Is it me or is the "horror" genre tag being abused on new indie games these days?

I love horror games. 

I always loved the genre.

I enjoyed horror games from 10 years old.

Back then graphics were not SO realistic, having a 16bit system.

Horror movies influenced me worse, so I started watching horror films from my 16th birthday. 

Bottomline, here I am.Seen so many, played so many.

And here comes the deal:

A new game that asks for greenlight, or a game taking part in a contest, or a game in an indie site, or a game on a blog, claims that is a horror game.

I have seen a Slender rip off, where you can throw tires and various items to a slender man with red horns if I recall right, and also you can use a flamethrower against him...

I laughed so hard I woke my relatives up.

Then there was a game with mystery.

If a  game contains mystery, people tag it also as a horror game for no reason.

If a game has a murder, it is tagged as horror again. WHY?

HELLOOOO!!!!!

Horror is not the same as scary.

Mysterios isn't horror alone.

You can make a psychedelic game that can count as horror, with no ghosts, no gore, no blood, no paranormal events, no aliens, not any particular threat at all. You can have everything I mentioned above and still NOT have a horror game though. Am I wrong?

Horror is something that can haunt you.

Horror is something that will terrify you.

Make you feel intense fear. Beat your comfort. 

Horror was F.E.A.R.

Horror was Amnesia

Horror were SOME Silent Hill games
Horror was Dread Out

Horror was the four adventures about Chzo (I really enjoyed them)

Horror was Ib and I really liked it.

Horror was Slender.

So I suppose people abuse the popularity of this tag to draw attention to their game.

What is your opinion people.

Am I wrong?

If this is our criteria for a horror game then I'd argue that for most of us horror games don't exist at all. Such a thing is very subjective, what may terrify one person might be a cheesy gimmick to another(f.e.a.r for example, I wouldn't consider to be a horror game in the slightest.) game genres are already I'll defined these days, generally if it has elements of one genre some will classify it as such.

Well to tell the truth about my game "Go To Sleep"

it talks about murder but also has Jeff the killer in it, right?

Some people are super afraid of him

and his image can haunt them, my game includes the images of jeff the killer..

so i don't think i abused "Horror" Genre, even though my game is about murder mystery, it also contains Jeff.

I wasn't talking about you at all. :p

Oh, You got a link! I'll try it.

Pictures look promising.

I will PM you to tell give you some feedback.

I am actually talking about then absence of any horror element in a game, but still because there is mystery fpor instance, some people use the term.

Alexander you are right. It seems I become more and more biased on the genre.

But there are games out there that still count for me as horror, while others don't.

I was wondering if other people seen this issue from the same viewpoint, in order to criticize my own self really.

Still some Greenlight games were a joke though. ;)

Perhaps it's horror as in: "Horrifyingly terrible game?"

On a more serious note: Horror has mostly been abandoned by the big publishers. This provides indie devs with a rather big niche market. Of course people are going to exploit that market. I think one of the underlying problems here is that developers are copying whole games in stead of the parts of them that make them good. Thus you get a Slender clone, which doesn't qualify as true horror, but is tagged as horror because it has Slenderman in it.

There has been a surge in horror game development recently and I think that it's due to the exposure the genre can receive. I think calling the act of taking advantage of this type of situation "abuse" is a bit much though. Seeing an opportunity (or trend) and taking it is a big part of getting your game/idea noticed. I personally define any work with the goal of invoking fear, horror. I for one see the first Bioshock as a horror game but many others wouldn't agree.

No argument here at all. If fear is not invoked at all though... that's when I got beef. :)

I think there is a difference between a horror game and a horror themed game.

Stephen King had this to say regarding horror: “The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”

Horror is subjective, any plot can be considered horror if written the right way. Being trapped in a dark place, with slow, yet deadly monsters lurching after you is horror; slowly going insane and knowing you're going insane is terrifying, and being unable to tell whether the monsters are real or not, whether the scratches on your arm was inflicted by monsters, or yourself, is terrifying.

Heck, even a murder mystery can be considered horror, especially if you can't tell who the murderer is, and knowing that they want to kill you is a cerebral pant-soiler. It all comes down to how it's written, presented, and played. There's a phobia for everything, after all. (Sometimes literally.)

I would like to hear more about that.

When you got time... ;)


So if someone makes for instance a game that focus on hero's desperation and an inner struggle, causing him/her agony, adding intensity and having always a feeling that something bad will happen, counts as horror all right?

I am glad to hear such a thing.

Actually I was feeling really lost in my own universe.

I can not be afraid easily, but on the other hand I wanted to make a horror game.

But since I am a very VERY strict judge when it comes to horror, I could not be open minded on a lot of things mentioned here.

So I was possibly false thining that people were using the genre tag wrong and so I was afraid to add this "sacred" tag to my own project.

Seems that by giving me your point of view, makes me rethink and reconsider of some stereotypes I have in my mind. 

Not to mention that I would love to hear more from all of you people.

Thank you!  :rock-left:   :rock-right:

Horror is pretty much a thematic and/or setting, I think the issue is that it can be confused as a reference for established game formulas instead. Castlevania is famous example of "horror" being used as a setting, but it can't be compared to the games that are considered "horror games" popularly, much like Touchfuzzy said. Not to mention that the Horror thematic itself is very extensive and composed of different types of segments.


If you consider the subjectivity of themes that evokes fear in some people but doesn't do it for others, it's even harder to define a "right" usage for it.

Exactly. My point of view, is that horror must at least create that kind of anxiety we feel, when we believe we are in a hostile place or situation.

But that's my personal point of view only.

People can define horror genre in a different way. 

On the other hand, there are people that think of horror as a theme. In that case, you can have an even humorous game about zombies eating brains and stuff and still flag it under horror.

I am concerned about if this ok  really.

I wonder what horror means today for the majority of people.

I would also like to bring up something. The video game, Nier, is a hack and slash styled adventure game that has a major theme of sorrow and despair. However, there is one area in the game where it uses some horror themes and references to games, ranging from monochrome coloration, to fixed camera points, to subtle creepy details like statues and changing portraits, also the theme for the area, 'The Ultimate Weapon', which is very creepy and beautiful. Many games use horrifying instances with little to no explanation for them.

There's also a person on Youtube called 'The Autarch of Flame' who lists disturbing video game music that are from otherwise non-horror games.

I personally love horror in media that aren't strictly horror, even if the horror comes from me thinking about a certain innocuous scene that becomes terrifying in hindsight.

The new Silent Hill seems pretty cool

Marketing.

As a general trend nowadays, terms are used without relation to their meaning.

There are so many games that claim to be RPGs, but only have a couple stats to tweak.

Recently, I saw the trailer for a hack&slash game named Kyn. At then end of the trailer, there's written "A true adventurer's adventure game".

No. Just no. There's nothing close to an actual Adventure game in Kyn.

I guess it's the same with the Horror keyword.

If it has one little sequence remotely scary, just put horror and hope it will sell better.

I think a very good horror game is one that gives that pulse-pounding sense of primal fear.  But, what does that varies so wildly from person to person.   Most importantly, a very good game needs to really draw the player into its world.  If a game fails in this, it can't really create horror for the player.

If the player closely identifies with the protagonist, having the protagonist's world fall apart can create a great deal of horror, particularly if the player has a similar fear.

Post apocalyptic CAN be played for horror, but some games (Fallout series perhaps) avert this.

I think, as developers, there are a LOT of subtle things we can do to induce horror.  For example:

Slowly fading out the background sound and music, to having all of the people in the area run away (or just not be there).  Then, as the screen slowly starts fading out to black, you hear a faint sound of heavy breathing.  Once the screen turns totally dark, cue a scream and sound of squished flesh.  The lights abruptly come back on, and one of your party members is gone, replaced by a bloody body.

Anyways, to get back on topic, do I feel the horror genre is being abused?  Not any more than any other genre, really.  Not all indie developers are created equal.  Frankly, some will be very unskilled, and the irony is since we use that skill to judge how good we are, they'll have no idea they ARE unskilled.

Playtesting and constructive feedback can help immensely, but maybe some developers either don't know that or don't really have anyone who would do either.

i could make a better horror genre then most of the major games companies ever could and i still wouldn't label it a "horror Game"

actually that's not a bad idea......

Anything that can make me hard to sleep is a horror, wether it's about ghost, gore, or only a thing that disgusting.. If it has ghost or murdering theme but I still can sleep with ease, it's not a horror :)

100% to the point!!!!

That's exactly what I am concerned.

I get annoyed if a game is not what it says it is.

a non Adventure "Adventure game", an non RPG "PRG Game" and finally... a non horror "horror game".

The problem is... I can easily distinguish lamers from good developers, when it comes to a term like RPG or Adventure.

Horror is too blurry.

I wanna make a story and music driven game. It can count as a "horror" game to some people, while to others it might not count as horror.

I feel unable to determine though, if it counts as a horror game in general.

Since I don't wanna do what I hate doing to me... I asked this question, to see if the genre titling was wrongly used  in your opinion.

What @cabfe said is 100% to the point. I have seen a lot of examples, especially in the indie communities or the Greenlights.

But seen something happening by many does not mean it is the right thing to do... or is it ok? See? That's the real question.

Hmm I can see how it would mean different things to different people, not sure if that makes it right or wrong but yes it does get overused a little, still I am glad to see things being tagged because I like horror games and it saves me time when looking through games.