I'm starting on a new project on a dungeon map, crypt type place. The theme would be scary. I know the basic things that make people afraid, dark spooky, wicked, loud bangs and stuff like that. But I want to know what you guys are most afraid of. This might be a fun experiment on getting all those little fears into one map... Just post what your afraid of OR PM it to me if your too shy to shout it aloud

[edit] omfg I remembered to use this button instead of making a new post, whoppee !... oh ya. The map will be for HL. Single player type of a minimod or something, time will tell.

To tell you the truth, nothing in a game actually "scares" me, but startle, sure. Try quick, random attacks from monsters, or anything quick and loud moving across the room, like a falling pipe.

What always scares me in games is something really big you have to run from.

i.e. The first Gargantua encounter in HL.

And all of Shadow of Colossus.

You got scared of SoC?

Well for me it is darkness and strange noises...especially the WEIRRRD noises...Oh and zombie nurses...Keep them away.

It was the tension, which induces panic and thusly fear.

Childrens laughter.

It really scares me a lot when you walk for a while in a dark place(let's say , for about 2 minutes ) but I don't encounter any monster (even I expect this ),and when you don't expect , in a darker place , a freak monster appears .

catching stuff out of the corner of your eye, but not being sure of doing so plays with your subconscious mind something awful.

FEAR would have done it perfectly if it wasn't for that bloody stupid voilin strike every time you see something in the shadows.

Excessive unexplained gore can work well, too. Just seeing someone slaughtered horribly isn't terribly scary, but if it's unexplained, or you just find the corpse/blood stains then it can mess with you.

Gman is freaky. The way he pops up. Honestly I thought he was the last boss of HL... was kinda surprised at the ending come to what it did.

Fat, ugly women running at me, wanting to have sex with me.

Seriously, as Hunter mentioned, unexplained gore does the job, but I think that in the case of FEAR it was only scary until like half-past through the game, there were too many little girl appearances, blood puddles and it wasn't scary anymore. Other than that, I believe that the good ol' "boo" tactic is quite effective, i.e. being in a dark room when suddenly a monster attacks you unexpected, or a fat, ugly woman breaks in the door and wants to have sex with you.

Have a dude from DoD come out and noscope you in the face... that always makes me jump! = )

Awsome inputs here! Some of these things I already had planned, the fat lady... maybe not. I'm new to mini mods though, anyone know a good site to get different models for zombies ... etc ? The scientist zombie doesnt quite suit the crypt style of ancient and mystic.

easy enough to reskin out of Scientist clothes. You don't really need a whole new model

As stated before, sudden, indistinguishable but definitely noticable things flitting from place can put the player on-edge. He expects he'll have to fight it if he keeps seeing little bits of it from time to time. There were some parts of Doom 3 that did this and scared my shitless, like when an Imp would jump onto a glass window I was looking through or crawling on the ceiling and dropping down in front of me.

Loud noises.
Dark, weird ambiance. (aliens talking, whatever)
Just having the power go out, and then you hear something come near you, but you can't find an exit or ammo.
Then the lights flash and you see "it",
Then the lights come back on and you don't
then.. more loud noises, and whatever "it" is is suddenly behind you.

*panic
*suspense
*the urge to rush

horror (kinda)

I don't have sure what I'm scared from on the games, but I didn't got scared any moment in FEAR, never played Doom 3 tought. The one game who made me scared but very impressed is Paranoia.
Some red flicking lights and an alarm sounding... And you walk for almost 4 minutes hearing zombies beating on doors and then a freaking creature appears behind you and another on your front, those are very cool forms to make me scared... Very scared.
Also near 2003 I got a nightmare with a baby with adult like face... Lol... Maybe a baby zombie.

http://twhl.co.za/mapvault_map.php?id=2106

Try this map, but World Crafter, scariest map I've ever played in my life, at one part of it I got shocked so bad I practically fell of my chair.

I love things that frighten you for half a second and then you burst out laughing. Maybe a door opening really fast and weegee flying into your face, but there's no need to put that in the map, it'd just ruin it.

Otherwise, you'd find that the right ambience at the right time makes some people tremble.

All quiet then oh shit works, even when it's not dark.

Little or no ammo makes the player run a lot more.

I don't know about gore, it's just getting boring, I haven't seen anything gory that's scared me lately. Maybe you could change that.

Change in my plans, an era in my studies came up where I'm going to be busy as hell. So dont expect this to come soon... it will be one hell of a map though since I can give it a thought every now and then

I plan on not giving any weapons to the player. Brains and fast feet for this map.

Try playing Paranoia to get some ideas. The first time you encounter the zombie-things and the bit leading up to it was probably the scariest thing I've seen in an HL map.

Athlete, every time I am reminded of that map I cry myself to sleep because of how bad it realy is.

Paranoia is much like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, both gameplay and ambience-wise. Play Stalker, specifically the underground lab areas and I guarantee you'll at least get the eebie-jeebies.
Going through an abandoned area with very dim lighting, the occasional horribly-torn-apart victim lying around, the creepiest monsters roaming, who can turn themselves invisible and attack you unexpectedly and the best ambient track ever played throughout the level with randomly triggered noises, making you think there's something hiding in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to rip your balls off, imo, is the absolute definition of scary in video games and STALKER has that and more.

Try playing Paranoia to get some ideas. The first time you encounter the zombie-things and the bit leading up to it was probably the scariest thing I've seen in an HL map.

Yeah, I loved that adrenaline shot, just what I look for in horror maps

Aye, a long-winded approach to something very scary works extremely well. That paranoia part scared me shitless too.

Pretty much anything from any Silent Hill game is a good source for horror inspiration. They always nail suspenseful, moody environments.

Something that looks scary and pop out of corners, eg. mutants, are good for instant fright, but they don't last. Once you've seen one, their "scariness" begins to decrease exponentially with each encounter, so use "jumpers" in EXTREME moderation.
I've found that the best way to utilize a "jumper" is to build up a lot of suspense over it a few times without it actually happening. Then surprise the player by throwing something at them when they think they're safe. After that, they will never know when to expect anything and will get up tight over small things.

And just for the hell of it, you could check out my "Asylum" map for an old mini compo. http://twhl.co.za/mapvault_map.php?id=4564

Yeah. As Caboose said, Paranoia, that first encounter with the zombies, just your pistol and knife... that's damn freaky. Especially because they pretty much one-shot you usually (dunno how, but everytime one of them hit me, I always had 100hp and died on the spot... easy mode).

Afraid of Monsters was pretty damn intense too... never got passed the first level... to scared. Freakin zombies with seizure heads coming at 23948723mph is hella freaky.

Oh man, I forgot about AoM.. those zombies were awesome, the first time one came at me like that brix were shat.

Just remembered They Hunger too. Not that scary, but pretty creepy at times. I that mod.

You guys are giving me lots of pressure, now you expect me to make one awsome scary ass map

Blueprints are done, just need to start mapping and texturing, texturing being my weak point... this will take a while