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I don't think horror game developers understand what keys are.

Princess AlicePrincess Alice
in General
They seem to have this idea that keys are one-time-use items that automatically unlock whatever locked door you happened to encounter most recently.

Then again, horror game developers also think flashlights drain their batteries in 3 minutes and that otherwise mundane locations are littered with spare batteries, so I don't know what reality they live in.
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Comments

  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    I mean the key thing is basically all video games
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    Zelda did the key thing long before any horror games did

    afaik
  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    Interchangeable Antimatter Keys, eh?
  • BeeBee
    I've found horror games are usually better than most genres about having keys be for specific places.
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Horror game tropes are just... something.
  • MetaFourMetaFour
    For once, or maybe twice, I was in my prime.
    "What madman would arrange a police station like this?"
    "Well, you see, it wasn’t always a police station. It used to be a museum!"
    "... What madman would arrange a MUSEUM like this?"
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Another weird key trope is the thing where you pick up a key and the game immediately tells you what it goes to

    Like you find some nondescript key and it goes in your inventory as "basement key" or "master bedroom key" or some such thing

    Why do game devs do that? Why not, like, let the player figure out on their own where the key goes?
  • OdradekOdradek
    My dreams exceed my real life
    Because depending on how big the game is, that might be tedious
  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    Because I'd go crazy looking for keys to everything that didn't open, and get paranoid about missing loot because I never found the right key to the Cellar of Chainsaws and Health Upgrades.
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    imageThis is a cross-section of a level from Hitman 2016, specifically floor 4 of 6. The room with a red dot contains a key that unlocks a boat located at the green dot, on floor 2. Good luck working that one out without the key specifically telling you it's a boat key.
  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    Eh, that's in the same level.  I mean, I'm going to click on everything and try every item with everything, so it's not so bad.  It's the King's Quest "oh-crap I messed up half the game ago" type of thing that I'm worried about.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I mean, this is a valid point, but at least include some in-universe justification for why the character instantly knows what the key goes to. Have a tag on the key that says "boat key" on it or something.
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    That doesn't seem especially hard to work out. Like Aliroz said, it's in the same level.

    Kids these days, don't want to have to figure anything out
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    Y'all are underestimating just how big that hotel is. :P
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    IRL we have different styles of keys; videogames could invest more in having different key sprites
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I guess the specific scenario I'm thinking of is one that occurs a lot in generic Steam horror games, where you're exploring some area, and you happen upon a generic-looking key asset that looks like it could belong to almost anything, but when you pick it up, text appears reading "BASEMENT KEY" or some such thing.

    If you're going to tell me what the key belongs to, I at least expect some in-universe justification for how the player character would know this. Make it a particularly distinct key that matches a particularly distinct lock. Make it a key in a specific location that was previously mentioned elsewhere in the game. Or, like I said before, even just adding a keyring with a tag would be something. It'd be lazy as hell, but it'd be better than nothing.

    But...I'm expecting too much from Steam horror games, which tend to be thrown together from premade assets with little to no thought anyways.
  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    glennmagusharvey said:

    key sprites

    I'm sufficiently tired that when I read this I imagined little fairies that tell you which door the key is for
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    that is a new video game idea
  • MetaFourMetaFour
    For once, or maybe twice, I was in my prime.
    Tatterhood said:

    glennmagusharvey said:

    key sprites

    I'm sufficiently tired that when I read this I imagined little fairies that tell you which door the key is for
    Or how about fairies that just act as keys themselves? As you go through the level, you find imprisoned fairies and free them. Each fairy is so happy at being freed, they offer to unlock one door of your choosing with their magic. Once they've unlocked a door, that fairy considers their debt repaid, so they fly away, and you never see them again.

    There, a justification for why the "keys" can unlock any door, but can only be used once.
  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    edited 2019-04-16 04:31:58
    MetaFour said:

    Tatterhood said:

    glennmagusharvey said:

    key sprites

    I'm sufficiently tired that when I read this I imagined little fairies that tell you which door the key is for
    Or how about fairies that just act as keys themselves? As you go through the level, you find imprisoned fairies and free them. Each fairy is so happy at being freed, they offer to unlock one door of your choosing with their magic. Once they've unlocked a door, that fairy considers their debt repaid, so they fly away, and you never see them again.

    There, a justification for why the "keys" can unlock any door, but can only be used once.
    this is basically how it works in mario party two
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