaborate too much would be giving too much away. And I understand this isn't a technical forum, so a yes, it can be done would be enough, unless you wanted to elaborate on theory rather than techniques.
And also, as a sidenote, what scares you? I know just asking around is a very simplistic method, but often a very good way to find the archetypal fears prevalent in society. Whew, what a mouthful.
In a multiplayer (LAN or small-team based online) game, one technique I was thinking of as I was sitting, staring at the peeling veneer on my bench at work, was that an excellent way to really infuse a game with creepiness, is to simulate hallucinations/altered reality. In single player, this has been done quite a bit in such games as Call of Cthulhu, but when expanding to teams, then you can make the effect more subtle, and more importantly, personalized. By which I mean that if you wanted a player to see something, then you could have the network send a command to make it visible to him/her, but noone else. Then, when they're going "what was that?", then everyone else will be like, "what are you talking about?".
That is, if TGE has networking capabilities like that. Which is mainly why I bring it to you guys. I wouldn't imagine it would be impossible to do something like that, since the server is responsible for sending individualized commands to the client, right? Admittedly, network gaming is still new for me, but if I can implement something along those lines, then that would be the first step.
But to elaborate too much would be giving too much away. And I understand this isn't a technical forum, so a yes, it can be done would be enough, unless you wanted to elaborate on theory rather than techniques.
And also, as a sidenote, what scares you? I know just asking around is a very simplistic method, but often a very good way to find the archetypal fears prevalent in society. Whew, what a mouthful.
#22
07/31/2006 (4:34 pm)
Check out the opening parts of Silent Hill - babies crying, air raid sirens, blood and slow moving dead people... very freaky. Also the music and sounds contribute to about 80% of the scariness / freakiness - I remember playing it, in broad daylight, on a Saturday arvo once, and still getting a chill down my spine. 
Alec Petros