Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
creepiness (and some of them are really dangerous!): spiders, scorpions, and centi-
pedes.
They have adverse visual features such as jointed legs, spikes, exoskeletons, tails,
multiple eyes, mandibles, and pincers. The key visual element is a gad, associated
with cuts, injuries, and so on, that contradicts a cute creature's properties, which
has no acute angles. Moreover, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals look danger-
ous when they show their teeth, canines, tusks, horns, clutches, or sharp beaks. A
predator is frightening because it shows it threatens with its weaponry: the potential
danger is pretty obvious and their current intention is questionable. Now, the eyes
comes into play. If they are fixed at you and are not blinking, it is most likely that the
predator ispaying attention to youand that issuper scary. Furthermore, the eyescan
be red because the reflection of light creates such an image. Dangerous creatures
are fast so they can move and attack quickly; this means their limbs are pretty long,
but bodies are narrow and streamlined. The following figure shows a scary creature:
Besides aggressive elements, other unpleasant properties can be used to increase
the emotional impact; for example, the character can be additionally disgusting if it is
coveredwithstrangeskinandevenmucus.That turnsonthedreadofbiologicalsub-
stances andthe fear of germsandparasites. Squeamishness isoneof the protection
systems of a human, and sometimes it is very unconditional. Such an approach was
used in Ridley Scott's science fiction classics Alien : apparently the xenomorph was
inspired by various creepy creatures, including arthropods and reptiles.
In addition, it had a very disgusting feature: toxic saliva was always dripping from his
mouth, causing the viewers to feel terror and revulsion, a doubled negative emotion.
While creating a scary character, remember some basic features it needs to express
through its design:
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