Agenda

Breaking the mold of traditional horror game combat, SILENT HILL f was intentionally designed as the first melee only entry title in the series. During this talk we will examine and break down the critical tempo regulating design of traditional ranged horror game combat and how we adapted or created new systems in SILENT HILL f in order to preserve combat pacing.

Examples will be given using direct system and mechanical comparisons and explaining the design process and decision making steps of: key combat systems, progression, enemy A.I., all the way to the visual and mechanical design of our main character, Hinako.

Takeaway

Attendees will learn the decisions behind why SILENT HILL f became a melee only horror game and gain a deeper understanding of how gameplay systems in traditional horror games that we might take for granted are critical to the genre's combat tempo. This will be shown by development examples that show how we analyzed, replicated, and created variations of these regulatory systems for SILENT HILL f.

Intended Audience

Developers curious about how SILENT HILL f's design chose to go fully melee combat and our analytical approach to methodically breaking apart historical horror game combat systems and rebuilding them for SILENT HILL f may find this talk interesting.

This content will be useful in general for developers working with combat systems, especially those that are working towards significantly different directions in genres that traditionally have strong and more rigid player expectations.