What Design Choices are Effective in Inducing Fear and Tension in First-Person PC Horror Games?

Kai Lun Liao, Mengjie Huang*, Rui Yang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceedingConference Proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

As players demand better-quality horror games, a study is conducted to find the more practical design choices to induce fear and tension in first-person PC horror games. This research investigates designs on enemy appearances and movement artificial intelligence logic and builds corresponding demos for experiments. The data is collected by questionnaires and experiments that record participants' heart rates when playing horror games. The results show that using enemy designs with uncanny valley effect appearance and outflanking behaviour movement AI effectively induces fear and tension in first-person PC horror games. This study makes contribution to the design guidelines for game designers and developers in developing better-quality horror games.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication15th IEEE International Conference on Human System Interaction, HSI 2022
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
ISBN (Electronic)9781665468220
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event15th IEEE International Conference on Human System Interaction, HSI 2022 - Melbourne, Australia
Duration: 28 Jul 202231 Jul 2022

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Human System Interaction, HSI
Volume2022-July
ISSN (Print)2158-2246
ISSN (Electronic)2158-2254

Conference

Conference15th IEEE International Conference on Human System Interaction, HSI 2022
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityMelbourne
Period28/07/2231/07/22

Keywords

  • fear
  • horror game
  • movement logic
  • tension
  • uncanny valley

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