Visual Horror and Lighting (Part 1)

I'm a big fan of the horror genre, and after playing Alan Wake 2, I felt compelled to write a brief analysis on the topic of effective techniques used by developers to scare players (from the perspective of a lighting artist).

Unfortunately, when it comes to horror, there's relatively little information available from a content creation standpoint. Most of what's found in books and on the internet consists of the genre's history, plot summaries, lore analysis, or various essays on horror subgenres (analog horror, found footage, etc.). While all of this contributes to the narrative and context of the horror phenomenon, it barely touches on the technical (from the greek “techne”), practical aspects.

So, I'd like to share my personal observations accumulated from playing and watching dozens of titles in the horror genre.

The principle that unites many visual solutions is something that we can call partial sensory deprivation. Take away part of the player's perception - and it will stimulate their imagination:

 † The Famous fog from Silent Hill.

 † Any game where players are forced to go through the darkness with a flashlight or lamp.

 † Games where you are underwater (turbidity of water).

All of these techniques involve limiting the player's range or angle of view. It also helps to make jumpscares more sudden: The player wanders around with a flashlight in a room until he notices... just a pile of clothes on a chair....Or is it?

Tricking the player's imagination is also a good tool to use in combination with the limited visibility. Various details and everyday objects can be arranged in such a way that the player's brain perceives faces or frightening silhouettes: clothes on a chair in a dark corner, tree branches, paint stains, shadows... Proper placement of all these elements can make the player startle from fear.

But is it just about limited distance of view?

For the same purposes, we can also:

 † Create the lack of volume, depth of space, absence of easily readable details and forms makes the player nervous (see Liminal Spaces).

 † Allow the player to see the surrounding space only for a certain amount of time (for example, when the player uses a camera flash, a dying flashlight, a sonar emitting a sound wave).

In one way or another, limiting the player's sensory perception is a shortcut to of his imagination. Especially when the player is anticipating a jumpscare (i.e., he is in the context of the game).

To sum up, the manipulation of player's sensory perception is a key for creating suspenseful visual experience. By controlling what players can see or understand within the game environment, developers are able to stimulate the imagination and the fears of players and to make them anxiously search for the magic clicker. 

#horror #videogames #horrorgame #horrorart #gameart #lighting