Most of what I've seen in the line of horror games is limited to ghosts, zombies, and demons. You'll get the occasional other horror type, but I haven't seen anyone try to do something based on Cthulhu Mythos. Is there much you can do here?

Also, what about psychological horror (i.e. the hero slowly going insane)?

Insanity has potential. You could go from having glimpses of rooms in one state suddenly changed when you return. You kill a bunch of monsters easily, and when you come back, they are normal people. You see a statue start talking to you. Your earnest companion? Completely in your head.

It would take some doing to pull off convincingly - mostly because you need subtle hints there, but nothing too blatant or you'll spoil the reveal. Plus, go overboard and it'll feel forced.


The cosmic horror / Cthulhu mythos I'm not so well versed in. I'd imagine you could do it if you wanted, but it would again need a real understanding of how these things work. I do know of a couple of games that have tackled it - Call of Cthulhu Dark Horrors of the Earth was one, and Fallout 3 has the quests associated with the Dunwich building which toys with the ideas.


There's potential for any kind of story and any kind of game, though it does take a lot of effort to bring out that potential and create something worthwhile. It's down to imagination, creativity and effort, and your ability to realise your ideas.

Honestly, I think horror is almost never done well in RM just because the 2D top-down format doesn't play well to it. You really need the claustrophobia of first person for it to work, imo. That said, a more psychological kind of horror could be better, but I wouldn't use the RTP because it's just not scary.

As far as Lovecraftian stuff goes, you have to remember that there are two things that are scary about Lovecraft: 1. the idea that we're just insignificant specks at the mercy of cruel alien powers and there's nothing we can do about it, and 2. the unknown. If you ever show sprites of the horrible alien creatures, or have the ability to kill them, they'll stop being scary. Honestly, I have a hard time seeing it work in RM, but I guess you could try it!

Ergo, you'd pretty much be demanded to have either an unkillable final boss, or an overlord ruling things that you never actually get to fight. Dark endings are a must too, especially if no matter what you do, you can't really thwart Yog Sothoth's plans, because it eats the universe anyway.

It would have to be dragged out through the course of the plot alot to really freak people out. That, or you could make it a semi-serious affair just for effect. But this would kinda defeat the horror tone, and you'd probably end up having said creature as a side-character. And unless you wanted a complete comedy, there should at least be special conditions for defeat on its part, and it should be clear that "it's only banished, not gone for good."

It's a difficult thing, getting horror to work in RM, regardless of what kind of horror you're going for. Zombie slaughter or slasher inspired games are sometimes successful, but they're not really horror IMO. As Perihelion said, the top down view doesn't allow for many scares in terms of gameplay/exploration, unless you count a few jumps here and there [which are more difficult to pull of than you'd think].

This is something I've been struggling with when it comes to my project, HEX. It has the jumps and the scares and the creepy atmosphere [hopefully, anyhow]. But it's difficult to create a true horror feel while you have enemies that can be defeated. I toyed with the idea of un-killable enemies that you simply have to avoid or debilitate long enough to escape, but ultimately... you're making a game, and it has to be an enjoyable experience. Running away from fights all the time and not really getting any sense of progression isn't a lot of fun.

Lovecraft... well, I'm not sure it could work. At least not well. It's really difficult because if you're creating something Lovecraft inspired, it's probably going to be fairly obvious from the get go, and IMO, from that point on, I'd just be expecting there to be no way to "win". I don't really want to spend 8+ hours playing a game that gets increasingly more depressing, with no hope of getting better.

Thinking of horror experiences I've most enjoyed, they all seem to feature the same basic principle of any other kind of story-telling; a well-rounded, relatable protagonist facing challenges. In terms of horror, these challenges are often life-threatening, and a cast of just as well-rounded but ultimately disposable characters certainly helps to show the consequences of failing to overcome them. You just need someone who people like, and then, do whatever you want to them. If people like the character, they'll care. If that character's life is in danger, they'll be frightened for them.

I don't know. I think I'm just rambling at this point. But my point is, it's hard enough to tell an interesting, original story [and also, one where the twists and turns are neither obvious, nor nonsensical] without trying to then write a story around a style as distinct and rigid as Lovecraft. Ultimately we all know how it's going to end and we know we're probably not going to have a great time getting there.

Zombies, ghosts and demons are perhaps overused [probably for a good reason, people find them entertaining!], but hey, there's still plenty of things you can do with them that hasn't been explored [at least in the world of videogames] and ultimately it's how you tell a story that really sells it.

But that's just my opinion.

horror is never done properly nowadays its always about that scary pop up factor that is constantly being used in Hollywood and in video games.
like really deadspace( i think this franchise can offer lots of potential if done right though) RE5(what happened to you resident evil!) and paranormal activity can be hardly considered as horror and even if they do have its usually for a really short while

maybe we can extend what was done on chrono cross when chrono becomes possessed by evil and we can do something similar to it. i also think creating disturbing bosses(ie mother 2/earthbounds Giygas - what were they thinking in making the boss into a fetus!)

i think we can try to achieve creeping people out but because of the sprites we cant guarantee it's affect(and it may not be realistic enough to call horror?)

To sum it all up i think people have really lost their imagination to cope with horror and expect it to be like the texts which i mentioned in the intro

and i loooove Lovecraft! he is amazing(as well as edgar allen poe)

Hmmm. This is how I'd do something like this (I'd never actually read Lovecraft, just experienced it secondhand, so I watched Call of Cthulhu silent film last night to get a better feel).

To make zombies and the like closer to true horror, here's what I'd start with. Rework your battle system, flattening AGI to something like 150 from the normal progressing (yep, from 1 to 99). Make all enemies have AGI between 75 and 150, with most being about 100. Why? Because agility besides controlling turn progression, controls ability to dodge enemies and magical defense. You don't want any of these to increase over the course of the game. (The exception of course is your Elder Gods, which have upwards of 300, but we'll get to them later) Now change all attacks to skills named stuff like punch, kick, throw chair, etc. Make them Normal skills, with no MP cost, and attack rather than intelligence influence. Now raise each monster's strength (alternatively, you can have monsters continue to damage you throughout the game regardless of your level, simply by checkboxing Ignore Defense). You'll also want these creatures to be extremely resistant to physical attacks (change all weapons having one of the first four attributes, which should be Magic rather than Weapon, and read Bashing/Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing, Ranged), compared with rats and spiders, if not outright immune in the case of ghosts. It should end up being a very different feel than what you're used to with grind-based battles, since HP will suddenly become way more important than Defense (which is basically being ignored). Give them the traditional weaknesses, but also make them difficult to kill otherwise. Basically, a horror game starts with mechanics, and relies heavily on equips having elemental defense for even partial protection. One-hit killed on a regular basis isn't scary (I've seen some games do this), but neither is getting stronger to the point where attacks don't hurt you.

As for Lovecraft horror being obvious, it doesn't need to be, until the very end. Set up a nice mood, perhaps making the one who animated all of these critters an insane cultist. After you defeat the final boss, you feel a brief sense of accomplishment, until the door behind the cultist suddenly opens... You enter a room with weird, alien architecture and get an increasing sense of dread, if you don't know the books from uncertainty of what's coming next, and if you are aware, from dawning comprehension of what's coming. At this point, you don't even get in a battle, or if you do, it's completely one-sided in the enemy's favor, probably killing you in one move where the other enemies gave you a fighting chance at least. Then you get either driven insane or killed. (I'd take some surreal art online, and use Irfanview to convert it to a 256 color bmp then save as a 320 x 240 PNG, and flash a couple of these in succession to give a sense of something going on onscreen that can't be described) Basically, you'd need the end result to be that the characters were "doomed all along." But yea, I definitely agree you'd probably want good character development to make it all the more horrifying (for that matter, "bad" character development is often a component in horror, having those with exposed character flaws the first to go).

While it sounds like you're a lot more interested in the Cthulu route, I think the whole psychological thing has a stronger root.
Consider the history of cinema (and are games really all that different to an interactive film?). We are way past the days of Nosferatu and Frankenstein. The furthest a film will go in this direction is the gore route simple because the boogieman just doesn't scare a modern audience.
So why does the dark? Because it's potential is limited only by our imagination, and of course that's boundless.
I guess what I'm getting at is contemporary horror is deliberately vague rather than having some avatar such as Frankenstein's monster, and this works well with psychological horror because the player can read as deeply into it as they want. And, of course, anyone who chooses a horror game wants to be scared

I'll go with the idea of Sol Fury..
Sometimes a horror isnt all about zombies, ghosts, and others, insanity(like you said) might be one that people seems to forgot.
this reminds me of Dr. Frankestein in Soul Eater animes. He is the teacher, the good-boy, the most powerful and the best ally you can rely on. But his insanity turns him into a badass, insane-killing machine dude..
Its great if you can make ones like that