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Hey all, not sure if this website is too active lately, but I recently started working on my VX Ace horror game again, and started drawing all the maps from scratch as parallaxes, as opposed to tiling. I was wondering if anyone would be able to critique them... (screenshots are attached) Critique ANYTHING! Art style, level design, atmosphere, etc... Let me know your thoughts in the comments! FYI, in the game your character's health is measured by sanity. The counter in the top right shows that, and I have a system where the lower your sanity, the more distorted some levels can be One of the first rooms, eyes don't appear unless sanity is at 1. 1st puzzle area. 1st appearance of a "monster", standing still against wall until a later moment. Day and Night puzzle room

I'm creating an rpg maker horror game, and as I'm playing other rpg maker horror games, I've noticed that EVERY SINGLE MAIN CHARACTER is a female!! All of them! (My game is going to have a male character) Why is this? Is a female easier to relate to, or can they show more emotion in games or something(I really have no clue) An interesting question if anyone wants to help me out

I'm creating a horror game, and I want to be able to show emotion and give story through puzzles, without puzzles being easy or boring. I'm not sure how I can create engaging and creative puzzles, while still keeping horror atmosphere, story, and keeping the player engaged. I have a few ideas, but not enough to keep the puzzles interesting throughout the story. Any ideas?

-The Sun That helped, that's definitely something I'm trying to avoid. Is the game you're talking about popular? A few come to mind (witch's house, ib, mad father, the crooked man, Ao oni)???

Haha yea I've seen that, it's actually one of my bookmarks I'm just not sure how to show story (such as flashbacks or atmosphere) through puzzles. The setting of my game is inside a coma/dream, so it's very abstract.

I'm creating a horror game, and I want to be able to show emotion and give story through puzzles, without puzzles being easy or boring. I'm not sure how I can create engaging and creative puzzles, while still keeping horror atmosphere, story, and keeping the player engaged. I have a few ideas, but not enough to keep the puzzles interesting throughout the story. Any ideas?

Yes, pretty much every single one...Yume Nikki Ib Witch's House Mad Father Paranoiac Misao....

I'm just starting a new horror game "half dead" and I need some help The game is about a young boy in a bad coma because of brain damage from traumatic deaths of loved ones, which he blames himself for. He must go through a "dungeon" for each of those memories in the dream/ nightmare world, and after progressing through the dungeon, the number of flashbacks the player recovers will determine what ending the player gets. What I want to know is, how do I make the game scary? I have the first few rooms of the first dungeon done, and I like the 'Witches House' style it has, but I need the game to stay scary throughout the story, and not be a carbon copy of the witches house or Ib. I'm going to have the monsters of each dungeon be centered around the person/animal that the boy blames himself for their death, but I want to find a way for there to be one monster, but have different forms or something somehow so it doesn't get old. I'm having trouble thinking of puzzles and clever ways to make each dungeon last a while, but also maintain the horror atmosphere. -Thanks so much EDIT I found a tilesets/sprite designer!

Haha that's beautiful, it can be the sequel

Ok, that's what I'll do if that if my (probably stupid) ideas doesn't work

Haha, when I was doing my grass I was undo'ing and trying again so many times until it looked acceptable. xDMy first try at grass looked like throw up after 2 hours of work in 1 tile, so I took a break...

I came up with a rather weird one myself just now... Maybe it'll work, but you never know Maybe I could do a puzzle, where whenever you get a wrong answer, the door fades out more and more, until it dissapears

Ok, looking now, Ib tilesets are pretty simple so I think I can handle that, but I might have to tweak the outside areas of the map because I can't draw grass and water at all Wow, I don't think I've ever seen this done, that's a great idea! I'll definitely be using this in my game...

This is my problem, I need a tileset like Ib, just with a little more horror feel, but I'm not a very good artist, and I can't find anything online. Any suggestions for places to look or ways to draw a tileset?

Thanks! I'll definitely play yume nikki and try some of those ideas out! Those are my favorite rpg make games! (except maybe mad father). Thinking about it more, I think my games inspiration is mostly Witch's House and Ib

Wait... It isn't copyrighted is it? Or was that a joke?

Thanks!!

If the game goes how I want it to, I'll post a demo on this page and on the forum to see people's reactions, might take a while though, I have a lot of stuff to work with here.

Thanks, I'm getting some ideas from this......

In the story each of the dungeons are part of the character memory, the dungeon itself is the flashback, with the warped horror feel. As the player completes the dungeon, they can view the true flashback, where the character realizes the death was not his fault. As you progress, you see that the character was in so much psychological trauma, he fell into a coma(I'm looking for a scientific way to explain it as of now) as he successfully or unsuccessful completes the flashbacks, he will either get rid of the trauma that put him into a coma, or become deeper into the coma and ultimately die(good/bad endings)Hope that helps, thanks

Haha I understand, I'm getting in about 1/2 scenes in a week because of school

No...I never thought of that. Do you know how I could find someone willing to help me play test?Thanks so much for your help, I understand you don't have much horror experience, but I really appreciate it!

Yep, got that too

Yes, I have already started the game, I just need ideas on how to keep the horror atmosphere throughout the game with a good story and puzzle elements

Yes