ze-gut-doctah

[ze-gut-doctah]

Yeah yeah, lazy mascot horror based on a "ooh kids thing scary" concept is really turning indie horror games to sludge, but the original concept can work if done with some care and effort.

To make mascot horror work, you need a couple things, nostalgia and a pre-existing fear.

The nostalgia part scares you by taking something, usually from your childhood, that you associate with saftey and comfort, then making it at least feel dangerous to you. This feeling, of something safe being taken away, upsets certain survival instincts and puts you in aplace of deep fear. Not mascot horror, but Coraline does this with the idea of your own parents, or at least imitations of them, no longer being safe, which is why we were so scared of it.

The second part, pre-exisying fear, especially from childhood, takes something that might be irrational at first, and validates it, at least in the context of the game. Always been scared of clowns? Well now Chuckles McFuck is gonna get you! (IT).

Put these concepts together and you got yourself some decent mascot horror.

FNAF worked, at least initially, because it played on these 2 emotions. Pizzeria arcades are places lots of people find nostalgic and comforting, but those animatronic mascots were always creepy. My mom grew up in the 90s and said that some kids couldn't even walk into a Chuck E Cheese's without crying.

Another example of millennial horror is Tattletail, where you literally play as a child in your family home during Christmastime, but your parents are nowhere to be found and you're being tormented by characters based on Furbies and Teddy Ruxpin, two toys that had 90s kids pissing themselves.

Amanda the Adventurer works because she's an expy of Dora the Explorer (she was a cartoon staple back in the day, but the way she talked directly to you was kinda creepy, huh?)

Garten of Banban had a bit of nostalgia potential (kindergarten and daycare) but squandered it by bad, lazy, money-hungry execution.

Hello Neighbor was just Youtuber bait when it tried to be horror.

Steamboat Willie could work as a horror concept, but someone already sorta did that, and did it better (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

[ze-gut-doctah]

[ze-gut-doctah]

Source: [x]

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts!

[ze-gut-doctah]

[ze-gut-doctah]

Wow I knew a lot of people in Denmark want to boycott America but I had no idea it was widespread enough for our main grocery store chains to do this. People are ANGRY at Trump like I’ve never seen before.

[ze-gut-doctah]

cats are really good at looking at things. very useful

[ze-gut-doctah]

Just rewatched the Weirdmageddon episodes again <3

[ze-gut-doctah]

guards take them away

[ze-gut-doctah]

Still fluctuating between peak and mid as always, eh Dreamworks?

[ze-gut-doctah]

i stg if shrek 5 is another movie about an overbearing father figure and his teen daughter who disrespects their familial traditions because she wants to see the world i am leaving this earth and taking you all with me

[ze-gut-doctah]

The only thing imma say about the new Shrek is that they better show us the fucked up adult versions of Donkey and Dragon’s babies don’t chicken out you Frankensteined those things, you gotta live with the consequences

[ze-gut-doctah]

[ze-gut-doctah]

Any romance advice for ambivert with anxiety crippling autism and overbearing BPD? I need a Ford in my life.

[ze-gut-doctah]

[ze-gut-doctah]

[ze-gut-doctah]

super simple low-effort ao3 summary methods that are 1000% better and 1000% less annoying than just saying you suck at summaries:

copypaste the first few lines of the fic. u already wrote ‘em. let ‘em be their own damn hook

if ur feeling fancy & don’t mind showing ur hand a bit, copypaste the first few lines of the fic that u feel are esp. Important or Interesting - the ones where u first start getting into the real meat of things

state the main tropes! theyre probably already in ur tags - just say them again - maybe as a full sentence if ur feelin fancy. or with a joke if ur feelin Extra fancy

ask a question. pose a hypothetical. eg what happens if u take [character] and put them in [situation]?

make an equation. [character] + [thing] = [outcome]

just write like a one-sentence summary of what the fuck is going down. just one (1) sentence. doesnt matter if it doesn’t cover every important aspect. or if it sounds bland. any summary sentence is gonna be miles better than “idk i suck at summaries”

just…explain the fic like u would to a friend? it doesnt have to be a polished back of the book blurb. it can just be “[pairing] coffee shop au, but like, still with murder, and also i made everyone trans. enjoy”

just stick a meme in there

honestly who cares

just put literally anything but a self deprecating comment in there & ur golden

[ze-gut-doctah]

*whispers* behold. a goddess w/ deadly accuracy.