OPINIONS? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?

Dream-themed? Hah, now THAT'S something I'd like to see.

Just keep jump scares to a minimum and focus more on making a disturbing, surreal atmosphere (kind of like LSD: Dream Emulator) and you're golden.

Eh, I don't really have an opinion on what I'd LIKE to see, but I do know what I DON'T want to see:

No rape and no violence against women. That's it, basically.

author=Komisoft
I've been slowly working on a dark, dream-themed psychological horror game for about a year now. It's been progressing at a slow rate, and changing rather frequently.

Now, it's not so much help that I require, but more so opinions of what you would like to see in an RPGMaker horror game. I'm talking gameplay mechanics, puzzles, story and what would make it stand out. I would hate to waste my time making a game that nobody would find fun to play.

Excuse me if I'm in the wrong forum.

If I play a horror game, what's most important to me is the connection to reality in the story. It can feel dream-like, that might even be a plus, but the conclusion at the end has to be somewhat connected to reality. It could be "You were insane all the time" or "You were raped as a child and now have these weird dreams" or even "It's actually a serial killer who secretly gave you drugs".

I generally dislike horror games that are just about lots of scary monsters trying to kill you or ghosts that want to get your vengeance (unless there is really an extensive explanation at the end that something really horrible happened here to cause ghosts to appear).

Gameplay mechanics, I'm pretty much open to anything. I actually think there is quite a lack of horror RPG hybrid games so I don't actually mind RPGish battle systems in a horror game, but they need to stay in the mood (the default RPG Maker battle system interface would instantly kill it). A very good example for me is Parasite Eve 1.
I generally dislike shooter-like gameplay. I dislike limited ammo (it's okay if it's limited but at "save points" you can stock up again), so I prefer using melee weapons, so they should be somewhat viable.

The most important aspect in a horror game is the immersion and a strong part of that is the music. Also make extensive use of sound effects. It doesn't have to be loud jump scares, but work with background noises a lot.

Puzzles... no particular preference but please no move block puzzles. Puzzles in a horror game should be more riddle-like. You find pieces of papers or paintings at the wall with hidden hints and need to figure them out. Puzzles should be unique over the game's progress, so no repeated use of the same puzzles with increasing difficulties, that's lame. Rather viewer puzzles but all of them unique and interesting.

Also... exploration! Work with exploration. Don't just make it a linear path the player walks along.
Don't make everything too predictable. Don't just make it closed doors, then you find a key and then you can open a door. Make something unexpected happen too... like coming back to a location and suddenly a closed door is open without the player actually thinking he could have done something to even trigger that.

That's about it.