EarthQuake

If you play on Peaceful it's not an issue as the meter doesn't decrease. With NPC villages and abandoned mines generated fairly often, you have a good supply of wheat and bread anyway, plus there's always animals to harvest.

I think the game idea is very good. Will it support co-op play?

deathz0r said:

I actually had an idea brewing in my head back in 2007 that involved "randomly" generated dungeons, which was basically having a bunch of 96x96 square sectors and scripts that created seeded rooms by lowering ceilings/raising walls to create walls. I would love to see this happen

I think someone did this very thing at the ZDoom forums. I remember it using fog to good effect, too.

EarthQuake said:

- Emphasis on authentic horror.

I'm interested in how your approach to this is going to be. This probably isn't what you have in mind, but my favorite way to induce fear is to strategically manipulate the visuals and behavior of the game as the player is becoming comfortable with it. This maybe just a nostalgia thing, but the last game I played where I actually felt a bit legitimately frightened, (as in by the suspenseful atmosphere and not startled by pop-scares,) was a Wolfenstein 3D mod called Coming of the Storm.

I was so accustomed to the game's bright and colorful atmosphere. It wasn't until halfway through the game that I entered a portal that put me in a maze made out of human skulls. The OPL emulated music was eerie as hell and there were pools of blood and dead nazis and hanging victims everywhere, with the emptiness of the level being interrupted by low definition ghosts wailing and popping out around corners sucking my life away. Later levels featured dark caves and castles with with stained glass and evil cultists practicing black magic. It was significantly more disturbing than the entire Wolfenstein 3D experience was by itself.

The last wad that genuinely scared me was Spire Complex. It's a simple E1 themed Doom wad with a very minor change. The Hell Baron was made to walk much faster. When I approached the Hell Baron I was pretty calm as usual; anticipating a very easy fight. But when I had trouble escaping it's reach I was very confused and frightened at how quickly I was getting thrashed to death. After it killed me the first time I almost wanted to turn the game off and walk away. The problem with the horror elements in video games is that they rarely interfere with your comfort zones. If your gameplay is stable and makes sense expect players to be perfectly understanding and comfortable when they die. Not scared.