How To Make A Game Scary?

[VampireRei]

Dealing with some creative burnout from my fantasy game, so I'm working on a horror game I'd started a while back. How do I make a horror game scary? I understandhorror is relative, but what's a good starting point?

For context:
You play as a reporter for an internet news site that covers various paranormal/haunting type things. Your search has brought you to the Sacred Heart Orphanage, which has been abandoned for who knows how long, its past riddled with mystery.
But something just isn't right.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Archetype]

Try and avoid overusing jump-scares and other similar material. Instead, try and focus more on psychological themes, as the player can then interpret them in their own way. Also, try not to make it a gore-fest/slasher game, as they get boring quite quickly.

Hope you find this helpful! 😀

[Shadow]

Can't agree more. No jump scares.
You should build the feeling gradually.
We are afraid of the unknown, keep the element of mystery always at high amounts.
Music plays a vital part too.

[Sephiroth5000]

But dont let the players know there are no jumpscares, play with the fact that they think there are!

[VampireRei]

Thanks so much everyone! I actually really like the idea of making the player think there are jumpscares when there actually aren't.

[Marquise*]

Dread is especially good with that I recall ^^

[DevTech]

The neuroscience of Horror relies on the player having a sense of connection of the entities in the game as well as the entities in real life.

There are a lot of good scary games that have jump scares and some that don't.

You could have jump scares as a way to "punish" the player for doing something they shouldn't have done/as a way to defeat the player.

Moreso, connect the player through the story and the surroundings. That combined with suspenseful music leads to a very tingly feeling.

Take The Witch's House. If anything, I was pretty nervous about the surroundings, sounds and things the player could do wrong. Sure, it had jump scares, but definitely wasn't the feautre that made it scary.

So when it comes down to it: ambience is important as well as consequences and lore.

I still can't get over that part in The Witch's House where you read the wrong book and she starts rubbing her eyes and they turn red bloodshot until death