DYOM » Text Tutorials » How to make a survival-horror mission (basic tutorial)

How to make a survival-horror mission (basic tutorial)

By Venom_Bro

A lot of people seem to get the horror style as jumpscares, creepy sounds, etc. But this is survival-horror, where a lot of different things are gonna happen. So, let me teach you how to do it.

1. Open Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

2.Open the DYOM modification by (Start Game/New Game/Design Your Own Mission),

3. Open the DYOM menu by "Y" key, and choose "Missions" category. Now when you open it, select "New Mission".

4. Now that you started a new mission, choose your name for the survival-horror mission (take a inspiration from mine) and type your name if you want to.

5. Now that you finished this, start with an interior first. There are many interiors in the DYOM modification, an example would be Johnny Sindacco's Meat Factory, with the ID "1". Choose the interior by the menu (Tools/Browse Interiors).

6. You have choosed the ID "1" interior. Now you should do where the protagonist must start, remember, place a cutscene first so the player won't fall of the interior. This is a bug, but it should be fixed. Place the cutscene and type what you want, an example: "Where am I...? What is this place?!".

7. Since you made an cutscene in the first place, choose (Objectives/Add Objective/Player Objectives/Teleport).

8. Now you can choose the skin what do you want to play with, example: ID "7".

9. Place the selected skin where do you want.

10. Now that you have placed the actor, or the player, the other part is gonna be Objects.

11. Objects are the most important in survival-horror genre, same with Objectives. Open the DYOM menu and select "Objects & Effects".

12. Select a object you want to place, like a dead cop being hanged, so select the object ID "231 or 232", your choice. To make the hanged cop, place the empty hanger on the ceiling. When you placed it at the ceiling, click space and select "Ready".

13.Congrats, you've made an hanged cop! The next part is exploring. Exploring is really important in the survival-horror genre, also puzzles. Exploring is pretty easy to make, select the Objectives category, then Add Objectives, then Add Checkpoint. There are different kinds of checkpoints. Choose the "invisible" category of the checkpoint, then place it where you want (try not to place it in a difficult location). When you play the mission, you can't see the checkpoint because you made it invisible.

14. Also object part, choose the Objects & Effects category. To make an puzzle, it's a hard job to do. If you want to use puzzles, try getting inspiration from my mission pack Silence Scream 3.

15. (optional) Try to use many soundtracks in your survival-horror mission, there is the "SD" folder. The SD folder is for sounds, to make one yourself, go to the "Missions" category and choose "Show Mission Audio Code", and a name will appear on the left of your screen. Example: FSSAD. That is the basic tutorial how to make a simple, survival-horror mission.

16. Do not focus only for puzzle-solving and fighting monsters in your survival-horror mission pack. This would make the MP boring, as it involves not the feel. Try to add symbolism into the game - character symbolism, monster symbolism; etc. psychological horror would also come into help. Sub-minds, characteristic feelings take as an example.

17. Decorate the interior/exterior with the objects that are necessary. Do not always use objects for an unnecessary movement. Use the objects as an guide (if you are making it with invisible checkpoints) and let the player understand that direction.

18. Inspiration can be a very necessary thing. Take as an example of my mission-packs, or games such as Silent Hill; Resident Evil; Alone in the Dark.

19. Originality matters. If you have original ideas for your mission-pack with inspirations from survival-horror/psychological horror games, it would give interest to the player that is about to visit your mission-pack. Unoriginal elements, repetition, can also damage your progress of your mission-pack.

20. The last part; struggling about puzzles is common which I even have problems with. Puzzles are a thing that should be solved for the player to progress (if the mission-pack has type) and there should be at least a good explanation about the puzzle and its solution. Puzzles can be original if you know how to built them - it's only how the mind works.

21. Do not focus only on exploration. Players who want to try your survival-horror mission-pack want at least medium amounts of action in your MP, as it is. You could sum up shootings - against monsters with a friend, running against an attacking threat (fire/enemy). You could also introduce thriller, or anything else that can give the player interest.

22. Greatest flaw in survival-horror games are too much jumpscares. They potentially should be avoided much as possible, or at least saw with limited use. Yes, it indeed makes it more the "game" scarier but also uninteresting especially if they are unexpected. Limited amounts (at least 2) should sum up your MP and that's it. Horror games nowadays are more summed up with jumpscares, which the developers consider "scary". You could make one but to be expected, otherwise; sounds are better for the atmosphere, such as an music that can haunt the player and not scare them to death; limited use of screamings as well would help. Try to develop an original scene where a person (woman/man) gets abducted by someone, and the abducted is your friend; they scream (which they would normally do) and you start to search for them. (A more good example is to sum up notes where they were taken to, or directing the path towards the place where she was left to after abduction. Hope this helped.

23. Exteriors in survival-horror genre are also important about your atmosphere of your MP. Let's take a look , some games are focused in close-spaces, some are in open-spaces (some are both). It would also help to add an exterior (outside) of your survival-horror mission-pack. Decoration of a town, city or a village to a wasteland/abandoned area is simple. Easy, open up the menu, go to Objectives, Add Objectives, then environment Objectives. You will see a objective "Ped/Car Behavior" and click there. Sum up the "No Cars/Peds" objective and we're done. No more cars or peds. Open up the menu again, go to Objectives, add Objectives, environment Objectives
then Weather Change. Popular term - foggy weather. There are many types of weather that can create a survival-horror MP, mostly being: Fog, Rain and Black Sky. Time could also help (optional). Open up the menu, select Objectives, then Add Objectives, then environment Objectives, then Time Selection. Do not be confused with "time limit". That's a different thing. Select a time that can sum up your MP. Afterwards, select the Objects option and start decorating.


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Startdate
Mar 24 '19
Last Update
Dec 01 '19
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