How to PLAN Your Horror Game in Roblox Studio

Summary

This video script offers a comprehensive guide for aspiring horror game developers, focusing on crafting a compelling story. It emphasizes the importance of selecting a theme, establishing the game's tone, and creating a detailed map layout. The script advises on building mystery, leveraging environmental storytelling, maintaining pacing, and considering multiple endings to enhance replayability. It also touches on the significance of designing unique and intriguing monsters, ensuring the game stands out in the horror genre.

Takeaways

• 😈 Start with a clear theme for your horror game, whether it's supernatural, psychological, survival horror, or a mix.
• 📝 Choose the tone you want to convey, such as eerie, chilling, suspenseful, or outright terrifying.
• 🎨 Consider unique settings for your game, including time period, location, and atmosphere to enhance the horror experience.
• 🗺️ Create a simple map layout to serve as the foundation for your game's environment and player exploration.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Establish a mystery or unknown element to keep players intrigued and curious throughout the game.
• 📖 Use environmental storytelling with visuals, sound effects, and interactive elements to convey narrative details.
• 🔍 Build on the fear of the unknown by revealing information selectively, allowing player's imagination to fill in the gaps.
• 📚 Incorporate myths, legends, or historical events to give your game a rich backstory and reference points.
• 💥 Maintain pacing and rhythm in your game to avoid dull moments and keep the horror experience engaging.
• 🔗 Consider multiple endings for your game to increase replayability and make each playthrough unique.
• 👾 Develop a unique and interesting monster for your game, complete with backstory and distinctive behaviors.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the horror game discussed in the script?

The main theme of the horror game is an asylum where the player is trapped and has to find a way to escape, but with the underlying message that there is no escape.

What are the different types of horror game themes mentioned in the script?

The script mentions supernatural, psychological, survival horror, and a mix of elements as different types of horror game themes.

What is the importance of deciding the tone for a horror game?

Deciding the tone is essential as it helps to establish the atmosphere and the level of fear the game intends to convey, such as eerie, chilling, suspenseful, or outright terrifying.

How does the script suggest enhancing the horror experience through setting?

The script suggests considering the time period, location, and atmosphere to enhance the horror experience, as these elements contribute to the overall mood and setting of the game.

What is the purpose of creating a simple map layout for a horror game?

Creating a simple map layout serves as the base foundation for building the entire game environment, allowing the developer to visualize and plan out the different rooms, tasks, and areas for exploration.

Why is establishing a mystery or unknown element important in a horror game?

Establishing a mystery or unknown element is important as it keeps the players intrigued and curious, maintaining suspense and tension throughout the game.

How can a developer exploit the fear of the unknown in their horror game?

A developer can exploit the fear of the unknown by revealing information selectively, leaving room for the player's imagination to fill in the gaps and create their own sense of unease.

What role do myths, legends, and historical events play in the creation of a horror game?

Myths, legends, and historical events can provide a rich background and reference for a horror game, giving the developer more ideas and a basis for the game's narrative.

What is environmental storytelling and how can it be used in a horror game?

Environmental storytelling is the use of visuals, sound effects, and interactive elements in the game environment to convey narrative details and progress the story, creating an immersive experience for the player.

Why is maintaining pacing and rhythm important in a horror game?

Maintaining pacing and rhythm is important to prevent dull moments that can kill the mood and to balance intense horror with periods of quiet tension or exploration, ensuring a continuous engaging experience.

How can multiple endings enhance a horror game?

Multiple endings can enhance a horror game by adding replayability, as players may want to explore different outcomes, and by making the game more unique and personalized based on the player's choices.

What is the script's advice on creating a unique monster for a horror game?

The script advises to make the monster unique, interesting, and visually appealing, with a well-thought-out backstory if applicable, to add depth and intrigue to the game.

Outlines

00:00

🕹️ Starting Your Horror Game: Key Considerations

This paragraph introduces the process of creating a horror game, using an example of an asylum-themed game. It emphasizes the importance of planning the story, deciding the overall theme (supernatural, psychological, or survival horror), and establishing the tone (eerie, chilling, suspenseful, or terrifying). It also highlights the significance of unique settings and atmosphere, advising creators to be detailed in their planning.

05:01

🔍 Building Intrigue and Environmental Storytelling

This section focuses on the importance of establishing mystery and the fear of the unknown in horror games. It suggests using myths, legends, or real-life events as inspiration and emphasizes environmental storytelling through visuals, sound effects, and interactive elements. It advises balancing information revelation to maintain player curiosity and enhancing the narrative with environmental details.

10:01

🎭 Pacing, Rhythm, and Multiple Endings

This part addresses the importance of maintaining pacing and rhythm in horror games, avoiding long dialogues that disrupt the mood. It suggests balancing intense horror moments with periods of tension and exploration. Additionally, it discusses the value of multiple endings to increase replayability and uniqueness, encouraging creators to provide players with choices that influence the story's outcome.

👾 Designing Your Unique Monster

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of creating a unique and interesting monster for the horror game. It suggests detailing the monster's appearance, behavior, and potential backstory. The paragraph concludes by encouraging creators to make their stories unique, engaging, and scary, inviting feedback and interaction from the audience.

Keywords

💡Horror Game

A horror game is a genre of video game that is intended to scare the player and create an eerie, suspenseful, or frightening atmosphere. In the video's context, the creator discusses developing a horror game set in an asylum where the player must escape, emphasizing the importance of a well-thought-out story and environment to enhance the horror experience.

💡Asylum

An asylum typically refers to a mental institution or psychiatric hospital. In the script, the asylum serves as the setting for the horror game, providing a backdrop that is inherently unsettling and conducive to creating a sense of dread and confinement for the player.

💡Supernatural

Supernatural elements in horror games involve phenomena that cannot be explained by natural or scientific laws, such as ghosts or supernatural powers. The video mentions supernatural as a potential theme for a horror game, suggesting the inclusion of zombies or ghosts as part of the game's horror elements.

💡Psychological Horror

Psychological horror focuses on creating fear through the manipulation of the player's mind, often using psychological manipulation and the exploitation of phobias. The script describes the creator's asylum game as a psychological horror, where the creepiness factor comes from certain phobias rather than a creature.

💡Survival Horror

Survival horror is a subgenre of horror games where the player is often placed in a life-threatening situation and must survive against enemies or supernatural forces. The video provides 'Rainbow Friends' as an example of a survival horror game where the player is chased by enemies while completing tasks.

💡Tone

In the context of storytelling, tone refers to the emotional and atmospheric quality conveyed throughout the narrative. The script discusses establishing the tone of the horror game, such as eerie, chilling, suspenseful, or outright terrifying, to set the right mood for the player.

💡Environmental Storytelling

Environmental storytelling is a narrative technique where the game's environment is used to convey the story, using visuals, sound effects, and interactive elements. The video script emphasizes the importance of environmental storytelling in a horror game to create a sense of unease and curiosity without direct narration.

💡Pacing

Pacing in a game refers to the balance between action, dialogue, and other elements to maintain the game's rhythm and mood. The script warns against long periods of dialogue that can disrupt the horror mood, advocating for a balance between intense action and quiet tension.

💡Multiple Endings

Multiple endings in a game provide different outcomes based on the player's choices throughout the game. The video suggests planning for multiple endings to increase replayability and uniqueness, giving players different paths and outcomes that can influence the story.

💡Monster

In horror games, a monster is typically an antagonistic creature or entity that instills fear in the player. The script encourages creators to develop a unique and interesting monster with a backstory, appearance, and behavior that contribute to the game's horror theme.

💡Fear of the Unknown

The fear of the unknown is a fundamental aspect of horror that relies on the player's imagination to fill in the gaps of what is not fully revealed. The video emphasizes the importance of exploiting this fear by selectively revealing information and leaving room for the player's imagination to create suspense and curiosity.

Highlights

Creating a horror game requires a well-thought-out story, as demonstrated by the developer's work on an asylum-based game.

The importance of establishing the overall theme of the horror game, whether it's supernatural, psychological, survival horror, or a mix.

Deciding the tone of the game, such as eerie, chilling, suspenseful, or outright terrifying, to align with the horror genre.

The distinction between thriller and horror in games, with thrillers being more suspenseful and horror games being terrifying.

Developing unique settings for horror games, including time period, location, and atmosphere to enhance the horror experience.

The necessity of detailing the game's theme, type of horror, location, and appearance to build a strong foundation.

Creating a simple map layout as a base for game development, including different rooms and player exploration areas.

Establishing a mystery or unknown element in the game to maintain player intrigue and curiosity.

Using environmental storytelling through visuals, sound effects, and interactive elements to convey narrative details.

Balancing the pacing and rhythm in horror games to avoid dull moments that can kill the mood.

Considering multiple endings for the game to increase replayability and provide unique player experiences.

Providing player choices that influence the game's outcome to add depth and replay value.

The suggestion to draw from myths, legends, or real-life events to enrich the game's story and provide a reference.

Incorporating environmental storytelling into the map layout to add narrative depth without narration or text.

The developer's personal experience of creating an asylum game that plays with the mind and certain phobias.

The importance of not revealing all information to maintain the fear of the unknown and allow player imagination.

Advice on making the game's monster unique, interesting, and visually appealing to enhance the horror experience.

Transcripts

so you want to make a horror game but

you don't know where to start now as you

see here this is one of the horror games

that I've been working on recently I've

got a whole story but to sum it all up

the player is inside of an asylum

basically and they have to find a way to

escape but really There Is No Escape but

behind the scenes I have the whole story

laid out in a way that makes complete

sense to me and that I can develop with

very easily and I want to show you guys

how to do that because it's almost

essential for making any Roblox game

especially horror game so first off grab

a pen of paper or maybe notepad if you

want to and you want to decide on the

overall theme of your horror game is it

going to be Supernatural is it going to

be psychological is it going to be

survival horror or is it going to be a

mix of elements a good example for each

of these for the survival horror game

that'd be a game sort of like rainbow

friends where you have tasks that you

have to do and you're usually being

chased by some sort of enemy or

Supernatural this is going to be things

sort of like zombies ghosts stuff along

that sort of line now psychological

horror this this is sort of like my

Asylum Game right here it plays with the

Mind sort of and the whole creepiness

factor is from certain phobias instead

of from a creature now that you have

that done you want to decide the tone

that you want to convey or establish it

I should say whether that's going to be

Eerie chilling suspenseful or even

outright terrifying now I'm sure you've

heard of the difference between movie

genres the Thriller and horror you see

Thriller is usually not as horrifying as

horror it's kind of more laid-back but

still suspenseful whereas horror is

downright terrifying most of the time so

it's the same thing with games you can

have sort of a thriller type of game

that's more eerie or on the easy side

and then you can have one that's

outright terrifying a good example of

these ones would be uh for outright

terrifying Elmyra the mimic games like

that they're just really scary on Roblox

but then you have games that are still

in the horror genre that are

more I guess just suspenseful in general

but aren't as terrifying I don't really

have a good example for that on me at

the moment but I'm sure you can

understand what I'm saying now one thing

that makes all horror games Stand Out is

its unique settings you want to develop

your own kind of game in general you

want to consider the time period the

location the atmosphere and all these

things are going to enhance your horror

experience let's say you're making a

1950s game it was based in the 1950s I

mean it's probably some sort of

abandoned City or abandoned house even

or just even abandoned building that

would be the time period and the

location then the atmosphere do you want

it to be abandoned do you want it to be

Lively do you want it to be dark scary

like how do you want your atmosphere to

go and by the way just write down all

these things on your pen and paper while

we're going down here so now you should

know the general theme of your game you

should know what type of horror it's

going to be whether that be Supernatural

psychological Etc you know where it's

going to take place what it's going to

be and look like I want you to really go

as much into detail as you can of course

the more detail you go into the much

better off it's going to be but it's

perfectly fine if you can only get a

little bit at first next I want you to

make a simple map layout for your game

this is the one that I made for this

game it's a little outdated I changed a

few things I've yet to make a new one

actually but you can see I've got the

main theme of my map laid out it's got

all the different rooms on it it's got

all the different things I want the

player to be able to do and explore on

here and that was kind of my base

foundation for building this entire map

I want you to build like a starting room

well don't go building I mean but draw a

starting room and then you want to kind

of build off of that in each Direction

you want to maybe you're in a forest

even so you can build or Draw out a

forest or you can dry out a circus or

wherever your horror game is going to be

and once again try to get as much into

detail as you can but don't go like over

the top cuz that's just going to waste

your time really now that you got the

theme the genre and the map layout you

want to establish some sort of mystery

or unknown element what this is going to

do is going to keep the players

intrigued and also curious this could be

like the source of the horror whether

that be the monster or the monster's

backstory even like a dark sort of

secret a series of unexplained events

like oh why did that broom fall over or

I don't know maybe why did the circus

carnival automatically turn on when we

entered the park you know it could just

be all sorts of different things that

happened that the player has no clue why

they happened or how they happened and

you can even build on this by planning

to reveal information gradually just to

maintain suspense and tension cuz if you

just have everything happen and the

player doesn't ever find out why or how

it's going to be kind of boring for them

because there's no suspense it just kind

of happened and then nothing went on

with it so if you want to put like notes

around your game or something like that

we're actually going to be covering that

in the rest of the horror series but

whatever way you can reveal information

even if it's just like I don't know a

letters on a white board and now while

you're establishing that mystery element

and you're revealing information

gradually I want to tell you to build on

the fear of the unknown as well because

you don't want to reveal all the

information that's going to get rid of

all the Intrigue and all the Curiosity

of the player so you want to kind of

exploit the fear of the Unknown by

revealing that information selectively

you kind of want to leave room for the

Player's imagination to kind of run wild

and figure some things out on their own

so there's definitely a balance between

revealing all the information and

keeping some of it kind of closed off

and now something I want to share with

you guys is that a lot of horror games

are actually made off of like myths

Legends even just a history of past

events that happen in real life that

they kind of built off of and fantasized

about so if you can find some of story

or myth or legend or whatever it is that

kind of goes along with your horror game

that's going to be beneficial to your

game because it's going to not only give

you more of an idea of what your game's

going to be like but also kind of gives

you a reference and here's where I want

to get into environmental storytelling

so with environmental storytelling it's

all about using the environment around

the player to tell a story pretty

self-explanatory but you use visuals

sound effects and even just interactive

elements to convey certain narrative

details like you can have I don't know

footsteps somewhere off in the forest

and that way the player knows that

someone's out there but they don't know

who's out there and that also leads on

to the whole curiosity thing that we

were talking about earlier or maybe a

bucket flings off of a tree somewhere

you know something's up there in the

tree but you don't know what it is again

and so you can kind of add on to your

story or tell a story through all these

different events and it can also be a

past event that took place like whether

there's a campfire on the ground that

just went out recently like you can have

some smoke kind of rising out from the

fire

that will just kind of give the players

some sort of sense of unease because

they don't know who was just there or if

they're still around there so there's

all sorts of ways to just kind of add

environmental storytelling like this

into your game to kind of propel your

story forwards and even just use some of

this on your map layout like have a

campfire here or have I don't know maybe

a blood puddle somewhere over here you

know you can have all sorts of different

things that kind of add to your story

just with the environment as well not

even having a do any narration text

anything like that pretty cool now

another thing I want to talk about

that's a problem with a lot of horror

games usually in the story genre

recently is that you need to maintain

pacing and your Rhythm it kind of kills

the mood in your horror game or even

well for this it's the story games but

they're still in the horror genre

technically nothing kills the mood as

much as when something really scary is

about to happen but there's like 30 to

45 seconds of straight dialogue of like

this character talking to this boss or

this boss talking to this character or

this character talking to the other

character you know like I want the

action I want the story I'm here for the

game play you know I don't want to hear

just 30 45 seconds of non-stop yapping

if you know what I mean but the thing is

that you do want to have a sort of

balance where it's not just yapping and

it's not just intense action side of

your game you want to balance moments of

like intense horror with periods of

quiet tension or even exploration or

advancement leading up to those intense

horror moments but don't ever just have

like a dull moment where the player just

standing still doing nothing unless it

directly adds to the story and you think

it's completely necessary and now last

but not least for playing out your story

I want you to consider multiple endings

we're going to be going over multiple

endings over the course of this horror

series so I want you to kind of plan out

a few different endings for your game

take Breakin for example at the end of

their game game they had go into

different sorts of directions they had

the sewer ending sorry if I'm spoiling

and they have the I think they had some

sort of egg event a while ago sorry I

kind of forgot a lot of stuff about that

game but they have multiple endings

that's the point and that will add a ton

of replayability to your game because

players will want to go through all the

different options but it also makes your

game a little more unique because not

every horror game has multiple endings

and it's perfectly fine if your horror

game doesn't have multiple endings but

there's no harm in doing so unless it

just complicates the story too much and

how you're going to add multiple endings

you want to provide players with certain

choices that will influence the outcome

of your story so maybe you have a fork

in your path where you can go left or

you can go right or maybe you have a

ability to help someone on the side of

the road where if you help them then

they join you and if you don't help them

then they become your enemy or whatever

there are so many different ways to add

sorts of choices like this though

influence once again the outcome of your

story so just make sure that your game

is ultimately unique your story is

unique that you have everything you want

to be planned out I'd also want you to I

guess another thing I should add is that

you should write out your monster your

idea for the monster what you want him

to look like what you want him to do how

you want him to act does he have a

backstory is it even something that can

have a back story or is it some sort of

glob of Goo somewhere you know make your

monster unique make him interesting make

him look cool that's about all I have

for writing your own story at the moment

feel free to leave any comments down

below if you have anything that you

think I should add or if you think I've

missed anything but feel free to just

write out your story make it unique make

it fun make it interesting make it scary

most of all and I'll see you in the next

episode thank you so much for watching I

hope you have a great day and

[Music]

goodbye

[Music]