The Dink Network

I´m making a D-Mod, i´m trying to make "scary" and I need some hints to do it (this will be my first D-Mod).

Here goes "scary" things that the D-Mod already have:
- Dark places (Uses lantern all the game)
- A monster that sometimes follows you, and he´s very strong, so you have to run (Like Nemesis from RE3).
- A town with zombies, a spooky cemetery.

Now what you think it needs?? Do you know any pack with scary monsters and sounds?? Am I spamming??

PS. Many users of the DN knows that I´ve sent many previews of D-Mods, asked for help many times, but this time i´m working "seriously" ( <-- Is it wrong??), sorry to everyone who helped me at others Mods, maybe theirs helps aren´t useful now, but this time is serious and if I don´t send a demo until the end of this year, i´ll cancel my account.

Thanks to all.

I might be speaking for myself only, but using a lantern throughout the game might be a bit tedious. How about just some lantern areas? In a maze of caves or something?

I really liked the feel of the Darklands in the original Dink. The eerie voices and thorny bushes would be nice, and maybe some inexplicable things happening (such as the screenlock turning on for a while for no apparent reason).

Oooh, I like that idea about the screenlock, Sharp
Also, you should play around with sound effects a lot. The horror genre thrives on it. Lantern effect does kind of make things darker and scarier, but like Sharp said, I wouldn't use it all over the d-mod. It will lose its effect if you use one feature too much.

And I agree also, a lantern all the way through would be dang boring! I know I'd get so frustrated that I'd quit after a few minutes and delete that D-Mod from my Dink folder if it had a lantern all the way through it. Just put it in caves and such. I know I get a bit nervous and tense when I'm in a deep dark scary cave and I can only see about 5 metres around me!

Although, a scary D-Mod would be pretty hard to make. Horror films are easy, cause all you have to do is just use a lot of makeup to make yourself look weird. But it's worth a shot.

I've got an idea for the intro, Dink could be talking to this guy, he tells DInk to lean in real close cause he's got a secret, Dink leans in realy close, then you straight away show a bmp of this crazy scary phsyco monster dude and play a loud AAUUUGGHHHH!! sound or whatever. And then everything suddenly goes all darklandy and everywhere Dink goes he gets trapped by zombies or skeletons or something. That would be cool!

Some eerie sound effects or music would be good.

Crows and Evil houses in a Darklands area for the outside, definitly a winning combination. The Anarchy Dmod has alot of stuff setup in a Haunted House style, pretty good for finding frightening stuff(ghosts, poltergists, skeletons).

One more thing, download SimonK's Evil Houses. They look pretty scary. (They're 'Evil Houses', what do you expect!?)

In one never finished dmod I made them look like they were being grown. Creepiest thing ever

Try these! Cool!

Some more good scary MIDIs.

More, more, more cool
MIDIs and sounds!!

Wow. Some very cool sounds and midis there! Spooky and scary. I like them. How'd you find out about it? Who's the guy?

I just wrote 'Scary MIDIs' to Google. I found them somewhere there. The site was third or second of them.

Edit: The MIDIs aren't so scary.

I´ll think about the lantern, maybe it will be needed only in 1/3 of the game, but the bosses will be at dark rooms.

The screenlock idea is very good, some players will think "Where´s the monster??" and there´s anyone, I´ve thinking about use the lantern all the D-Mod ´cos with it you can´t see the monsters, and you would be afraid to roam without know if there´s a monster or no, the screenlock can replace it, thanks Sharp.

The evil houses I´ve downloaded them, but i´m thinking about a comon village where strange things happens, so maybe in other mod, I´ve really liked the idea to use the houses, but they looks like living monsters and isn´t what I want. The anarchy D-mod is a very good reference, i´ll use some graphics and midis.

DinkDude your intro is a good idea (I´ve been thinking the same, it happens at RE1, except the scary AAAAHHH!)

All the MIDI´s are very cool Skull, (i´ve liked the MIDI Exorcist from "Elizabethge2") but I didn´t saw how download them, I´ll have to record with some audio program.

Thanks for all, your names are in the game credits, and one more thing, what is "eerie"??

Online dictionary meaning of 'Eerie':
1. Uncanny, so as to inspire superstitious fear; weird: an eerie midnight howl.
2. Chiefly Scot. affected with superstitious fear.

To download those midis, you just right click on them and click 'save target as' and then choose where you want to download them. Then you can open them and listen to them and use them and everything! Just make sure you say where you got them in the readme file.

Thanks for all, your names are in the game credits
You don't have to. But if you really want to, thanks.

looks like your D-mod goes to be good

Eerie... this word fits perfectly for my mod. And I really want to give credits to all Dinkers that helped me.

Thanks Lucas, I hope that my D-Mod be really good, and, maybe you already know but... Eu sou brasileiro também!! Hehe, pensei que fosse só eu e meu irmão (ele anda meio desligado do site, o login dele é "Clint"), de onde você é?? Eu sou de Suzano, SP.
Don´t worry if you didn´t undertand what is written above, it´s portuguese...
I´ll post any new.

i have some advice for you: don't go for shock value (like Saw 3, or a Silent Hill kind of thing, you know, chopped off limbs etc; something jumping out at you is fine) but try to create a scary atmosphere, instead of relying on shock value, it gets old. for example: F.E.A.R. was not scary at all to me, because it was all shock value, and the atmosphere wasn't all that creepy. ...and you were armed to the teeth, but that's beside the point.

If nobody with great and insane graphics skills shows up here I doubt that there will ever be anything shocking in a D-Mod, unless you find pillbugs shocking.

Maybe you could make a few graphics sequences of Dink gettign his leg chopped off? You could just cut the leg off using he cut tool, then rotate it as it falls off in a bunch of different frames. Then go back, edit each frame and maybe add some blood spurting out of the leg? That'd be cool IMO.

that's what you call shock value. it's dumb. it's for people desensitized to violence so that they can't find anything else scary... it's stupid.

I got scared when I 1st saw the giant pillbug in Original Dink game.
It was unexpected at that time and was fitting in a major portion of screen.

I thought the Cave of Terror in Mystery Island was pretty scary when I was younger. Like, if you picked the wrong one, they grew giant and started attacking you. It was scary for me when I was younger.

Yeah, same here. When I was like, 7 or something first playing it. I hated the Stone Giant which goes "You threw rocks at me whn you were a child Dink. Now it's time to pay!" And then he grows big and kills you. And all the eerie sound effects and such. I vaguely remember myself almost crying...

I am most afraid of bugs which seem to crash the gameplay completely. I remember no such bugs in Dink, but if someone here has played Tomb Raider V: Chronicles, then (s)he will know the very last level of the very last chapter was filled with bugs (the main reason which made the last level so hard). One of them, where I somehow fall to the room filled with water with a cyborg in it, was kinda creepy. It launched every time I loaded the save file. And then it just fixed by itself!
Another one, in 7 days a Sceptic, the part where the zombie of the captain started following me around and strangling me when he got close, was quite... disturbing. And better yet, when I was about to open a door the zombie thingy suddenly opened it from the other side!

Oh, oh! A virus D-mod? Like, it looks like it has a whole lot of bugs and problems but it's actually part of the D-mod?

7 days a Skeptic and 5 days a Stranger are quite creepy indeed. I couldn't play them with the lights turned off

i played them too igot them from abaandonia.com or maybe reloaded.org

i never played those games... mainly because it said there was a lot of blood and gore and that it wasn't for the squeamish. i don't mind, my parents would. if there's a way to turn it off, i'd download 'em... if you want a good example of a scary game, go to www.reloaded.org and download Penumbra Tech Demo. that is freaking scary! first game that can actually scare me...

I understand your advice, Tibiazak, but, you sayd that you can´t play games with blood, chopped members, but you play F.E.A.R and Penumbra?? I´m trying to create a scary (or eerie) atmosphere to the D-Mod, strong monsters, dark places, sounds... the blood is essential, but not the only scary thing, I was working like this since the start 'cos I´ve the same problem (my mother said that Driver 2 is a violent game...).

And another thing, I´m working faster to send the Demo version on this Friday 13.

kewl

"7 days a Skeptic and 5 days a Stranger are quite creepy indeed. I couldn't play them with the lights turned off "

You forgot to play Trilby's Notes and 6 days a Sacrifice. Yes, there are two new games.

Play the Project Zero/Fatal Frame series and you'll never be the same again. Those games are unbelievably scary.

eu achei que eu e meus gatos de estimação fossem os únicos brasileiros a jogar dink smallwood, eu sou de brasília!

this text is in portuguese ^

oh... and a hint for you D-mod: try put some zombies, like resident evil 3

Play the Project Zero/Fatal Frame series and you'll never be the same again. Those games are unbelievably scary.

That is SO true. There are no better horror games out there, hands down. I played them together with two of my friends, in a dark basement when there was nobody else at home. Man, we're so looking forward to a next game in the series

you play fatal frame?

i play fatal frame 2 and 3 but i prefer resident evil

I saw Fatal Frame played... it was fairly scary. I remember System Shock 2 being pretty freaky... though, it didn't really scare me as much during my third playthrough, despite having downloaded the graphics enhancements. I am hoping Bioshock is as good as its spiritual ancestors.

I really think the difference is if you're playing the game or not... and how many times you've been through something. I think playing Fatal Frame would have been much scarier than watching it.

I don't actually "scare" games. (Movies, D-Mods). Usually I laugh, when there's a scary scene (Level). When someone tries to make something "scary" it usually turns out to be funny.

You obviously haven't seen any good horror films, skull.

Project Zero is definately scarier when you play it yourself. Ugh, I get the heebie jeebies just thinking aobut it!

I HAVE played it myself. What's the scariest thing in World?

I know!

Tal.

Dinkers, we have a problem...

I got a problem with my uncle PC (the problem starts with Pass, and ends with Word.) so I couldn't finish the demo version of my game to upload today... The demo haven't date to be finished.

My uncle don't like to use passwords at the PC, so maybe he'll cancel it (I guess...), so this is it, sorry and thanks.

I haven't really played that many scary games or watched that many scary movies (mainly because the slightly creepy ones get to me enough) but I have this game called Thief 2, you might have heard of it, it's a bit like Prince of Persia but you sneak around more and don't do much really fighting, just killing, anyway there was this mission on an abandoned boat and you had to find out what had happened to it.
Well I do my sneaky thing and creep along and I start hearing this heavy breathing, I just think it's someone sleeping or something so I creep around the door and go in, to one side, I can only see a vague figure on the ground so I go a bit closer, I see a chest go nice and close thinking the thing is asleep, it suddenly jumps up and starts running at me with strangling sounds and gurgling, it jump in my seat and start slashing at it with my dagger and kill it, not without, nearly dying myself. Finding out it's a zombie I thought hey, cool and get the chest and go outside. After a while of sneaking around and hearing this breathing, waiting for the gurgle of recognition and I start to get the major creeps. It took me about 2 weeks to finish it, trying to get myself to keep on going, you couldn't stab them and kill them with one hit in the back like normal people and only a fire arrow would kill them quickly.
Looking back it was good to have it in the game but I didn't like it a bit while I was doing it.

My D-Mod, how you know, will have a "bit" of blood and this kind of stuff... so... I would be against the law if I create and upload this game with 15 years old?? Or am I paranoid?? I really don't know, 'cos the americans are very tough with this kind of thing, aren't they?? I just want to know this and say that the demo creation is at "the speed of a turtle", but it will appears here someday.

Eh, I don't think there's any problem with uploading an M/MA D-MOD. Though, I highly dought you can make a D-MOD that bad that it has to be rated M/MA. Unless, or course, it contains nudity, sex etcetera.

Who cares what it would be rated as? It's not a commercial game and as such not subject to rating by the ESRB. Furthermore... This is the internet. Who knows what your true age is? Look at some of SimonK's d-mods, they would be rated mature if they were released commercially.

Heh.I also make a scary d-mod (TLoftD III Full Version) cause it'll remind of Castlevania on PS2 xD.In Haunted Halls i aded a creepy MIDI and in second floor a little.

it's that bloody? if you want to create a scary dmod, you might want to just focus on disturbing themes and plots, as it's difficult to create gore-shock value on a game like Dink.

If graphics is what prevents one from making D-Mods...

1. Low graphics are oddly attractive when it comes to these sorts of things?

2. Adding gore and blood as replacement for other types of ways of scaring people is pretty dumb. For it's not very creative.

For a very good example of a horror RPG made in 2D, seek out The Longing Ribbon, a free game made in RPGMaker 2000.

Ok, I wasn't sure if it would be a problem.

The scary thing isn't or thing like these, is the story, midis and scenario.

After playing Survival Crisis Z, an actually scary game with characters that look like high quality MSPaint creations, I can say that the correct use of sound really is the key to freaking out the player. You can hear groans and high-pitched, burbling laughter in the distance, you know something is close... but you don't know where. And when you hear an air-raid siren while wondering through the city... you know you're just seconds away from hitting a huge wave of biting, clawing, and screaming zombies.

Often, it's the anticipation of danger rather than the actual encounter that's scariest.

caves with holes on floor lantern area short lantern sight 3 ft long 3 ft wide "I also would like people to help with problems."

Can someone help me with this script??
This is only a piece of the entire script, but the problem is here.
When the script runs everything works well, until that part where's written "so far so good"
I can see the "draw status" and "hard map" but after this, the script "rewinds" and the talk starts again...
The script keeps repeating, the knight and Dink are still freezed, so any ideas??

// Live Knight (#1)

void main( void )
{
if (&world == 1)
{
freeze(1);
say_stop("A knight?!", 1);
wait(250);
say_stop("Are you OK??", 1);
wait(250);

sp_touch_damage(&current_sprite, 0);
wait(3);

copy_bmp_to_screen("tiles\shadow.bmp");
wait(500);

script_attach(1000);
draw_screen();
draw_status();
draw_hard_map();
playsound(24, 22052, 0, 0, 0);
&junk = create_sprite(&gx, &gy, 12, 171, 16);
sp_brain_parm(&junk, 500);
sp_timing(&junk, 1);
sp_que(&junk, 999);

// So far so good...
&screen = 0;
spawn("followin");
int &junk = &current_sprite;
script_attach(1000);
sp_script(&junk, "follower");
int &hold = sp_editor_num(&junk);
unfreeze(1);
editor_type(&hold, 1);
&world = 2;
kill_this_task();

}

}

draw_screen();

Remove that and you're fine.

If you re-draw a screen it will also re-execute all the scripts on the screen, including this one. In fact it doesn't even rewind the script, it just creates a new one since you already did a script_attach(1000); (No need to do that twice by the way...)

My mod is stopped again...
This Fryday was my first day on my new job (my first job), I'll have time to edit only at the Saturdays, 4 hour only, soo my promisse to finish the demo until the end of this year is getting far...