Horror Project- Fear

I recently played a Japanese horror game for the PlayStation Portable called 'Corpse Party'. It was very unique as it was styled like a 2D RPG, but it had no RPG elements other than a HP gauge, and was more akin to a digital graphic novel within a game environment. One of the more unique elements was that it had a really disturbing atmosphere as it seemed to be unflinching in its description of really disturbing violent scenes. Corpses litter the game world and part of the gameplay is examining them and chronicling the gruesome method in which they were killed.

Usually, survival horror titles have reservations when it comes to violence as they are high-spec in their graphics and have to tone down elements in order to avoid censorship or restrictive ratings. This doesn't hold true for this game, as the 2D graphics aren't particularly gratuitous; it relies completely on text descriptions of events which are much more visceral for someone like me who likes reading. The game is sometimes assisted with anime-style static images which depict some of the scenes.

What was most fascinating was that the game had its origins in RPG Maker! It then went through several incarnations before being remastered and translated for English-speaking audiences on PSP. This gave me the inspiration to do a similar project, as I wish to use the unreleased RPG Maker VX Ace for Fragments, and have no other project in the meantime.

I've procured a survey to research what people would want to see if I did a similar game.

I've started the game (titled 'Fear' at the moment), designing it with no RPG elements, instead having a more puzzle/exploration driven game with an in-depth plotline (and scares of course!).

The title screen for 'Corpse Party', developed by Team GrisGris and translated for PSP by Xseed Games.

The game's visceral scenes are usually augmented by 2D artwork showing the gruesome happenings.

Being Japanese in origin, the game features frequently disturbing content, such as murderous children.

Shocks mainly come from the reactions of the playable characters, and the description of what is happening, rather than what is actually shown. This is mainly because of technology constraints, but it has a great effect as the player can imagine it looking worse than any graphics can show, such as this scene above, in which the girls discover a body completely mashed against the wall, with entrails and blood all over the floor.

This is the beginning of my project, Fear, which I want to set in a stereotypical 'haunted' mansion in homage to Alone in the Dark (the world's first survival horror).