Would an idea of a horror game without darkness work?

A horror game, but no darkness, everything is happening in daylight. Scariness is supposed to come from the atmosphere of unnerving loneliness: the house is empty, not a single soul around, there are only other empty detached houses as far as you can see around, it's oddly quite (maybe with some loop d eerie sounds) and you can't escape the territory around your house
I'd like to execute this idea, but I honestly don't know any horror game with such concept, so I'm not sure it'd work out. What do you think?

 

Try it out.

 

Fair enough

 

what difference is it that hte darkness is makinig?

I think it's because it makes it so that there is much you cannot see. so imagination goes to work.

if there is a lot of places a thing could be hidden, maybe you dont need the darkness then. Could be a maze like area, outdoors or indoors, maybe thick forest with big trees. and the bad thing circling around, hard to track, so you always feel like it could be behind you.

thats idea i'd play with.

 

Mooncrash does a pretty good job of the horror thing while not relying on darkness. You're going through familiar environments pretty regularly, but it messes with you by subtly changing them. It's also consistently raising the stakes, and always throwing new unknown elements at you.

 

Transparency is your friend in the light...

 

You are not describing a game, you are describing a location... one where nothing happens. So no, that won't be engaging in my humble opinion. But that has nothing to do with the lack of darkness. You can make the later work, but you need to think about what's happening and what the player is doing.

You mean the Prey DLC? That was great, really enjoyed it. The base game is fantastic too. The mimic mechanic was a great way of making you paranoid and hiding things without darkness.

Spoiler

 

PT

Nuff said.

 

D2 on the sega dreamcast, did something kinda like that. Some parts of the game, have you walking in daytime through snow, and creepy monsters attack you.

 

I made a few 360 horror videos which are doing well on Oculus TV (Immersive Sound VR). I am in the process of creating a game. I believe any character or environment can be scary if the story is backed up by great music and sound design. We always thought clowns were funny and targeted toward a young audience but we all know this isn't the case anymore.
I prefer to use dark environment because it is another ingredient for a successful scary movie but you can make a good cake without all the ingredients.

 

In the Phendrana Drifts snow stage in Metroid Prime 1, which is a daytime stage, there are wild animals called Sheegoths, that shake the ground, and chase and tackle you when you approach them. Sometimes they sneak up on you too. I'll be honest, those things still kinda scare me to this day. Worse, if you encounter an adult Sheegoth.

The other thing that adds to the scariness, is the rumble effect on the nintendo gamecube controller. Anytime a Sheegoth walks or does an attack, the rumble on the gamepad shakes and rumbles, adding to the scary effect. Maybe you could use, the rumble feature of game pads to your advantage too, to add extra scariness to your game.

 

Sound can be an ally, for making a game like that. If used correctly, you could use sounds, to create a spooky atmosphere.

 

When trying to flesh out a concept like this, you'll probably be able to find the answers you're looking for by asking, "why" to what you've already stated, (and then ask it of those answers):

• Why is there no other soul around?
• Why is the player character still around?
• Why can't the player character escape the territory around the house?

Creating the sense of unease or dread that a good horror experience depends on doesn't require darkness. Darkness is an easy way to create a sense that a player doesn't know what's coming, because especially with a ghost or monster-centered horror game, the thing coming to get you is the fear you foster. In a psychological horror, you can find a way to establish with the player that they do not know exactly what's coming, but that what's coming will be unpleasant.

A good example of a well-lit psychological horror game is the demo called "Sentient" by Forma Games. You're not stuck in the dark, but you are heavily immersed in a "where the f--- am I and what's going on" situation that creates a feeling of unease, along with an opening to the location that you can't get into, but don't know what might come out of it.

https://forma.games/index.html (just scroll down a bit to the download link for "Sentient")

 

There is plenty of scary gamed in daylight, and the current fad if liminal space says hi.

 

I think the darkness trend in horror games is because the unknown is scary, and we've also naturally evolved to be scared of things we can't quite see. But I definitely do not think it's necessary, the backrooms has people horrified and most games with it don't use darkness at all. I'd say GimmyDev is right and liminal spaces are where you want to go. Something like a fake happy world that slowly becomes hell. For a game jam I tried making a horror stealth game where you're in a 2D game at first until you pressed W or S in which the 2D background drops to the floor and guards rush in to tranquilize you. Although with all this, I still don't see why you'd want to limit yourself, having the game mostly in sunlight is fine but avoiding darkness altogether seems like a trap.