Supermassive Games is well known for pumping out incredible narrative-driven horror games. Until Dawn, The Quarry, and the ongoing collection of horror games called The Dark Pictures Anthology, all come to mind when you think of games that draw you in with dire choices and just the right amount of tension and jump scares. Recently at Develop:Brighton 2022, the creative director behind The Dark Pictures Anthology, Will Doyle, gave his top three tips for creating narrative-driven horror stories that really resonate with audiences.
In his talk titled, “The Dark Pictures Anthology: Crafting Interactive Narrative Games,” Will lays the groundwork first: create consequences. In all of the aforementioned games, all of the characters are playable, and the world is largely open to explore. “In a way, you’re playing as a director rather than a character in the story,” Doyle said. “It offers a lot of freedom — if you don’t like one of the characters, you can just kill them.” But there need to be moments of choice that have direct consequences for that character as well as the overarching story.
When it comes to crafting those consequences, Doyle listed is three guiding “rules:” fairness, drama, and agency.
A choice should be fair, but not obvious. Players should be able to hesitate, reasoning out which choice to pick. Any choice that may be fatal to the storyline should be foreshadowed in some way, so that the player isn’t blindly choosing wrong. This creates more investment and trust in the interactive portion of the game.
A choice should have some element of drama to it. By this, he means to make the choices compelling and to create dramatic pacing in the story. While some choices can be small and aimed for character development, others should be some life-or-death.
Finally, a choice should give the player agency in the game. When a choice is made, the consequences should be immediate and impactful. This assures the players that they are directly impacting the storyline, rather than making small cosmetic choices that don’t change the course of the narrative.
Will concluded with his thoughts on horror in general:
“Horror games are about building, and then breaking suspense, so let your audiences know when they should be scared. The protagonist is a vessel for the viewer. You live through them on the screen in some way, so try to engineer moments where they’re experiencing real fear.”
Will Doyle, Develop:Brighton 2022
Why does this all feel easier said than done? However it works, here’s to more amazing horror games from Supermassive Games in the future!
