What's your opinion on Non-Combat Survival Horror Starcraft Games?

if you don't know what a Non-Combat Survival Horror Starcraft Game is...

It's a game on Starcraft that puts you in control of a unit with no attacking power(civilian, medic, 0dmg unit, etc) and you must survive through and eery and scary place(horror). They might be one of those games with cheap triggers killing you all over the place although most of these games give you a gun eventually and actually feature combat so are therefore not a Non-Combat game.

Examples include "Who's the Murderer", I guess most games with the word "Haunted or Scary" but they usually include a weapon later in game, and "Slasher Movie"(although mostly a movie more than game). These might be some bad examples although I liked Slasher Movie, since none of them really follow the genre completely but comes close. Care to suggest a SC game that follows the genre?

I was thinking of making a Non-Combat Survival Horror RPG Starcraft Game. My question is, would such a game work on Starcraft? You have the naysayers which may start with "Starcraft isn't scary" who have only played crappy instant trigger kill maps or play a horror game with maphack on. Others may say a game without combat is a totally boring game. If such a game with that genre was done right...would you be able to play it and actually enjoy it?

I can tell making such a map could be a real challenge. Worst of all my idea is coming out strongly Single-Player (yes it may help with the scary aspect when you play without spammers, but who's gonna want to try such a game with friends?). Worst yet again I want the watchers to see the game as a "horror movie" sculpted by the first player's actions. I felt this was possible.

People watch movie maps on Starcraft right? Not only that but I'm sure people would like talking to their friends and offering suggestions on where to go and see the consequences unfold. Then there is the average bnetter...which will probably not be all appealing to them.

Hopefully you guys can see the challenges I have of making this idea work for players. I should expand my genre to: Non-Combat Survival Horror RPG Single-Player Starcraft Game. I however really want to emphasize the "watcher" aspect and guide it so people will want to host it on Bnet. I want to make it so people want to watch with the main player and have a good time.

Now anyway back to the main question...

What's your opinion on Non-Combat Survival Horror Starcraft Games?

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 24 2010, 3:33 pm by EzTerix.

If you implement puzzles so that you aren't constantly running from zombies/monsters, then it might be fun. I've always been a fan of starting out with nothing or just a melee weapon and searching for a handgun. But if you want to make it totally non combat, complex puzzles must be included to keep the players from getting bored.

Good suggestion. Puzzles usually help break the usual aspect of the game and add something a little different. Probably a good thing to add to a game with little combat.

Also wanted to add that the puzzles shouldn't be too random. They can probably hurt the atmosphere or just feel a little "Oh look another puzzle...wheres the walkthrough".

Any concept ought to be able to be made 'good' if you execute it right. Without having yet brainstormed ideas for this in particular, I can't tell you how to go about doing that, though.

Yeah but my main problem is to make people think "Hmm I should host this on Bnet" even though there's only one player actually playing the game with two onlookers. I'm not sure how to make it interesting for the couple of watchers.

Why wouldn't it be interesting? It'd be like watching a horror movie for them.

That's what I thought. I haven't tested the concept yet though so I can't say officially "The average bnetter won't like watching the map!"

My suggestion: Lose the horror aspect and make Portal in SC.

Try to find the Horror Survival aka Survival Horror series done by PickledNails, damned_soldier and killer(god). They were horrid maps because the mappers themselves were inexperienced and I am sure that it was their first mapping attempts. However, the ideas behind it all were INGENIOUS. Survival Horror Zero, One and Two. Although half of One and most of Two were both attacking based.

I really liked the games because they were puzzles where you actually had to read what it said, decipher it and continue on. Not to mention running from all sorts of fucked up shit, as I played the maps when I was about ten or so.

If you need any ideas for creepy type things, refer to ideas by JaFF for his Thing map, my Sanctuary map and (U)Bolt_Head's Haunted Mansion. All had an eerie feel to them, with a few surprises here and there as well.

Portal was it's own interactive puzzle game with a somewhat interesting plot. I'm not a really puzzle game type of maker (if you look in my Silent Hill game it lacks a lot of puzzles and relies mostly on common sense).


Yes I agree there are many maps made by players with potential...but then they suck horribly and then the maps turn into garbage. I'm not really a puzzle type maker but I think I can actually use my head and make a few good puzzles. The idea is not to make it so random and out there so the players don't think "ugh another puzzle...". For instance rearranging wires in an electrical control panel...but that's so cliche ;p. It still works though.

I used to make a bunch of crappy "horror" maps a LONG time ago and didn't return to map making until during the summer of 2009. Since then I pumped out a few games and my most professional would probably be Silent Hill: Restless Dreams.

I think I know well enough about the survival horror genre. It would be nice to hear some tips from Jaff and (U)Bolt_Head though about making a horror map. I have a ton of ideas for this game and they all sound really good (to me at least). Just want to make it appealing to the players. The Non-Combat Survival Horror is a really tough one to pull off since many people are used to actually fighting and think a game with no combat is a boring one. Most of the time it is.

Well, in my opinion, there could be some key things in making the game more... "Scary," for lack of a better word. Thrilling maybe.

1. You could use a variant of the 20x12 center screen concept, which is where you have no rectangular, simply regular terrain assigned into blocks. Overlap the 20x12 locations, making them more like 18x10 areas, so screen transition will be really easy. Making it so you cant look ahead/behind you without actually being there.
2. Implement interactive puzzles. This is something that hasn't been done much in SC, a puzzle that feels more like a frustratingly hard mini-game.
3. Switches. Make lots of "when you do this, this unexpected thing happens." Or you could be crafty and make it a surprise. For instance, make a room where you have enemies spawn by activating something, which repeats when needed, then having to maybe herd those zombies somewhere to fulfill some quota. Maybe trapping them onto several weigh-in pads.
4. I always thought a game where you couldn't directly kill a unit, but used other means to accomplish this. Maybe a room where sieged tanks shoot burrowed units and somehow, you tell the tanks what to shoot by touching/doing something. Make puzzles/areas where this was key.
5. AI. Make good, smart, triggered AI. This also ties into the idea of Triggered Events. If you plan to make a really good Horror map, I suggest making things that would make people think "OH SHI- OH SHI-" and something comes to fix it for them, then people are like "OH THANK Y... OH SHI-!" Always a funny thought. Several different enemies that aren't always allied makes for a fun time too.

I really like the 20x12 concept although I'll have to adjust it for my idea of a map. Puzzles are something I have to come up with and the AI just must be smart

I had an idea: How about, a sort of "minigame" or part where you are given a dropship to unload units (or gateway), and there are four corridors around you. You can't see the end of any of them. You are in the center, with nothing around you but inactive turrets, (two turrets in each corridor) and one perma-active turret in the center where you are. Enemies come down each of the corridors (Something reasonably slow like zealots). Unloading certain units in the dropship activates certain turrets in one corrider, say, the North one. Those turrets then kill each of the units in that corridor, and unloading another unit in the dropship would deactivate the current turrets, and activate the ones in another corridor... and you get it.

What do you think?

!Interesante!

I don't see it in my upcoming game since the game will yet again be story focused and have a surprisingly small amount of enemies. This idea might work some other game and sounds interesting.

I would love to play a map like this. Horror maps have always been a favorite of mine In the horror map series I made, Each one started you off playing as civilians having to run and puzzle solve, similar to what you're describing here. Although in my maps those parts only lasted for about 10-15 minutes as you'd find weapons. It'd be challening to make an entire map like that and keep it interesting but i'd love to see one.