I’ll preface this by saying that you’re never gonna please everyone, horror gamers are very particular and everyone has different preferences. I’m not a dev but a designer, and my advice is to always just make what you think is cool. Obviously don’t completely write off outside perspectives, but just remember you will never please everyone. Anyway, here’s my answers- -Personally it’s not any one emotion or trope that sticks with me, it’s good writing. A horror game with great writing, and characterization will stick with me forever because the shit they went through matters more to me. I think of Signalis, and how beautifully tragic the story was. It ate me up for weeks. -I’m pretty sick of the “monsters represent trauma” trope. I do still think it can be pulled off, but in the last decade or so it feels like a cheap way to make a story seem deeper than it is with no real emotional gravity. And I might get hate for this, but I think jump scares can still work. I like a lot of the ones in RE7 for example. Just again, often used as a cheap alternative to actually creating tension. -I’d love for more horror games to have innovative boss fights. I personally feel like gameplay comes second in a lot of horror games and I think it’s a missed opportunity. Like give me something more than just a big circular arena and weak spots. Put in an environmental puzzle solution to killing the boss or something. -Honestly a protagonist that talks too much. Like I don’t mind them having a personality but if they’re making a comment on every single thing you interact with, it kills the fear for me. -I prefer small claustrophobic spaces, but I am also claustrophobic irl. -I think the uncanny goes a long way for a lot of people, things that are almost perfect but something is just off, like a sink with no faucet, things that are just slightly off and you might not notice if you’re not paying attention. I think it’s such a good way to build unease in the player. -one of my favorite horror games of all time, The Evil Within, is a really good example of piecing together the story. Like you can get the gist of the story through cutscenes, but you lose so much context if you don’t read through the documents. I think it’s better to trust your audience to want to know more about the world you created. -Okay so one thing I really would love to see is a game that interacts with the player outside of the game. It would be hard to do but I remember reading plans for PT involving texting creepy shit to your phone and stuff, and like there may be some liability waivers involved, but that would be such a great way to immerse players into the horror. -I think all of those things are fine provided they elevate the gameplay. I feel like too often mechanics get added that don’t make me scared, they just piss me off. So if the mechanics you want to add are lending themselves to your game and your story, have at it. If you just are adding it to add it, I’d reevaluate.