I am looking at the game Until dawn and analysing its gameplay and the stylistic conventions of the genre.
Until dawn is a moral decision based horror game. It shows stylistic conventions by including numerous cutscenes throughout the game and only breaks these to allow you to free roam momentarily or make decisions that determine your characters survival. It also has a system installed called the ‘butterfly effect’, which is often shown in other decision games under different acronyms. As far as horror games go, it ticks most of the cliche boxes. 8 teenagers are stuck in a remote location in which they have minimal contact with the rest of the world; the developers (Supermassive games) even confessed to creating each character to fit into a horror movie trope type. At few points does it divert from the horror genre and appears to have the sole focus of scaring the players.
8 teenagers go to stay at their friend Josh Washington’s family chalet in the mountains on the anniversary of his two sister’s deaths. During the night each character begins to face both supernatural adversities as well as well-armed psychopaths and each must survive until dawn. Because of the thrilling nature of the plot we are told that not each character will survive the night, thus giving players the ability to make decisions which determine the final outcome. The ‘butterfly effect’ system ensures your choices remain relevant throughout the game and may alter something later on. Whilst playing you develop an affinity with certain characters, this will change how you act as different characters towards them. Knowing they face the possibility of death at any time means your approach to the game is more tentative- you pity the characters that have landed themselves in this situation. Until dawn is rated 18, the themes are relatively mature as it focuses on horror. People of that age group tend to enjoy scaring themselves a bit so they will enjoy the gameplay but also connect to the characters as they are of a similar age.
Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden started by writing a teen horror script whilst the art department begin storyboarding/creating concept art to get fit their scripts and perfect both the mood and lighting. When creating levels they tried to make it as terrifying as possible by making dark corridors that felt claustrophobic and threatening as well as creating an uninviting woodland surrounding the lodge. After storyboarding they began to actually create the game using Killzone shadow fall’s engine. Textured clothes and characters were created using photoshop to make sure they had an air of personalisation. People played their beta version and their emotional response was measured so Supermassive knew what worked and what didn’t. The choice aspect and quick time events make gameplay more tense as you are in total control, if you mess up there isn’t an immediate redo like in the majority of games- this is called loss aversion. Until dawn also requires you to use the exploration mechanic to find objects which are potentially useful in solving the games many mysteries.
The teenagers in Until dawn are a similar age to the target audience of the game and are designed for the audience to see pieces of themselves within the characters stylisation. Most of the players will already be familiar with the characters as they have seen similar ones before in horror movies. Each of them gradually becomes more appealing through the game as they grow- each player will find they relate more strongly to different characters as they are responding similarly to how the consumer would in that scenario. I think most of the characters were not as strong as they could’ve been as they were struggling to fit within a particular trope, but there were moments where their personalities genuinely shone through.
The most challenging part of the game is ensuring the survival of each character, if the player makes a mistake it isn’t as simple as reloading a save. Quick time events make it feel like you really are the character trapped in a dangerous situation and that fear engages you. Simultaneously, you are tasked with solving the three main mysteries surrounding events within the game as well as ‘totems’ which guide some of your choices-finding either opens new pathways for the player. Completionists will wish to replay the game multiple times to find new clues or get a better ending than previously. The replay-ability adds to the success of the game as it gives the consumer more value for their money and keeps them intrigued. The gameplay is speedy, quick time events and choices have to be made within a certain amount of time, it turns the narrative into reality for the player as they must make decisions at the same pace as the characters. New decisions must be made constantly and the gamer is continuously given new environments to explore-these changes keep their attention.
The target audience are late teens to young adults as the age rating is an 18. Until dawn has a lot of mature themes such as scenes of a sexual nature and swearing, making it inappropriate for younger players. Also, as it is a horror game, anybody below this age may be more easily effected by a lot of the content. The game appeals to it’s target audience by creating characters of the same age that are alike in personality to it’s audience, as well as having a similar humour. It isn’t as explicit as other games that have a high age rating such as: the last of us, gears of war 3 and saints row. Gears of war and Saints row are more aimed at an older generation because of the gore/inappropriate humour within their franchises. Until dawn’s main point of maturity is the horror it carries which appeals to vast majority of the audience it wishes to target.
Until dawn is a PS4 exclusive title. It’s mostly suitable for the PS4 as the controller has motion trackers within it which are used at different stages throughout the game (e.g. you must hold the controller still when hiding). Neither the xbox one nor wiiU remotes have the same capabilities. Apart from that it could be adapted to be on the xbox one or wii but with a loss of certain features.
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