Chinese Video Horror Game

Chinese Video Horror Game— “Fireworks” 

In recent years, a lot of games with Chinese horror elements have emerged. These works are usually based on traditional Chinese folk tales. These horror games often feature supernatural events that do not exist in real life, and they do not only rely on gore and horror to win, but also take advantage of the natural associations that Chinese people have with certain things to create an atmosphere of terror. I have always firmly believed that it is a superb means to make the audience “think about extreme fear actively” in horror art works. Physiological tension are only temporary, such as seeing a statue with scary makeup in a haunted house. Psychological fear, especially fear of human nature, can last a long time. Overall, the game is a good form of presentation to highlight the horror elements, just like Kunttu and Sanja(2008, p.10) said, “Video games have become a popular way of expressing horror. They have much more of an impact to scare the audience, because the responsibility and the pressure of the characters safety has been put on the players shoulders.” So, It’s essential for a good story to be smooth and deep.

With the development of modern technology, the barriers to making games have been lowered, and indie games are often the choice of many game creators. In the year of 2020, a Chinese national game named Strange Chronicles of Hong Kong has refreshed many people’s cognition of traditional Chinese horror games. The game is very innovative in its pseudo-documentary format: through the footage of the webmaster, players can immerse themselves in the role and thus quickly feel the tense atmosphere of the game. The main plot of the game story is pieced together by seemingly unrelated but actually hidden related urban legends, and the player’s main task is to connect the complete plot through experiences and clues. The perspective used in horror games is usually well thought out, unlike most other video game genres, horror games are identified by theme, not by style of play. Consequently, the survival horror genre is home to a wide range of styles, including first-person games, third-person games, action oriented games, puzzle games, and even text-based games (Christ Pruett 2010). The “Fireworks” that I want to discuss in this article is also a game similar to Strange Chronicles of Hong Kong.

The story of the game “Fireworks” will be like reading a Chinese novel of strange stories, the whole game is centered around a tragic case of the Tian family’s death. After entering the game, the player will be brought into the perspective of the investigator, to find clues to solve the case. Players join the node is found in the important role of Zhao Xiaojuan hanged herself, while the daughter and in-laws were poisoned to death. As in many similar novels or movies, the game is set in small mountain towns in China, which usually have a long history and are scientifically backward, and many creepy and superstitious things happen, and this story is no exception. The player’s experience is also deeply enhanced by the dim visuals and scary music to find clues. Finally, the player, like a real police officer, in the game’s advancement, the player traced the game to the youngest son of the Tian family seizures, while the parents are superstitious unnatural folk remedies thus delaying the best rescue time for their son, resulting in his death. The loss of loved ones of the family to vent their anger on the innocent doctor, and even go so far as to let the daughter-in-law pretend to borrow the body to threaten the doctor, and finally unbearable by the people around. In the end, the family chose to hang themselves because of the humiliation of the people around them. Players will find that seemingly unrelated characters are actually intertwined, all sorts of ridiculous and sad things eventually led to the tragedy.

As mentioned above, the Fireworks, a typical game based on Chinese folklore, is not full of horror and gore to give the player physical terror, but more like the use of some feudal and superstitious elements often used in modern literary novels and films to create a frightening atmosphere and thus give the player a psychological shiver. Most of these superstitious elements have a common origin – kinship. This deep-rooted view of kinship is usually found throughout many traditional Chinese novels, as in the game where Zhao Xiaojuan pays a huge price to save her daughter, causing a tragic loss of life, and the parents try to bring their child back from the dead against all odds. What’s more, to create the ultimate in horror, the creators will choose plots that are combined with bizarre and horrific rituals, such as ghostly weddings or funerals, to push the audience’s psychological limits. This is because the most vulnerable side of people’s hearts is touched when family-centred ideologies collide with the destruction and desecration of primitive kinship. Just like Jens and Clasen(2019, p.122) have both shown that while horror games thereby instil negative emotion, they also entice players with stimulating challenges of fearful coping. Players who brave these challenges expand their emotional and behavioral repertoire and experience a sense of mastery, explaining the genre’s paradoxical appeal.

Compared to Japanese horror, the concept and rules have a more profound influence on horror games with Chinese elements. The early Japanese terror was influenced by Shinto and originally emphasized the reincarnation of good and evil results. Then, under the impact of western culture and its own national conditions, Japan had a period of reflection on its own terror culture in the last century. In the Ring and the Grudge, evil and terror become less logical and just pure evil. For most horror games, the tight narrative logic and the particular art form and perspective on which they are based will be an important part, in fact, they are what will give players the chills in “Fireworks”. If you go to play this game in person, you’ll definitely feel amazed by the game creator’s setup that makes you shudder just through the colors. The entire game is painted in advanced grey tones, which reflects the producer’s unique painting style while rendering the overall atmosphere. Turquoise is used for a large part of the overall picture of the game. The cool color in the game makes players lower their emotions and get closer to the atmosphere of the game. In the atmosphere of cold colors, the sudden flash of red is more prominent and makes people pay attention. In the game, the street lamps also send out red warning signals to remind players to be alert when danger approaches. It would appear that the creator has chosen the colors with great care. Color is an inseparable part of our everyday lives and its presence is evident in everything that we perceive. It is widely recognized that colors have also a strong impact on our emotions and feelings (Hem phill, 1996; Lang, 1993; Mahnke, 1996). Furthermore, The game’s use of a closed perspective also enhances the role of color, for example, when facing the game’s NPCs from the protagonist’s point of view, the foreground is obscured in the middle, and with many views obscured, it forces the player to complement the overall picture with existing information, creating color associations that also enhance the player’s immersion. Color association is a great form of artistic expression, Kawamoto and Soen(1993, p.265) said that in addition to cross-cultural studies and investigation to reasons for color associations, future work might also utilize rating scales for color associations, such as “beautiful-ugly”, “warm – cold”, etc. that have been studied. With the above artistic expressions, it will create more interest in players who are exposed to this style of painting for the first time.

Back to the game itself, it is filled with a lot of elements of folklore, which makes the core of horror seem more diverse and rich in the Chinese cultural background. Players through the sense of exaggerated and bizarre events (occasionally the reality of what happens will be even more incredible), deformed emotions, saddening ending, can experience the fate of the litigation and praise of the feelings, which also makes the horror game to remove the characteristics of the curiosity hunt and its own set of highlights, but also has a certain educational significance, which is “fireworks “this game gives me the greatest insight. At the end of the story, when all the dust has settled, I was not frightened, but moved by the moving story itself. This makes me feel that this game is not just a horror game only, but a work of art that allows players to immerse themselves in it, to measure themselves and thus be deeply moved.

Bibliography

Kawamoto, N., & Soen, T. (1993). Objective evaluation of color design II. Color Research and Application.4(2): 260-266.

Kunttu,K,& Sanja, (2018). Creation of Concept art for a horror game. Game design.63(5): 8-11. 

Hem phill, M. (1996). A note on adults’ color-emotion associations. Journal of Genetic Psychology.157(7): 275-281.

Christ Pruett. (2010). The Anthropology of Fear: Learning About Japan Through Horror Game. Journal of Education, Community and Values.3 (10):3-6.

Jens,K,& Clasen,(2019)Threat simulation in virtual limbo: An evolutionary approach to horror video games. Mathias Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds.342(4):119-138.