Codes and Conventions of the Horror Genre / Stereotypes

Within in horror genre there are many stereotypes almost too many to name! Here are just a few that me and my group thought were the most over-used.

Abandoned Settings: When a place in game is abandoned there should really be no reasonable answer as to why you would be in there. Unless there were to be a monster or enemy waiting for you to jump out at you. With sound effects, they can play on the fear of the unknown. If you know its abandoned but suddenly hear something it can really play on the emotions and immersion of the player. Plus with abandoned settings artists can really get creative with the run-down, dirty, eerie and destroyed rooms and assets which make a naturally creepy look.

Jumpscares: So many games recently have created jumps cares in their games. Even though build ups with music and decreased difficultly may give it away it never fails to make people jump no matter how old they are. They can be used in any context, setting, level of the game or audience. However it tends to be in around 12+ games.

Bad Decisions: After asking around a few friends they believe that characters always make the worst mistakes in game. It creates an easy way to kill of unliked characters or sometimes liked characters. This will scare the audience into being hesitant about every choice they make. Therefore getting them more involved in the game. It also creates an uneasy atmosphere because the decisions the player makes could jeopardize the future of your own path or any players that are with you.

Nighttime setting: So with a horror game there is one fear that heightens the level of the other fears. Darkness. If you take any situation and make it dark or quiet at night it makes it even scarier for the player. In the dark the player is made to have decreased visibility during game play and also could increase difficultly of enemies like in The Legend of Zelda. (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, 2017) They also use the lighting of levels to create more tension as you cannot see what is in front of them.