How would you guys make DBD scarier?

For a multiplayer game people potentially play for hundreds or thousands of hours the best application of such is in making maps nice and atmospheric if you ask me. Embrace the fact DBD is more horror-themed than a traditional horror game and give maps a nice and atmospheric look, with details and ambience that adds to it. Aesthetically speaking Midwich is a great example of all of this in my opinion, even though gameplay-wise it leaves a thing or sixty to be desired 😄

I don't really think trying to push it in that direction through gameplay would be too well recieved. When it comes to stealth for example it seems like quite a lot of survivors aren't too fond of it, and at the same time it's not uncommon to see killers dislike looking for survivors being super stealthy either.

I feel like if they wanna make this game scary they've gotta make maps (specifically the outdoor maps) more environmentally dense. Take red forest for instance make it foggy as ######### as in you can't see more than 24 metres and make it so there's trees absolutely everywhere imagine that and now a heartbeat is heading your way and you have no clue which direction the mother ######### is coming from

And again another "How to nerf Survivors"-Thread, which is disguised as a "How to make the game more scary"-Thread. But if someone mentions darker maps, they dont want to make the game more scary anymore...

The game will not be scary after some time of playing. You cant do anything about it, that is just how Horror works. You cannot expect to be scared after watching a Horror Movie for 10 times or after playing a Horror Game 10 times. Being scared of a movie or game goes away pretty quickly if you see it often.

Let alone that more stealth-oriented gameplay would just be boring. I rather chase Survivors than not finding anyone because the game requires them to be hidden to survive.

Why be so negative? They were just asking for other people's thoughts. This has no connection to nerfing survivors.

Not if we got more jump scares. I'm tired of GF already.

Yeah more horror would be good. My ideas:

- add some areas to maps which appear darker

- make maps in general a bit darker

- make the killer TRs smaller

- remove the red stain from killers

- make all footsteps louder

- add more disturbing background art like the cow tree/expand on it

- add interactive environments with jump scares

- add other creatures to maps alongside the crows like toads, snakes, and spiders - maybe they also do a jump scare

- bring back the red light bulb from the original killer shack 2016!

- make the maps bloodier

You're absolutely right about audio when it comes to horror and scares. Being able to hear a threat but not see or determine its location is one of the ultimate fright and fear-inducing concepts, because it's very hard to fight back or defend against an entity you can't see! Take the movie Insidious for example, that movie does a great job with the demon character who we only occasionally directly see as a dark shadow or silhouette for most of the movie. Once the demon is actually fully revealed later on, it loses much of its scary qualities (though, this isn't merely because it is revealed, the music in that movie had a lot to do with kind of making it all seem like a joke imo).

Anyway, what to do to make DBD scarier?

Audio is a big deal, possibly the biggest - look at Slenderman which has barebones visuals but is plenty stressful to play because of the audio - but for audio to really be appreciated, you'd have to depend on much of the player base wearing headphones or making sure their speakers are turned up to a decent level, otherwise the little creaks, and groans, and other sounds will go unheard.

So, to compensate for that, we also need to up the ante on visuals. Look at Resident Evil 7 - that game has a lot going for it in the both audio and visuals but the visuals really are fantastically detailed and work to enhance the feeling of dread and hopelessness, and make you see things that aren't there (think swaying tree branches casting suspicious looking shadows). Now, obviously, DBD isn't going to achieve that level of detail, but again, you don't need amazing visuals (again, Slenderman), there are small changes we can make like increasing the fog as someone suggested. Both indoor and outdoor maps can be made much darker overall but with brighter, more directed, short range light sources (so, for outside, very dark overall, but a bright moon light that filters nicely through the trees and other map features, and for inside locations, dimly lit lanterns, flickering lights, dark hallways, etc). This, combined with enhanced audio should do very well to increase the scariness imo but, we won't see that level of change in DBD, it'd have to be a sequel.

Nothing. This is not a scary game and it never will be.

Stealth for me is the most boring thing about DBD. I personally think the killers that have that OH CRAP factor such as Billy and Oni are the most fun to go against. Ghostface is the most boring killer to go against for me. He's the Blendette of killers - relies entirely on stealth and they're usually bad at the game.

The first suggestion, making the maps darker, is a leading complaint for new map reworks such as Autohaven. Removing the killers redstain is a must. It made sense when people were all new, but going against vets it's a horrible crutch for killer.

Because it is always the same. Like, removal of Red Stain or Terror Radius would be fine, but dark Maps not. Because, Horror games are not dark, eh?

Nerf survivor's second chance perks

Put an EA logo on it

0.001% chance for a screamer to appear every second, filling up all survivors' screens and playing a very harsh scream

ez

Make survivor(s) camera switch from third person, to first person. Basically give them Blight's perspective since they're smaller and shorter than most killers.

Imagine walking around a corner and seeing C H O N K Bubba about to smash u

true terror.