Dread

Frame · Tension & threat atmospheric · visual / auditory / haptic

Dark foreboding, something bad is coming, and you cannot prevent it.

Design question – In your game players know something bad is imminent. How do you use the anticipation – and is what’s coming worse than the imagining?

Reference example – Five Nights at Freddy’s: the power is running out and the night is still long. Escape: The Curse of the Temple: the gong sounds, time is running out, the temple is collapsing.

Atmosphere

Dread

Sensory field

Sight: long shadows, dark clouds, signs in the sky, closed doors. Sound: low frequencies, distant thunder, footsteps behind you, the creaking. Touch: a cold neck, heaviness in the stomach, the knowledge that it will get worse.

Coherence

Dread differs from tension through inevitability, it will get worse, the only question is how worse. Mechanisms: Escalation (automatic intensification), Decay (resources dwindle), Countdown (as a mechanism, not a frame). Activities: Preparing, Deciding (under mounting pressure), Surviving. Ductus: continuous escalation without relief.