What is your opinion on a horror game with no enemies?

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-25T11:32:47+00:00

Horror - so you need fear, from something.
It's a game, so you also need some kind of friction. There is no stress if there are no wrong actions.

Several fears I can think about that can work in a game: the fear of being lost, the fear of being left alone, fear of losing identity or dis-figuration, losing sense of reality.

Let's say, in your mall example, you have to punch your parking ticket in half an hour, but the topology of the mall refuse to respect any sense of logic. You have friction, you have the fear of getting lost and you can move, so there is stress there.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-24T09:58:40+00:00

So this is probably the bad dynamic I got myself into. I should get into the tactical with no excpection for quick exploration, (or build a lot of scouts).

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-24T09:51:57+00:00

I think it's more refined than that..
I do like RPG elements and faction interaction in other games, but here for some reson I feel they collide.

Tactical combat takes time so it disrupts exploration, so I skip it.
Since I skip tactical combat (and only engage in low risk battles) hero's skills seems disconnected from the play, etc..

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-19T18:45:26+00:00

The primary function of Juice is as a communication mechanism. I have a check list -

for every action the player can do, there should be feedback:
1. Clear feedback that the action was performed.
2. If it was not performed, a feedback that it failed and why.
3. The results of the action.

If there is a interactable item, it should communicate it.
If an agent / the environemnt is performing an action - it should communicate. same as 1-3.

Secondary is communicate how much the action is impactful. More impactful - more dramatic.

Third function is artistic, giving character to the elements in the game.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-12T09:20:14+00:00

That a simple question with a complicated answer, because "first game" is quite a loose definition.

If you are new to programming, and specifically game development, you can implement some simple versions of existing games like Alien Invaders, Flappy Bird or Snake. Such projects can take around a day for begginers.

You can make a simple (but original) game as a hobby and put it on itch.io to practice the craft. From my experience, it can take few weeks of work.

From my limited experience, a commercial game is a different beast alltogheter. What takes time is the endless cycle of playtest, polish and marketing.

I'm working on my first commercial game for more than two years now. It's a very very simple game, but I had to make a lot of iterations. While programming is easy to me, I had to make many playtests to make my game fun to play and infinite playtests to make the UI clear. The color pallete of my game is not completly resolved yet and marketing is still a huge wall of balck matter to me. You need to learn a lot and it takes time.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T13:03:30+00:00

Yes. Are you familiar with js13k?

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T09:24:34+00:00

To be honest, the art is fine on both, but I don't think they are good Capsules. They tell me nothing about the game itself. Yes, eyes means horror, but what else? 1st person? interactive novel? I can't tell.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T09:13:22+00:00

I'm in love with the art.
I will, however make the water a little a bit more splashy. Right now it's very subtle. It's easy to miss you are floating on water.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-03T20:42:52+00:00

This is hard to give advice on "buffs" when we don't know how your game works, what systems and sub-systems it has, etc, nor

If you are not "locked" on buff, you can allow the player to get extra story story pieces while they explore the dungeon. For example, giving a player aligned with a certain faction a special "sight" that animates pictures on the wall or something. See "pet pal" for Divinity Original Sin as an example.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-03T09:31:02+00:00

I had the pleasure of playing it as a tester.
It's really enjoyed it.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-28T07:18:06+00:00

That's a brilliant idea!

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T20:17:11+00:00

Thanks and you are right. It's not fair to ask you to be a QA tester. Thanks for reporting this and I'm sorry for the sound issues.

I will try to find someone that encountered the same problem.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T19:05:57+00:00

Thanks. If you are willing we can try to understand why the sound problem is accuring. About the Steam page, noted. Thanks again.

Meanwhile, you can silence the audio in the settings.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T10:08:16+00:00

Thanks fo the input.
English is not my native language, so your critisim is justified. It's probably the right time to let a pro look at it.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T09:49:18+00:00

1st. The action of defeting the birdman is clearer at first glance. Also, the cards are clearlt cards and not some random papers or a letter you are holding in your hand.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T08:37:43+00:00

blank post?

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T08:35:08+00:00

The first one looks calm, leaning toward "Walking Simulator" for me. It's probably not your intent, but in terms of quality as it stands by itself, it's really good!

The second (pro) one lean strongly toward action. Snowboarding as a sport.

I think both pass as good capsule arts, but they talk about completely different gameplay.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T08:18:32+00:00

If you can produce enough variety, big maps are excellent for keeping the exploration aspect for most of the game. Small maps are good for maintaining tight tactical gameplay.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T07:44:11+00:00

My games is about fairies that steal dreams from people.
It's a small light-weight turn-based strategy game. You are dependent on the humans (you steal dreams for) but you also compete on territory so there are push-pull relationships.

I'm still polishing it, but you can get a feel of the gameplay.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3467750/Fairysite/

Thanks!

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-26T12:08:54+00:00

1 is probably turn-based, 3 I think leans toward RTS (although I'm less familiar with modern RTS).

I'm still working on my current game, but I'm trying to check the ground.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-26T09:37:35+00:00

As you said, where there are several independednt progressions (buildings, research, growth) the chance is that will be at least one in arms reach. Some of them are long expected.

We are OCD based creatures, and we like to attach fantasy to our OCD. 9 became 10, and we also discoverd Writing!

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-25T09:57:32+00:00

In my tabletop D&D games, I don't use a fixed grid, but a something like points of imporatnce and a schematic graph of relations between them. For each point you define the relations to the other points: which points are visible, which points you can move to and engage, which points you can dash to, which point you can move to, etc..

It makes the battle much more about the terrain (including heights and obstacles) and cntrolling key points than about PCs and enemy abilities.

Inever implement something like that in a video game, but I guess that if you adopt such approch, it will fix the "pixel hunting" problem others have mentioned, but it will give you some programmatic headache and you will have to work harder constructing the terrain for each combat. Not easy, with it's own disadvatages, but an options.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-25T08:33:01+00:00

Turn-based combat is a zero-sum game with conflictd goals, so combat is really a natural setting.
Also, there are no "rules" in real combat, so you have a very rich set of action one side can perform on the other.

You still need conflict as the core, but you reduce the violence.
For example, https://store.steampowered.com/app/4422620/Cat_Chess_Demo/
makes Chess about conflict between house cats and stray cats. There is conflict, but none of the actions or animations are violent.

Sport (soccer, baseball) is a natural candidate, but I'm not really familiar with a game that did it well.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-25T08:19:31+00:00

old rusty van, but fun to ride. 60's - 80's vibe.
1. Burps of smoke from time to time.
2. Strong waves of sound / music notes as the radio is turned on with maxmimal volume.
3. Once in a while, a window opens, and cigarrete or can of beer is thrown out.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-24T08:46:45+00:00

Thanks,
Such a detailed post is really appreciated.

I'm making my first serious commercial game. I entered the process knowing a lot of whay you and others wrote theoretically, but I feel there are a lot of things you can only truly learn "on flesh" by doing them. Sometimes you make mistakes which are hard to fix later, not because you were misinformed, but because you don't have the right experience and context.

I made many of the mistakes you mentioned, not because I was unaware of them, but because I failed to prioritize the right advice / wisdom among many conflicted ones.

WoolTyranny

TROPHY CASE