2019-04-01 10:44:09

Dear all,

thank you for having me on the forum. My name is Max Ablitzer and I am an audio professional creating music and sound design. I have worked on many game soundtracks over the years and at the moment I am sort of looking for new ideas and directions.

A few months back I created Horror Tales which is a podcast narrating scary stories from today's horror authors (you can find it on iTunes, etc.). The productions are very sound driven and me loving the audio realm I was wondering about the possibilities of creating a scary audio horror game.

I do work with talented writers, narrators, and voice actors and can produce a high-level soundtrack (including a vast private sound collection).

So I was wondering if there were any horror loving programmers here who would be interested in this challenge and maybe like to exchange some ideas.

I'm open to discussion and maybe a project will arise from this.

Let me know your thoughts,

Max.

2019-04-01 15:25:52 (edited by defender 2019-04-01 15:31:00)

One of those games where you sneak through a terrifying abandoned place(abandoned small town, research lab, slaughterhouse, broken down school, mental hospital, old subway station, ghost ship, what ever) with all sorts of disturbing ambients, loud footsteps, echoing corridors, intense music and tight corners, armed with nothing but maybe a flashlight or at least an under powered weapon always in need of ammo, where at any time something loud and scary can jump out at you may be interesting... Especially if you have disturbing text descriptions of visual things that the player encounters as well.


I know it's been done to death in the mainstream, but for us, all we have is an audio version of slenderman, which is kinda buggy and has a simple, outdoor map, and the excellent Papa Sangre/Papa sangreII and The Nightjar which are only for IOS device and can't work on newer version of IOS without some effort and a bit of risk.


An overarching plot with a few disturbing cutscenes and a big bad or something might be interesting to spice it up at least a little.

2019-04-01 17:17:09

defender wrote:

One of those games where you sneak through a terrifying abandoned place(abandoned small town, research lab, slaughterhouse, broken down school, mental hospital, old subway station, ghost ship, what ever) with all sorts of disturbing ambients, loud footsteps, echoing corridors, intense music and tight corners, armed with nothing but maybe a flashlight or at least an under powered weapon always in need of ammo, where at any time something loud and scary can jump out at you may be interesting... Especially if you have disturbing text descriptions of visual things that the player encounters as well.


I know it's been done to death in the mainstream, but for us, all we have is an audio version of slenderman, which is kinda buggy and has a simple, outdoor map, and the excellent Papa Sangre/Papa sangreII and The Nightjar which are only for IOS device and can't work on newer version of IOS without some effort and a bit of risk.


An overarching plot with a few disturbing cutscenes and a big bad or something might be interesting to spice it up at least a little.

Yes, a 3d environment is one possibility, of course there are many others like audio riddles or dialogue based enigmas to create a suspenseful athmosphere.

And absolutely, there should be a story behind it all.

If you are a developer interested in brainstorming let me know!

2019-04-03 07:54:18

I'm not a Dev sorry. I've just really wanted one of those games for a while now...
I think frequency missing, code 7, and descent into madness and a few others I can't remember, are more dialog based like a radio drama. But to be honest, I think that if we could get something more interactive, than most people would prefer it.

2019-04-03 11:57:05

defender wrote:

I'm not a Dev sorry. I've just really wanted one of those games for a while now...
I think frequency missing, code 7, and descent into madness and a few others I can't remember, are more dialog based like a radio drama. But to be honest, I think that if we could get something more interactive, than most people would prefer it.

Well, thank you for chiming in! It's good to know there would be a demand for this type of game!

2019-04-03 20:41:33

I would if I could, help out, I mean. I'm still learning, so I'm probably not who you want to develop, not at least until I get some more experience under my belt.
@4: Code 7 is amazing partially do to the drama stile interaction. If the game was real time, I wouldn't play it for one simple reason:
It's not the same.
Besides, if you've played code 7 and finished episode 0, you'd know why the game is not real time... Let's just say it wouldn't make sense as the story currently stands.

2019-04-03 23:03:10

@6
Right, but my point is that we already have a few games like that, and while another one would be nice (especially if it's done well) filling a niche we haven't filled would be even better IMO.

2019-04-04 09:58:48

defender wrote:

@6
Right, but my point is that we already have a few games like that, and while another one would be nice (especially if it's done well) filling a niche we haven't filled would be even better IMO.

What type of niche do you have in mind?

2019-04-04 10:03:36

amerikranian wrote:

I would if I could, help out, I mean. I'm still learning, so I'm probably not who you want to develop, not at least until I get some more experience under my belt.
@4: Code 7 is amazing partially do to the drama stile interaction. If the game was real time, I wouldn't play it for one simple reason:
It's not the same.
Besides, if you've played code 7 and finished episode 0, you'd know why the game is not real time... Let's just say it wouldn't make sense as the story currently stands.

Well, thank you anyway, maybe at a later stage!

2019-04-04 14:35:47

Hi @MaxA
I'm studying software engineering and I've been coding for almust 10 years. Since halloween last year, I've been looking into how to create a horror game without visuals, where it wouldn't only be about getting the biggest jump scare.
My schedule are the next couple of months unfortunately full, but when Jun / Juli comes around I'm all free (if you haven't found another dev until that point)

If you like what I do, Feel free to check me out on GitHub, or follow me on Twitter

2019-04-04 15:54:44

i can also give a hand about the sound design if needed

2019-04-04 19:21:05

I would love, absolutely love to see a game like this. Something like Silent Hill, where a lot of the focus is on riddles/exploration over run-and-gun action. I mean, I don't mind combat, and bosses and such, but if part of the fun is in playing keep-away, I'd like that.

I am not a programmer, unfortunately, but I'm good when it comes to writing and general game design (i.e., story, setup, balance, that sort of thing). If I can help, let me know. Else, I'm just here to chime in that yes, a good horror game would be freaking amazing.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2019-04-08 18:29:24

Jayde wrote:

I would love, absolutely love to see a game like this. Something like Silent Hill, where a lot of the focus is on riddles/exploration over run-and-gun action. I mean, I don't mind combat, and bosses and such, but if part of the fun is in playing keep-away, I'd like that.

I am not a programmer, unfortunately, but I'm good when it comes to writing and general game design (i.e., story, setup, balance, that sort of thing). If I can help, let me know. Else, I'm just here to chime in that yes, a good horror game would be freaking amazing.

Thank you, Jayde!

2019-04-08 18:29:42

NicklasMCHD wrote:

Hi @MaxA
I'm studying software engineering and I've been coding for almust 10 years. Since halloween last year, I've been looking into how to create a horror game without visuals, where it wouldn't only be about getting the biggest jump scare.
My schedule are the next couple of months unfortunately full, but when Jun / Juli comes around I'm all free (if you haven't found another dev until that point)

Thank you, I'll be in touch!