Hi Tom.
That's an interesting point, suspense and actual fear are two different
things.
I love the moetion trackers in the alien films. just going along the dark
corridor watching the pulses of light with the tick tick tick and hearing
Hudson read off "four meters, ---- three meters," With you knowing that
the aliens are closing in but having no idea where they will appear from or
how they will strike. This is definitely something I've experienced with
films, albeit Halloween didn't do as much for me with that as something like
Aliens did, ---- heck, I've had books and audio dramas do the same thing if
they are written well, like the bit in It where Bill and Richy go into the
abandoned building in search of the Warewolf, or indeed the final conclusion
in the sewers.
That however just makes me keyed up, excited and emotionally engaged with
what I'm reading/viewing/playing, not exactly scared or unsettled.
Regarding distruction of reality in audio, well it's actually something I've
seen Big Finish in their Doctor who series achieve on several occasions.
They don't use a narrator, but there's no real magic formular, just A, good
direction, music and sound editing, and B, a use of audio concepts that are
scary in themselves just by sound.
For example, the story "chimes of midnight" (also an 8th doctor story),
involves an old edwardian house with a repeating time loop which cycles at
midnight, thus the chimes play a huge part in the audio landscape of the
story, as do the reactions of certain characters, repeating phrases and
concepts, and just the right amount of sampling on things like the ubiquitus
chimes.
Another example might be scherzo, in which the doctor and his assistant are
trapped in an alternate universe where the information cannot be processed
by senses. This is amazingly scary, and achieved with minimal effort. Early
in the story the Tardis melts (achieved with lots of affects), and then most
of the play involves the doctor and his assistant trying to find out what is
going on. Their voices are absolutely muffled with no ecco, and behind is
only a very minimal white noise effect. Indeed, I'd go so far as saying
Scherzo is a form of horror which could even be done! on film, ---- at least
unless you heavily employed the concept of films which show only a
characters' perspective from a sensory or artistic sense rather than simply
a nuanced telling of events (which is something more often done in Japanese
Anime and cinimar than in the west).
Also, of course in audio good writing helps, for example dialogue that tells
the listener what an object, especially a horrifying object is and
identifies a sound without seeming patronising or intrusive.
For example, lets say you had a first person game which similar to Silent
Hill, but where you were in radio contact with another person. You might
here a single, slow drip that eccos round the room your in, then a splash,
then some louder splashes, then a slow trickling sound. When you go to
investigate, you hear the sounds of your footsteps changing to a more
sticky, mushy sound, the person on the radio asks what is going on and you
say "blood! ---- it's blood!" your character doesn't need to panic or
scream, just identify with the correct amount of alarm that the substance
which you've heard the dripping from is actually blood. This is also why you
couldn't just hear something trickling away and examine it to be told "rain
of blood" since again it's the suspense, the eccos, the sound of a liquid
thicker than water that cause the person to feel horror at the
identification of blood dripping down the wall, not merely the fact of the
blood itself, (after all, blood really isn't that scary in and of itself).
Again, it's all audio presentation, though unfortunately this is an area
where the more sound effects and clever audio editing technology (not to
mention good actors), the better, since while an indi graphical game artist
could likely pixel a pretty convincingly scary monster or environment, in
audio your at the mercy of what you can afford, and atmospherically this can
be problematic.
Beware the Grue!
dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
