What Arkham Teaches Us About Jumpscares

g'day chapst his eye clumpage139 aside from you know Batman the Arkham franchise is known for having one thing in Spades above all other superhero games amazing jump scares with only a slight change in tone and gameplay you could very easily convince someone that the Arkham franchise was a horror series there's so many amazing little moments of Terror that Rocksteady should honestly invest in making a horror game they have mastered the art of jump scares if you go in without spoilers and don't know when they're coming they will almost certainly make you jump but have you ever wondered why that is what made rocksteady's jump scares so effective that I'm spending an entire video analyzing them well I'll show you and break down what the Arkham Saga teaches us about jump scares [Music] oh and disclaimer I guess this video is gonna contain some jump scares without warning because I feel like being a jerk you've been warned number one safety when placing a jump scare in your game one of the most effective times to do it is when the player thinks they're safe in the midst of ice skating in the museum Batman finds freeze in the trophy room as he sprays the wall with explosive gel to set him free the wall is broken from the other side and he is grabbed by the throat this is a very effective scare because it breaks Norms that have been established for a full game and a half by this point between this game and Asylum before how many times have we blown up walls with explosive gel dozens and every time we've been completely safe this is the first and only time in the entire Saga we've been attacked while trying to blow up a wall it works because it breaks the mold of something we become accustomed to so to make use of this get your player into a safe routine and then break it create Ascent of safety while performing an incredibly simple action and then break it not only will it serve as a great chair Jumper in the moment but it will keep them on edge for the rest of the game if the dev willing to throw away the rules for explosive gel just like that what's stopping them from doing it elsewhere and that's just it never do it the same way again keep players guessing but have them always be wrong number two irrelevance one jumpscare I'm sure many people Miss on their first playthrough Asylum takes place when you exit the bat cave after beating up the thugs in your path if you take a right turn instead of a left you'll be presented with a locked door find you rip your flesh like paper this is a surprisingly important lesson you could use to make your game scarier have scares in places that don't matter this door is completely irrelevant for the rest of the game all that happens with it is you exit after defeating Croc way later in the game you aren't forced to go through it to face Croc only after you've already beat him and it's not like you're forced or even encouraged to go through this door your way out is to the left you have to make an active decision to go to this door instead and it doesn't affect you in any way other than showing a jump scare so try putting your jump scares in completely useless places put them in places players might not go and don't even give them anything for finding it just throw in a scare that doesn't mean anything and only serves to be a chair jumper they'll probably never be able to forget it but you know something that isn't irrelevant the sponsor of today's video under lucky stars we all love looking into the night sky right spotting the Big Dipper then giving up because we can't see anything beyond it due to light pollution well what if you could see it without ever even needing to go outside that's where under lucky stars comes in they create star maps showing the unique constellation above a place and time that's important to you you could make one for your birthday uh the day you graduated college or for the few non-lonely viewers out there an anniversary with your special someone it makes a great gift 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rarity but is what makes so many pieces of media as effective as they are where would Arkham be without that harsh Stinger that plays whenever you defeat an enemy or the loud swoosh whenever Batman opens his cape or the loud crash of turning on detective mode it wouldn't feel nearly as satisfying sound is incredibly important in making a jump scare work which is what we especially learn from the T-Rex it plays on the safety rule we went over earlier you just started running through the museum and all of a sudden there's a giant dinosaur roaring in your face and it should be a lot scarier than it actually is but it's just kind of mid as far as scares go because it doesn't make use of sound the roar is incredibly quiet compared to every other scare we'll be talking about today and that lack of an audio sting of some kind takes all the punch this giant monster taking up your screen would otherwise have if we were to replace this Roar with one of a T-Rex from Jurassic Park far more effective and would absolutely make anyone jump so please for the love of God respect your goddamn sound designers number four danger the opposite of safety can work incredibly well in your favor when crafting that perfect scare hell it's what makes horror games effective you're fighting for your life and suddenly there's a scare so you're probably dead but that isn't always the case sometimes you get scared and keep living which is exactly what we see with tiny you're in the ice rink you save a cop and start making your way through the room to save the others you see and hear the ice cracking underneath your feet tying back into the sound design mentioned earlier at any moment it could shatter and drop you in and then suddenly a massive shark jumps out and tries to bite you I have little doubt that this jump scare got you the first time it is really effective at making you jump for one simple reason you're already in a dangerous scenario at any second you could break the ice and fall in and when tiny jumps out it makes you think for half a second that you messed up broke the ice and died but once your brain processes that you aren't dead it then tells you holy [ __ ] that's a shark and now for the rest of this section your brain is constantly telling you that if you fall in you're getting eaten by a giant freaking shark that or it's telling you to keep worrying about the ice in general tiny just jumped up and bit through the ice to try numbing on you what's stopping him from doing it again so it not only affects you for the small moment the scare takes place in but for the entire rest of the section you're constantly on edge about a shark jumping out and getting you even though it doesn't happen for the rest of the time you're here the following two rules are only applicable when danger is also in play so I have them labeled as 4A and 4B respectively 4A follow up [Music] [Laughter] if you can follow up on a previous scare for the rest of the ice skating tiny is nowhere to be seen he never pops up unless you're stupid like me and fall in the water so when the ice melts the player's fears are probably waning okay that shark was just a one-off scare he's not actually gonna eat me that's what you'd think until tiny pops up again and starts chomping on the raft it's not quite as sudden as the initial jump scare since there's a little bit of build up to Tiny actually showing up but at the same time it's the payoff to the initial tiny scare and the scary moment in and of itself tiny finally shows himself again which you also might have forgotten about with all the free stuff and now he's actively trying to kill you rather than just waiting beneath the surface he's chomping down on your raft and you could die at any second unless you immediately act and start punching this is the follow-up the player was already scared of tiny before but now they're actively fighting him and he tries to drag you under having a random jump scare is great it'll catch your players off guard give them a little jump and then go right on their merry way however doing it with no actual danger to follow up on is kinda lame true it could show they are currently in danger like we saw with Tiny's first jump scare however it's far more effective to set up danger with a scare than pay it off later with another while also putting them into action scaring the players followed by putting them straight into a survival game is great horror because it puts them on edge as far as whether or not they'll survive will me rapidly pressing X to punch tiny B enough or will I get dragged under only one way to find out mash for your life 4B keep it coming if you can don't just relegate your danger to a single scare keep them coming at random intervals to create a sense of dread in your player this can be seen to perfect effect throughout Croc's Lair crocslayer is the definition of danger you're walking on rickety floating platforms through a flooded maze with a predator in his natural environment right below you you also have to move as slowly as possible so as not to make Croc angry and just pull you under and as you're walking through about to reach the first Spore Croc jumps out of the water right in front of you and starts charging and the only thing you have to defend yourself are a couple batarangs this is a process that repeats throughout the entirety of Croc's Lair every once in a while Croc will jump up out of the water and start charging at you forcing you to act fast to find him and drop him back in the water and this is what Keep It Coming means have your player constantly on edge throughout your danger section showing that they can die at any moment if they aren't careful these constant Croc scares change the player's mindset from okay I'm in moderate danger this is definitely not safe to oh crap I'm about to die where's Croc please don't miss this battering ah and they aren't exclusive to Croc popping up either it also applies when he's breaking the boards under your feet as that sudden spike in music tells you oh crap I need to run it's all about building on tension with more tension you're already scared creeping through this Maze of a sewer but you're even more scared when a giant crocodile man jumps out of the water and starts running towards you from who knows what direction and frantically looking around trying to determine where is the most terrifying part before the relief of finally throwing the batarang and sending him back into the water but it doesn't last for long because you're still in that dangerous scenario and it keeps coming I can taste you already number five throw a loop one of the most effective ways to scare repeat players is to throw in a jump scare where one previously didn't exist case in point the beginning of Arkham Knight on New Game Plus [Laughter] this is how it happened this is how the Joker died everything seems perfectly normal in the incineration chamber until Joker decides to randomly jump back to life and scream at us rather than just burning peacefully this immediately catches your players off guard because it's something different and breaks the established Norms seeing as it's the first scene in the game players are going to remember burning Joker and they're going to remember absolutely nothing happening when he's burned so throwing them for a loop and having Joker suddenly burst back to life was the perfect way to put in a jump scare it only happens on New Game Plus so only Die Hard fans going for completion are going to be able to experience it so that's the lesson to be learned find a way to add jump scares where they didn't previously exist it obviously won't be applicable for all games but if you can find a way to do it I guarantee people will be coming back for more number six randomness the final lesson we can learn is something specifically meant for repeat playthroughs something you'll notice about all the rest of these jump scares is that they always happen at the exact same time this means that people playing the game for a second time won't get the same impact that the scares first had on them tiny won't be nearly as scary when he jumps out to bite you because he'll always appear in the exact same spot you know when he's going to jump so can prime yourself for the incoming scare this is not the case when you sprinkle in an element of Randomness we can see this to great effect at the end of Arkham Knight while playing as Joker you eventually end up in a large open area with thong on the ground and seemingly No Escape and to explore trying to find a way out Batman statues begin to materialize behind you as you move and turn around they follow you always turning to face you and seemingly getting closer and closer each second you shoot them down as you did the one in the hallway before but their numbers keep growing the music seems to endlessly swell as you keep gunting them down to no avail foreign this scare works so well simply because it's random you have no idea when Batman is going to break through the stone and attack you I think there's technically a timer for when he's supposed to break out but most players will never notice it because they're too busy shooting everything and there's a small element of Randomness for when he does break out if you aren't doing speed run strats the music seems to swell endlessly whenever you think it's about to happen it never does so it keeps you waiting for what feels like forever and when he finally jumps out at you it's completely unexpected this element of Randomness can and very much should be used in any horror game knowledge is arguably the most important asset in a horror game and taking some of it away can create something truly horrifying so let's summarize everything we've learned to see if we can create the perfect jump scare it needs to be somewhere you feel safe or in an area with already tense danger something you've been doing for hours at this point with absolutely no repercussions or a new situation where you're in a constant state of almost being dead pick your poison it needs to be loud and in your face something you can't miss even if you tried It ultimately shouldn't matter for the story and only serve as being a jump scare and most importantly there should be some element of Randomness to keep returning players on their toes now how do we combine all these factors into one amazing jump scare oh yeah they already did it man bat we all know manbat is the best jump scare in the Arkham franchise and giving everything we've learned from the previous examples it shouldn't surprise anyone why at this point he's loud and right in your face that high-pitched Screech alone would terrify anyone then you combine it with this horrifying expression covering your entire screen and you've got something that would scare the pants off even the most stalwart Knights it's obviously somewhere you feel safe you've been gliding and grappling around for three games at this point how much safer can you get and plus considering the villain of this game is scarecrow and he's nowhere around you wouldn't expect anything horror related at this point in the game anyway this is basically the safest you can get in the entire franchise so it's the perfect place to put a jump scare on top of that it serves no purpose to the story all it does is activate a side quest it holds absolutely no weight towards the main campaign you're no doubt playing at this very moment you purely exists to be a jump scare and technically you can miss it it's very difficult to do and requires precise use of gliding and dive bombing but it is possible to get back to the Batmobile without ever seeing this scare but the most important thing of all is that it's random you have no idea when man that will show up no matter how many times you've played this game because it's a random building every time and it's more effective than the Batman statue in that regard because it's that much harder to find the pattern all you know is that manbat will appear somewhere on miagani after leaving the orphanage and that's all you get at any point on your Trek Back to the Batmobile man back could meet you at the top of a building this is especially prevalent for second playthroughs more than any other time because players will remember where manbat was and will expect him then one of three things can happen either they grapple onto the same building and don't see him thus creating a sense of dread as they wonder when he's actually going to pop up he pops up early and break their defensive stance because they weren't expecting him then or my favorite they avoid the area he showed up from entirely thinking they're smart and won't see anything then get scared anyway for thinking they outsmarted the game either way creates a great scare and it all comes down to Randomness that lack of accurate information creates tension that players are just left to sit on for minutes on end until they finally get the sweet release of Terror from a giant bat creature taking up their whole screen mambat is just the perfect jump scare because it uses everything we've taught to such great effect if you're gonna put a jump scare in your game find a way to copy Man-Bat because there's pretty much no better teacher you could find in the wide gaming sphere so chaps that's all I got go ahead and use this knowledge for the betterment of horror games or don't I don't really care I will say I find it funny that three of my examples all occurred during the museum in Arkham City I don't know why Roxy decided to make that the big scare location of all three games but here we are I guess regardless do all the YouTube stuff because I've run out of scary Clips to put at the end here thanks for watching and I'll see you later chaps foreign [Music]

Channel: ClownPuncher139

Views: 164,663

Keywords: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight, Batman, Arkham, Jumpscare, Horror, Scary, Scare, Lesson, Man-Bat, Joker

Id: nANXcq01Uno

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023