The original idea.

[Biccard]

I didn't quite know what topic to post this in, so I'm sorry if I should've posted it somewhere else.

The original idea of this game, was to create "fear in daylight" and "a sunny environment gone wrong". What does this mean? What is "fear in daylight" and "a sunny environment gone wrong"? Any ideas of what this could be? I mean, how would it be made? I get a picture in my head, of a garden with overgrown plants that has heads with mouths and big teeth in it - just like in cartoons. I don't think that's what they had in mind. What do you think?

[simeonalo]

I remember reading this as well. It could have been a very early scrapped version of the game.

[Biccard]

Likely. Do you have any idea what they might have been thinking? What comes to mind for you, when you hear "fear in daylight" and "a sunny environment gone wrong"?

[KageReneko]

When I listen those ideas I get this image in my mind...


Anyway, the developers promised so many things and neither of them were made in the final game...

[Typographenia]

I would assume they mean that they do not need to rely on making the entire game take place in dark environments or in an evening or night setting. To create an atmosphere and experience without reusing a traditional method that is dominating almost every element of the genre. I believe that Capcom also said something similar when they announced RE5, but I may be incorrect.

I had forgotten about this concept until reading your post, but I recall reading or hearing about that early in development. It was always paired with that shot of Alex fighting the hammerhead shark monster (name escapes me) in the lighthouse looking thing.

I'm certainly not qualified to make a final judgement call, but I think they threw it out the window entirely because I cannot recall a single instance in the game where it wasn't a time obscured by darkness of some kind. The closest would be when you are outside

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

the church and the sky is purple and red.

[leftshoe18]

I really think that a horror game needs to try something like this. RE5 and SH5 both deviated greatly from their early promises of scares in broad daylight. It would be some feat to make the player scared with all that light around.

[stopped_clock]

This seems to come up a lot in horror games at the moment and then never gets implemented. I remember in the early footage of Alan Wake they made a huge deal of the real-time day and night cycle which led me to believe that we would get some daytime horror but in the end the day/night changes were plot specific and there wasn't any danger when the sun was out anyway.

RE5 came closest to delivering by actually having a fair portion of the game set in daylight where you can and will be attacked, unfortunately RE5 isn't scary.

It would be great to a see this concept properly implemented in a game, unfortunately it's actually pretty difficult to scare someone when the lights are on.

[Kenji]

"Fear in daylight." Yeah, I remember that.

Now, I may be biased because it was my first survival-horror, but I thought SH1 accomplished that pretty well. That game was terrifying, whether it was day or night!

[Mis Krist.]

It would be great to a see this concept properly implemented in a game, unfortunately it's actually pretty difficult to scare someone when the lights are on.

That just means you have to make what they see that horrifying and damaging.

[SilentWren]

As far as "fear in the daylight" goes, here's my take-
There's a double meaning.
*cue dramatic music*

It's not just about physical daylight, it's about the idea society. When Alex makes it "home," the game does a very quick and direct job of establishing a small town mentality. Everyone knows him and his family, and they all ask the atypical Pleasantville small talk questions. But as the game progresses, you discover that the town members are not only human after all, but they're actually SUBhuman. "YAY!!!TORTURE!!!!"

So, it's not only about physical daylight (in which people feel safer than in the night) but it's also about what daylight represents being corrupted (safety, happiness, warmth, family, running through the sprinklers, not having a power drill ran through your leg, etc.)

Yeah, I know I'm over thinking it. But whatever. <3

[Harrys_Girl]

The whole idea of it being "daylight" is absurd. It is one of the darkest games in the series! And I swear I spent more time underground then anywhere else.

[Mis Krist.]

Which... is why they're saying the idea in development didn't make it to the game itself, Chelsea.

[Harrys_Girl]

^Makes sense.

So, it's not only about physical daylight (in which people feel safer than in the night) but it's also about what daylight represents being corrupted (safety, happiness, warmth, family, running through the sprinklers, not having a power drill ran through your leg, etc.)

I could see that, I guess. My biggest problem was that the warm and safe feeling of being "home" was lost. The house was so bare and huge! It felt like I was in the courthouse again. I think the home element could've been shown in other, more impacting ways.

[BlackRose]

I didn't quite know what topic to post this in, so I'm sorry if I should've posted it somewhere else.

The original idea of this game, was to create "fear in daylight" and "a sunny environment gone wrong". What does this mean? What is "fear in daylight" and "a sunny environment gone wrong"? Any ideas of what this could be? I mean, how would it be made? I get a picture in my head, of a garden with overgrown plants that has heads with mouths and big teeth in it - just like in cartoons. I don't think that's what they had in mind. What do you think?

I think it's the idea of making the "every day" scary. They don't want to use dark, scary basements or things that go bump in the night.

It's like the shopping mall in SH3, before that game i wouldn't have thought about a mall being scary or used in that way but afterwards...

People are afraid of the dark and when the lights are on they feel safe. They want to take that safety away so you feel like there's no where to hide.

I think the ring (japanese version) did a great job of this kind of thing. When you were watching the long haired girl get closer to the screen, you never imagained she'd crawl through it to come and get you. You felt "safe" because there was a barrier between her and you, but once she crawls through it, that sense of security is gone.

Or something....

[Pleasant Sinner]

Yeah....not really for "terror in daylight," especially for Silent Hill. I mean with that, the fun(?) of using the flashlight is gone, your able to discern more details of certain things which in turn tarnishes the fear of the unknown, and ultimately we're welcomed by the damn daylight on a daily basis IRL...so we're used to it. I'd rather they leave that idea alone and perhaps let another series toy around with it (RE for example). The only daylight I wanna see is a fog riddled/misty world that isn't so revealing to the player at first sight. All in all, I'm glad they left that out of Homecoming (or at least I'm assuming they did).

[Harrys_Girl]

I think it's the idea of making the "every day" scary. They don't want to use dark, scary basements or things that go bump in the night.

It's like the shopping mall in SH3, before that game i wouldn't have thought about a mall being scary or used in that way but afterwards...

I like the idea, and I would love to have it implemented correctly. The SH3 mall was the perfect example of "everyday terror". It was a place you expect to have fun in (I guess, I never found the mall all that fun, but whatever), be surrounded by people and having a good time. Instead it is abandoned, void of life and hostile. The same can be said for School levels of SH games. And if Homecoming would have done that, got that feel of "this should feel like this but it feels like that" it woulda been amazing. Instead it was more "this should feel like that, but it doesn't"

[clips]

Yeah....SH3 nailed some aspects of the daylight terror....only it wasnt exactly daylight....that scene with the turning fan in the mall?....and that scene in that resturant with the dog on the table?...if you looked outside that window, the sky was of a reddish haze and it looked like nobody was around, it was daylight outside, but there was something very disturbing about it.

[Kenji]

if you looked outside that window, the sky was of a reddish haze and it looked like nobody was around, it was daylight outside, but there was something very disturbing about it.

There's an even better window in the mall's infirmary. You can make out the silhouettes of buildings against that red sky. Really fascinating stuff. Made me wish you could actually go outside in the otherworld.

[BlackRose]

I think people are taking the word "day light" too literaly. I think "day light" means more the making something that would not usually be thought of as scary, scary. E.g. A bathroom stall etc...