Jump Scares and Atmosphere: The Needs of these Conventions in Horror Games

     Many horror games have gained a lot of notoriety in the past few years, and for good reason. They are mostly good and, as horror games should be, scary. A non-scary horror game is as useless as sand is in a desert. What makes a proper horror game good are a few game conventions, the two I will focus on now are jump scares and atmosphere. Jump scares are scares based off of sudden reaction. Slender is a great example of this. The scares of that game are completely jump scares. Now, there are some other elements in that game, but that will be explained later. Jump scares are normally good, as they quickly jolt the player into a game, but a developer cannot solely rely on these to make a great horror game. That is one of Slender's main problems. It can bring the audience in, but it can't hold the audience at all. This is where atmosphere comes in. Great atmosphere is made by music, color tone, and the player never feeling like they have any control of the situation. One of the best games that describes amazing atmosphere is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. This game can get anyone on edge because of how the player never feels safe. That is one reason why the game did so well with ratings. It is just that good with the atmosphere. If you want to make some great atmosphere, it doesn't have to be big. If the player runs through a corridor that is lit up with light, one great way to make atmosphere is to make him go back through that corridor, but to have all the lights off. Simple things like this separate good horror games from great horror games. Now, the best horror game combines both of these traits together. The best example of this that I know of is the game Cry of Fear. This game absolutely demonstrates how to do this. It doesn't have good graphics, but right from the beginning the game jump scares you into the atmosphere, and this doesn't let up until the end. If you wanted a great horror game, get this one. It is worth it, all because of those two mechanics being used in the right way.