Horror game design – what instills fear in the player? : A study on the effects of horror game design theories and level design patterns on player behaviour in a horror environment.

Sammanfattning: This research paper aimed to study how to make a scary horror game and what in turn makes these games scary. This study utilizes an original game called The House specifically designed and created by us. This is done in order to study the effects of implementing level design and navigation patterns and horror game design theories in an original horror game on player behaviour and reaction in relation to these theories. The study was done with the use of 10 participants, who each took part in a 15 minute play session, and were later interviewed using the data gathering method stimulated recall. The result of the study shows that level design had no significant effect on the amount of fear that the participants expressed. The implementation of proven horror game design theories proved successful at contributing to the general horror experience, and combining elements of level design and horror game theories in horror game design proved successful at scaring the participants.