Horror Games get Darkness WRONG, I Fixed it | Devlog

Storyline / Premise

The devlog doesn’t focus on a traditional narrative plot. Instead, it centers on the horror game’s player experience at night:

• Players hunt creatures
• Players must avoid obstacles
• Players must navigate dark environments

A key design problem the creator addresses is that many horror games make nighttime literally pitch-black, forcing near-total dependence on a flashlight.

The goal is to make darkness feel like real night, not just a black screen.

Gameplay Highlights & Key Changes to “Darkness”

The author wants players to perceive their surroundings through human vision adaptation rather than relying on brighter lighting.

Instead of treating darkness as “dim the scene,” the system models how visibility degrades:

• Loss of color (rods dominate; cones don’t work well in darkness)
• Reduced detail and contrast
• Blurring (rod clustering behavior)
• “Noise” / shimmering perception consistent with what the brain and optic nerve process in low light

Implemented Approach (as Described)

Don’t treat darkness as brightness reduction

• The creator’s view: true realism comes from removing detail while still letting players see shapes.
• In other words: don’t just lower brightness—remove information.

Luminance-style processing

The technique resembles luminance segregation:

• Check/convert pixel color amount and compute luminance
• Split the image into bright vs. dark components for different processing

Effects applied to dark portions

• Shimmering colored noise in dark areas (to mimic low-light visual noise)
• An additional brightness/gain-like adjustment so the noise is visible
  • (The devlog references “Michael Jackson” humorously, likely meaning a leveling/brightness step.)
• Blur tuning to keep the scene plausible in darkness without becoming illegible

Vision-Based Survival Tension (Player Mechanics)

To heighten disorientation and vigilance, the design uses human-night vision behavior:

• Peripheral visibility > center vision at night
  • Rods concentrate in peripheral vision, making players feel less confident straight ahead.

Flashlight behavior

• When the flashlight is on, the player’s vision adjusts, reducing comfort in darkness.
• Turning the flashlight off/on repeatedly can be counterproductive because it may reset dark adaptation, reducing the advantage of quick toggling.

Creature eye reflection

• Many animals’ eyes reflect light, so the game adds eye reflections in dark areas.
• Reflection range is set farther than the flashlight illuminates, so players may sense “something is watching” before they can fully see it.
• The author emphasizes that eye-level reflections are particularly unsettling.

Lanterns / Safe Spots at Night (Resource-Gated)

To prevent players from getting lost while keeping fear intact, the game introduces controlled navigation relief:

• Lanterns are placed around the map
• Players can light them using finite matches
• Lit matches/lanterns create a localized bright area, acting as temporary “safe spots”

Matches as a trade-off resource

• Matches are limited (similar vibe to Amnesia: The Dark Descent candles)
• UI provides detail:
  • The matchbox opens on hover
  • It displays the correct remaining count
• The system models trade-offs:
  • Increased brightness widens the light cone and increases eye adaptation
  • When returning to darkness, players pay a comfort cost

Strategies / Design Tips Highlighted

• Don’t implement horror night as: “black screen = flashlight required.”
• Model darkness as loss of information, not just reduced brightness:
  • Use luminance handling + noise + blur + contrast/color loss
• Use lighting mechanics to create tension:
  • Flashlight can induce tunnel vision
  • Toggling affects adaptation timing and comfort
• Keep dark spaces playable without removing fear:
  • Darkness still contains usable cues (noise + peripheral cues + silhouette information)
• Preserve fear even when players change settings:
  • Because the system removes detail, increasing brightness won’t fully convert night into “daylike clarity” (unlike games where darkness is merely darkened-but-still-clear-rendered).

Gamers or Sources Featured

• Epic Games / Unreal Engine (referenced as course designer and engine origin)
• Coursera / Coursera Plus
• Google, Meta, IBM, Microsoft (mentioned partners)
• Michael Jackson (used as a joke reference for the darkness/brightness adjustment step)
• Dutch/German term: Eigengrau / Eigenlicht (intrinsic light; the gray seen when eyes are closed / in dark)
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent (candles/matches comparison)
• Romanon on Steam (wishlisted)
• Discord (where playtests can be signed up for)