cjmelendez_Brian Gomez, design director of the upcoming Silent Hill: Downpour stepped up to talk about the survival horror genre at this years Games Developers Conference. Gomez has worked on horror titles such as: Alone in The Dark, Evil Dead, and Clive Barker’s Jericho.
Gomez spoke about the Survival Horror genre and the mechanics they must employ to be successfully scary. Among his points was that developers must dis-empower players so they fear conflict within the game.
“Survival horror is all about making players feel dis-empowered. As developers we are taught with the core rules not to take away player agency and control. But in survival horror we need to learn to break some of those rules.” Gomez states.
There seems to be a smaller emphasis on the survival aspect of Survival Horror these days. While Dead Space 2 is a fantastic game, Isaac felt very empowered. It could easily be considered an Action Horror game because of this. I would hate to see the Survival Horror genre fade away. Hopefully we will continue to see the Survival Horror genre stay alive in the Silent Hill series and with games like Amnesia, and Amy.
Hopefully Brian’s full presentation will be available to watch soon. I look forward to seeing his words in action when Silent Hill: Downpour releases.
