How to bring some horror back to DBD
In my opinion, when you make a third person multiplayer horror game, there are 3 main factors- lighting, gore, and sound. Basically all of those things are now gone. Dead by Daylight has crap lighting, next to no gore, and while some things in dbd have good audio cues, most of its pretty bad. Here are some fixes to that.
Gore: This would be the most difficult to make in my opinion. Maybe make a couple extra mori animations so each survivor in a trial could be killed in different ways. But, for more gory systems, add good effects for violence. Holes where hooks tore through, slashes and exposed and shattered bones from basic hits, and freaky wounds from mori. We could even make it that the tip of the weapon follows the crosshairs of the killer when you attack, and if it hits the survivors head its a instant down. This could be turned on or off in settings.
Lighting: Increase the overall darkness of the map, but add either midnight blue moonlight to shine through trees and windows if it is a outdoor map, and if it is a indoor map increase the overall darkness of the map and then add blue lights around the map, hanging from ceiling and such, evenly distributed to provide extreme darkness and still eerie visibility.
Noise: Replace the terror radius with extremely intense music(when in a chase) or eerie, suspenseful music when being watched or around the killer. Add silence when not around the killer or in their terror radius, which when combined with the previously stated darkness would feel absolutely terrifying. In fact, the terror radius might not work until a survivor has been hit by the killer. Also add environment noise. When killers crash into walls or lockers this would make a loud noise.
Other potential options: Add a dodge to replace 360-ing. This would work like dead hard, but could only be done sideways and has a 10 second cooldown. Maybe add "killer lockers"- lockers made of entity spider legs. When looking at a killer locker, you will see the aura of a thread leading towards the closest locker exit to take short cuts and provide jumpscares for survivors.
Comments
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Did you see the graphic update that will be coming soon? Makes it way creepier imo
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Yeah, I saw it and am looking forward to it completely.
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The problem with horror is that none of it is really scary once you've experienced enough of it. I still get a jump scare if I step on a trap before I know it's Trapper or Hag. But I don't think any game could ever outright scare me. Horror is a complex genre that's hard to do well because viewers/players etc... have to be completely immersed to be scared. The horror elements are fine. There's just not enough immersion. And you can't really add it because it's difficult to do in a competitive video game without making the game unfun to play.
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Somewhat true. But also, it’s building up immunity. When you first watch a horror movie, you might be on the edge of your seat. Watch it again and again, and you know what to expect.
It’s the same with DBD. Certain elements may make it creepier, but in general you become immune to the horror factor after a while because you’re used to it
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The Gore: They want to sell their game in countries that would ban it if you had it like that.
Lighting: Survivors should have darker lighting in general to killers. They don't have enhanced senses.
Audio: That is what the newer TRs are going for. It is why I like PH's, Deathslinger's, and Demogorgon's music a lot, because it is all foreboding and eerie when first entering the TR. They are definitely nailing the actual sound design, even if survivor sounds are bugged half the time.
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Shoot yourself with minor spooks to build up an immunity to bigger spooks.
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Dunno how gore adds into being scary. You're basically invincible until you're not. There's no immediate danger of death even when impaled on a hook.
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Since we know that killers are sensitive to the light from flashlights, it would make sense that they saw their world brighter than the survivors do. I think survivors would appreciate the atmosphere of being darker. Killers just need to be able to see crouching Claudettes.
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You can't, once you are experienced and know whats about to come, all horror is Lost and it's just another game you play
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I don't think that you make people feel terror with dbd because once you have experienced, you are no longer terrified.
BUT.
You can improve the game for example with more gore. I would love that.
All the improvements you said are logical, but never expect people being afraid while playing this game.
As I once read, DbD is not a horror game, is a horror-themed game.
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They should...
- Remove hex notifications.
- Imagine the panic that'd ensue when people start dropping like flies because of Devour Hope. No hex notification. You'd have to pick up that people are getting insta-downed.
- Ruin? If you see the gens go spark spark when you get off you'd know, but only if you're paying attention.
- Raises the skill level survivors have to attain as they'll have to recognize if certain totems are being used without actually seeing a lit totem.
- Never add a totem counter
- This is just more handholding. No need to baby the survivors even more.
- Graphics
- The new graphics are already heading towards this more atmospheric feel.
- Animations
- More natural and smoother animations will help with immersion, which is always good for horror.
0 - Remove hex notifications.
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This is the truth. The game is not scary because there is no reason to be scared as a survivor. Gore doesn't cause fear, it just causes disgust.
The fact that I jump when survivors camp a pallet and slam it down without even knowing they are there just shows that killers have the fearful/stressful role.
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I gives the feeling of unease, IMO
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There is no way to "bring horror back." Exposure kills fear, which kills horror. Any changes to make the game scary for you would be nullified by playing it for more than 50 hours.
And except for the gore thing, you just outlined a bunch of survivor buffs. Darker maps are a huge issue, as is DH, as is the sounds.
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AFAIK depiction of bones is banned in China, so they have to make a separate version for it anyway with all those Wraith clobbers and Totems. LoL also has several skins unavailable or changed there, including the splash art.
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Actually, I remember the really, really, really, really, really early days.
Anyways a long time ago, Shadowborn used to increase visual brightness (While making you easier to blind) and Lightborn also made the screen darker.
I have no idea if Shadowborn increased visual brightness for the survivors too (Yeah I know it wouldn't make any sense, but Stridor DOES make survivors hear themselves breathing/moaning louder) but if there is a way to make survivors screens darker without making the killer's screen darker I think that would be ideal.
Map would feel darker and spookier for survivors, but the killer would still have normal vision,
Other ways to make DBD scary again is to add more killers with instant-death conditions. Might be controversial but Tombstone Myers is terrifying on paper since once he gets close enough that's it, you're dead. Same with Pig's traps, you're on a timer to get the RBT off before your head blows up.
Even Old Freddy was kind of anxiety inducing since you KNOW Freddy knows where you are at all times + his tiny terror radius and the heavy dream world fog made it very hard to tell if he was coming for you or not.
EDIT: This is why I want some killers with some truly freaky abilities. Survivor impersonation. SCP-106/Pinhead who traps survivors in a pocket dimension/lament configuration in a COMPLETELY SEPARATE "map" and they have to find a way to escape under time pressure, etc.
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