I think some people like these mods you should just leave it at that no point in trying to force someone into it. Unless if someone is being exposed for liking kids then well that should get out there
@@manachromeYTeveryone's entitled to like the mods if they want!! That's not the point of the video, the title and thumbnail are hyperbolic, but all I do in the video itself is just lay out criticisms of things I think they should do better
@@Daggz I think a mod that made childhood Minecraft TH-camrs being tormented twisted and corrupted by a mysterious flesh that turns everything into these twisted fleshy creatures as you're world gets converted into flesh
The original cave dweller worked because it was avoidable. It appeared, walked away, and didn't overstay its welcome. The mods based on it, however, overstayed their welcome and never walked away.
@@Gog426 he copies Cave Dweller's AI. He spawns in the same area as Cave Dweller, although more frequently. He isn't really any better or worse, it is just slightly changed Cave Dweller Evolved.
If I made a mod and someone just goes and changes a model in that mod, has the GUTS to call it "Better [mod name]", I would throw hands without hesitating
fr like that's so disrespectful 😭 "[mod name] Reloaded" at least sounds inspired/like it was created out of appreciation for the original. "Better [mod name]" is just rude
If you’re talking about the cave dweller reimagined mod it also made a rework for the script so now it can actually climb up your structures for example
The Cave Dweller being able to be killed pretty easily somehow makes it make more sense. It's an ambush predator, relying on taking targets by surprise instead of by raw endurance. If you wanted to "enhance" it, you'd probably want to play into that. Have it retreat after a certain time or if its' opening attack doesn't do much damage, because it realizes you're not easy prey. Then it comes back with a friend, or starts deliberately setting off sculk shriekers to summon a warden: something it knows can kill a well-armored player. It'd still die easily, but it would feel like a more dangerous presence the entire time it's around as opposed to only during combat.
I also think that it would be nice to play into the stalking aspect by adding a monster that doesn't come running at you and screaming but just stalks up on you nearly silently and takes you out to keep you checking over your shoulder.
That's exactly was I was thinking. In another chat I said that I'm surprised somebody hasn't made a Bracken-inspired dweller considering the popularity of Lethal Company. @@Slaking_
Sounds of something moving around your house while you sleep. Or even having the chance to get to see that something looking at you while you sleep, it doesn't kill you or attack you.
I think the main problem with it is that they tend to base these new mods too heavily on the Cave Dweller. The Cave Dweller was a genius concept for the time, but once it came out, everyone had to throw their hats into the ring. Dweller this, dweller that, night dweller, day dweller, skinwalker dweller, it's practically transformed into a parody
A mod that REALLY does the concept right is ‘From the Fog’ because it simply revisits those old herobrine mods and has that buildup that you signaled to at the end of the video
From the Fog isn't made to be a horror mod, its just meant to be as close to the classic Herobrine myths as possible... But because of this, it kinda struggles to be actually scary. Its only really scary if you're already scared of Herobrine. Often times you'll have situations where Herobrine just shows up and stares at you and if you aren't scared of him it just feels silly. Sometimes his AI will bug out and he's just walk into walls.
A trend was never expected, the original cave dweller was just meant to add fear to what could actually lurk below, but can get tiring, so I definitely agree.
The issue is that most of the Dweller or horror mod mobs are just too stupid to be really a threat. If your going to make something actually scary, your going to need to make a mob with a lot of complexity to it, which is out of the scope of most quick attention-grab projects.
i think is is also an issue with just how simple minecraft ai is. for minecraft it works fine, but if ur trying to make an effective horror element there would have to be some sort improvement or change to the ai since you need those more complex systems to design a creature that could have unpredictable movement
in survival mode i have almost never gone above the level of "wooden cube in the middle of nowhere". i always plan to make a nice house but i just never get around to it
@@ketaminepoptarts me with my hollow mountain lol i'll go "i should replace the walls with wood or something" but end up going "eh, nobody's gonna see it. Why bother?"
Cave Dweller actually has such a clever sound design! The footsteps are only heard whlie you're mining, as soon as you stop it stops too. Like it's sneaking up on you while you're less likely to hear it
Yeah thats honestly really creepy. Last night i was thinking of making a horror mod inspired by skinwalkers. A monster that takes on your own skin. Imagine seeing a twisted image of yourself peeking at you from behind a tree in a dark forest. Or walking home after a long day of mining and seeing yourself standing there in your own house only for it to dissapear when you get closer. I would not make it stupid and agressive. I would want it to show up multiple times and when encountered it copies your movement. When you walk away from it, it walks after you, when you stop it stops. When you walk towards it, it giggles and walks away. When you look away, it dissapears. Making you question if its all in your head. I want it to feel like its always there. When your walking through the forest you suddenly see it walking along with you in the distance. It hides behind blocks and is only visible for short amounts of time. Making you feel like he is always there. It moves objects when your not looking. You will never see it doing this. But you will swear that block wasnt there before. It only engages you when your health is low. It always watches you and knows when your weak. Its smart and when it finally attacks it kills you very fast because of your health. If you gain health while its attacking you somehow ( golden apple or something ) It will run away/dissapear to come back another time when your weak. It plays this game forever until your dead. Its programmed to never come close to you when you have enough health to kill it. And if you hit it more than 2 times it gives you blindness and dissapears. You wont be able to kill it with a sword or any other conventional way becuase when you give it damage over a certain point it always dissapears and waits till its full health before it strikes again.
@@danieltortellinijr.6594 thanks man! Good to hear. If you have any ideas you want to share feel free! I really want to make you feel anxious with this mod. So for example when you take some simple fall damage and you become more vulnerable because of it you can hear it giggle somewhere behind you. Waiting for the right moment.. It laughs because it gets excited when you hurt yourself.. I was maybe thinking about adding clicking noises. That it uses echo location to find you in the dark. So when your out at night and you take fall damage, you suddenly hear something laugh in the distance followed by clicking noises getting closer to you. It does variations on this depending on your health. Sometimes it only giggles, sometimes the clicking noises come closer and then when its almost reached you it turns around and disappears again. And one of these it kills you.
I think one issue is that Minecraft is inherently less scary these days. The world just isn't as empty and unsettling. It's no longer this oppressive fog hanging over an eerie, barren landscape. You can see for miles and the world is far more diverse and explorable. Going underground, the caves are far too open to ever get snuck up on, you won't feel that cramped, claustrophobic sense of the classic twisting tunnels full of dark corners and dead ends. It's not an environment conducive to horror like the earlier versions.
I think why Minecraft was scarier back then, was because the Internet wasn't as advanced as it is now, and there was less information, plus creepypasta's were in their height, so people could spread mass rumors and others will spread them and believe them, this is how humans work, thats why ghost stories, alien sightings, mythology, and deep sea creature stories occur, people spread their words to one another, and those who believe will be scared, and this brings us to Minecraft, it can have the creepy atmosphere, accdiental horror.
Sadly the devs don't want the game to be scary because they're hellbent on making the game for children who all grew up and want more mature games. They can't even get new children to play the game because there are things like Fortnite to play and even if they do get new young players, TH-camrs and Discord group users will just groom them.
@@Andulvar what you yapping about? Of course they won't make the game scary, that's not what Minecraft is about, you goofy, The Warden supplies it well enough, the mechanics for it is good for a blocky game.
what honestly annoys me more is how the names dont even make sense half the time. "cave dweller" works because thats what it does: it DWELLS in CAVES "mimic dweller" DOESNT LIVE IN MIMICS
classic minecraft was a horror game, literally went back and i was genuinely afraid of mining, and immediately remembered why herobrine was such a popular thing
i was so scared of mobs and night time, like that was the most horrifying thing about Minecraft when i was younger so i would only play on peaceful mode lmao
Why Minecraft was scary sometimes was simply just the fear of the unknown combined with the endless isolation of the player so hearing or seeing something unusual for must a second like seeing a Herobrine screenshot would usually be enough to be terrifying, not knowing what’s going on but feeling like something is off Daggz’s conclusion said it all Subtly is key
Yep. Personally the most scared I was playing minecraft (and tbh any game, though I don't play many horror games it was still quite scary) was when I was exploring far away from my base and suddenly heard a soundtrack I'd never heard before. If anyone knows what it is, please lmk because I know it's a normal track but doesn't come up much. It was just very rhythmic and drum heavy with extra instrumentals coming in but never overpowering the drum track. The fact it coincided with me finding my first coral forest/underwater city ever, the track continuing much longer than I thought any tracks did, and that despite exploring for an extended time period I hadn't found any villages all made me freak out bad enough to exit the game. I know it was mostly just my weird response to that kind of music doing it, but I think an ideal minecraft horror mod would capture that feeling. Like I think a truly terrifying mod would just be a large collection of unsettling assets/events/environments/osts/creatures/etc that are applied on a dice roll to each new seed. Specifically ones that don't just pop up at you immediately, ones that you only notice gradually after you've progressed in the world a little. That way it's always a surprise when something happens and you can't just get used to it immediately
The minute you can hurt what is "scary", it stops being scary but if you just make the scary thing invincible then it becomes annoying. You need to be able to hide somehow
I think another big part of Minecraft’s horror back then was the fear of something invading your world. The whole point is that you are supposed to be by yourself, only to later see things like strip-mine tunnels, structures that don’t spawn naturally, stuff like that. That’s why I think Herobrine did so well.
I would even wait to do anything actually scary in the world for a long time because that builds up a feeling of isolation and loneliness in the world. If you do it right, you can really break a player.
I think the simpler the Minecraft “horror” mod is, the scarier it is.. as goofy as the og model is, the more and more these mods look like they don’t belong in minecraft the more the atmosphere is completely broken and no longer scary.
I do not know why people find them so scary. The models and textures look so bad/goofy. I even played with the Insanity Shaders that fans of these mods say are a requirement to get the full experience. They still looked like shite with Insanity, PS1, and Xbox 360 shaders.@@purp6973
this gave me a monster idea : a "living world" monster, a monster that is the world itself the world is normal at first, but in rare occasions you will sometimes hear rumbling and see tentacles on the distance that quickly retract once you look at it, and once you start mining you will find gaping wounds on the bedrock layer where the bedrock is broken, instead of the void its just a mass of flesh blocks, the more you dig down, the more weird and dangerous it gets. i feel like it would be more scary than those "in-the face" cave dweller mods, just imagine just mining and realizing that your world is a living being and you were living on its shell the entire time.
The original dweller seemed the best to me. Being initially pretty tall, but then being able to crouch down into 2 block tall spaces, and drag itself through 1 block holes to get to the player seems the most frightening. The second one going entirely prone to try to go through 2 block tall spaces really just made it seem janky.
What makes the Cave Dweller work the best is that it came from someone's actual imagination instead of just following a trend. The Cave Dweller is just someone's headcanon on what's making those alien cave noises turned into a mod
Minecraft's horror excelled when it took advantage of the fear of the unknown. The ambient cave sounds can put anyone off guard, and a surprise hostile mob attack is equally unnerving. Horror mods are very hit or miss, as sometimes they take advantage of that fear of the unknown and other times it just throws horror tropes into places where they don't belong.
I think thats also the issue with mods. If you install a horror mod, there is no fear of the *unknown*, you know that theres gonna be something spooky happening. I feel like the only way it would work is sneaking creepy things into a mod without mentioning their existance. But thats also very optimistic considering how easily you can look at all the files in a mod once downloaded.
@@eightcoins4401 The Betweenlands is a good example that in my opinion. It was very scary when I had to explore it in SevTech. It's a weird separate dimension that feels very different to normal Minecraft, and I didn't know anything about the mod. The mobs are kinda creepy and the color scheme is overall darker. Apparently there's also a chance of dense fog appearing with some creepy silhouettes in the distance that don't do anything, which is just unexpectedly creepy. It's not really a "horror" mod, just a mod that happens to feel very scary if you don't know anything about it.
It's very hard to make minecraft scary, because while playing you know you play horror mod. Hearing cave noises in vanilla minecraft feels supernatural, that's why they are terrifying.
You know, it would be a cool idea to create some QoL mod (like another one backpack mod, or something like a new mining instrument), and secretly add here something like a Cave Dweller. That would be unexpected and really scary, at least for the first clash with this thing as well.
@@ГотаБГJust have a mod that swaps around some sound files, but secretly hase a tone of hidden ones that screw with the player. Footsteps, knocking, the sound of someone mining in the distance. Make it sound like you're being followed, but no actual mob is in the game Maybe you could have a system like the Dead Space remake, which dynamically changes how difficult/scary the game is based off player performance. Oh, you could even have light blocks turn off at random points as well.
@@pixels_per_minute that's exactly what I thought, the ominous feeling of not being alone is so fecking unsettling, maybe even some glimpses of a entity but not the entirety of it would work
wouldn't the solution be to look like a normal mod with psychological elements? Imagine making a house with several new items from the mod and you see silhouettes that you have to pay close attention to notice. it would be like the mod added new items and new missions, but added something else.
DUDE imagine if you released one of these mods but never actually had a creature (but still advertized itself as such) so it was just noises and paranoia waiting for it to show up
Literally just an empty zip or something That would unironically be better than all these mods, because the moment the fear becomes tangible in a game, it turns from a fear into frustration and inconvenience
ironically this works because horror, like _really_ getting scared comes from dread that's why the best horror movies work off paranoia and the unease that comes with not knowing when something will happen. The tension being released isnt what's scary (the jumpscare, the monster reveal, that sort of thing) but the build up TO ANYTHING is what's nerve wracking and what makes it better? doing nothing with that tension, just let your audience sit there with their paranoia and anticipate the next scare.
I think the main problem is that it’s a lot easier for our minds to imagine something that we think is super scary with smaller hints to tell us what could be lurking around the corner. And creating a defined version of that scary thing risks killing any built suspense or imagined threat.
The unknown is scarier than the known. Once the novelty of playing the latest your-mama-dweller mod and having no idea what it does wears off, you're left with basically another hostile mob with unique mechanics. You know when it spawns, you know the sounds that announce it, you know what it does, how it works, how to exploit it, etc. Minecraft cave sounds are scary *because* they don't mean anything. There's nothing that follows them. But what if...? That "what if" is why they're so scary.
@@xGOKOPxCreepers, Endermen, and Baby Zombies are all infinitely scarier than even the original Cave Dweller; adding too many unique blends of "fuck you" turns 'threats' into 'annoyances'. Creepers are completely silent as they approach, so you have to keep watching your back. Don't look Endermen in the eyes or you'll get bodied if you're not prepared. If you see a Baby Zombie, be careful, because they're faster than you think. Fear is the emotion of avoidance. You do not fear what you cannot avoid. It's why I hate the phantoms; their hit box is atrocious, and they always seem to hit you anyways. I can't avoid them, so I do not fear them like I do other enemies. The Cave Dweller, similarly, is difficult to avoid. In fact, the creator went _out of his way_ to make it nearly _unavoidable._ That's not scary, it's annoying. It's why I think the Warden would be better off without the sonic attack. If you can't avoid it, the only option is to fight it, which triggers _anger,_ which is basically the opposite emotion that it's supposed to invoke.
One of the thoughts I’ve had is that the original Cave Dweller would be a lot scarier if it avoided lit areas even after it aggro’d. A huge part of the build up in the OG video is how creepy the damn thing looks in the dark, but once it’s in a well lit area it just looks goofy, and of course as you mentioned it’s far less scary once you know what to expect. Keeping it in a context where you are already going to be unsettled and wary, and *staying* there so it remains this THING that you never quite clearly see would make it much more unnerving, IMO
@@redjive_industries3760 The thing that makes a monster scary in a game is that in a vacuum they're very easy to avoid, but in actual gameplay they may not be. It's like the Tetris. Dealing with a bunch of mobs that each only do one scary thing is like dealing with all of the individual blocks that normally do; the more you deal with in a shorter timeframe, the scarier the situation gets. On the other hand, blending all of the "scariness components" into one entity is like if Tetris sent a giant block at you that's almost impossible to clean. Sure, the whole point is that it's you vs the game... but that style of "game development" fails to reward the desired emotion. A 3 block tall mob that crouches down to fit in a 2 block tall hole is already enough. Trying to make it "more scary" will just make it more annoying instead. A lot of feature I see that people want added to a single "super scary" mob would be better off as multiple mobs with inbuilt synergy. A mob that places torches to confuse you, another that removes them, and another that attacks the player only when they're in darkness. Instead of forcing the player to play by it's rules, let the player dictate the rules instead, so that it doesn't just make the whole encounter unfair.
also if you have a build up to the reveal you might end up disappointing people because the way they envisioned it was scarier than what it actually looks like
To be fair, the Cave Dweller actually was pretty good, as it was the first of its kind, and was actually pretty well designed (conceptually at least)... The problem came when everyone started copying it to try and leech off of its success. The worst part of these copycat mods is that they make the mobs invincible. They don't give it a ton of HP like the Warden, they just straight up make it an unstoppable unkillable threat. And there's no way to avoid them really other than just straight up hiding in a box. Also, the pngs aren't very scary and the loud noises are startling, but ultimately are just really painful for your ears.
Yeah pretty much. The problem I this is because you can't kill a majority of these dwellers. I like the original cave dweller because it is still pretty close to vanilla. It's not impossible to escape it. The chases aren't long and drawn out, you can kill it, and it isn't constantly appearing.
the idea of "a scary, strong mob that chases you" is good! i like the idea of a mini-boss similar to the Warden but more aggressive, the problem with a lot of these cave dweller clones is that they spawn waaaaay too often, just zoom at you super fast and insta-kill you, it's not a scary thing where you have to run away or stand and fight, it's just an annoying jumpscare you can't react to
Man From The Fog has 300 HP which is the same as the Wither, a boss summoned by choice of the player while the Man spawns every 10 minutes. Others like Modnight Lurker and One Who Watches are nigh-unkillable. Their only weakness is that they have no AI to fight back against Iron Golems or Zoglins. They all feel like DeivantART OC Mary Sues instead of horror characters. The unoriginal designs and bad textures do not help as well.
@@Daralexen yeah i dont normally like to diss people's art work, but you can tell a lot of these "dweller" characters are just made to look similar because that's what's trending, so they all just look kind of like The Peeker
I thought of an interesting way to do a “cave dweller,” where he isn’t a malevolent stalker, but actively runs from players and only attacks (with gnarly damage like a glass cannon) when cornered. Besides just creepy noises and the glowing face, it also attacks and breaks torches and glowing blocks. It’s not an evil monster, but a neutral creature that you’ve walked in on in the world they inhabit.
@@iamahiphopfan3759 I don’t play Minecraft and kind of am too busy with my solo game dev and comic work so I won’t be making it but it’s a free to use idea for anyone who is talented
I think a mix of that and stalking would be a good idea it never actually chases you it just watches you from the dark then runs away if you either look at it too long or try getting closer
I honestly quite like the first iteration of the cave dweller, because it seems to be the one that understands the most about what makes minecraft creepy. It’s not just adding a le spooki tall monster to run at you screaming in a random location, it’s playing off of the already existing feature of the cave noises. I think it’s the one that gets the closest to what works with minecraft horror. I think the thing that could really elevate the cave dweller is making it way more subtle. What if it wandered around breaking light sources or even quietly hunting and killing other mobs around its cave system, only leaving the loot behind as a sign that it’s there. Isolating you from everying, including the other hostile mobs in the game. Plunging the cave system into complete silence and darkness. By the time you notice just how close by it actually is, it would already be too late as it has trapped you entirely alone with it, in the dark, in it's territory.
I think the pay off needs some work and the model could be improved, but I don’t think the ‘better cave dweller’ approach of making it bigger really works, mainly due to it just making the problem regarding the clunky animations all the more noticeable.
The cave dweller is a great idea for mob, as it does things NO OTHER MOB CAN DO, like crawling through 1 block holes, that would terrify me. But your ideas would literally make it the perfect horror mob in my opinion. One that toys with you and uses the cave sounds to increasingly make you more paranoid before getting after you
@@They0ungTravler I watched Tomato stream a horror modpack that had the cave dweller in it and everything in the modpack wasn't really scary, except the cave dweller which actually made me jump while watching. Tomato was getting chased and jumped into a 1x1 tunnel, acted triumphant, turned around while still in the tunnel, and the cave dweller was just right there crawling through the tunnel. Actually startling. I'd share a link to the clip but TH-cam has a tendency to delete comments containing links.
In a game where a major tip for not getting lost in caves is keeping torches in one direction, seeking out and breaking light sources is a really good way for a monster to create the feeling of trapping the player in the caves!
My issue with all of these mods is that their concept of horror always revolves around the entities being inherently hostile and hands on murdering. Any degree of intelligence given to them is mostly negated by the fact that their behaviours are limited to stalking and trying to kill you with their own hands. It would be far scarier if an entity treated you like a toy, sabotaging your efforts to watch you dance with death. An entity you know is there, but can never see. Things like blighting crops or animals, burning away coal, slowly picking away at your durability, or even changing how other mobs behave. Just to see you fight for your life. You'll live in vigilance.
@@justseffstuff3308 There's a quote that I'm a big fan of: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." I think this also applies to intelligence. A kind of valley of uncertainty, between intelligence and animal instinct. An intelligent, rational being may be scary in that it can deceive and outwit you , but you can reason with it. An animal may be scary in that you can't reason with it, but you can deceive and outwit it. Both are predictable and knowable in their own ways. But in-between, there's that unknown area where you don't know, nor can you predict what's going on in its head, and I think that's scarier than either of those.
Maybe do the same as the Cave Dweller and not use loud.mp3 files but the same sounds of the game. Imagine hearing a creeper tss, you look back and there is nothing there.
I've always been really fond of how the OG Herobrine mod would spam random structures in your world, make you drop all of your items, turning animals hostile, etc.
My one gripe with the Cave Dweller is that after a certain point he entirely stops being scary and just becomes a nuisance. I do like that he actually does scale to Vanilla Minecraft and isn't some absurd abomination that'll two-tap you in full Rite, but at the same time that makes him insane annoying when I'm doing something like mining a perimeter or building underground at lategame. Like damn, you got me bro that screaming sure is scary, now please go away I'm trying to dig a perimeter for this Witch Farm. It feels like he's only designed for quick survival worlds that are done as soon as the dragon is dead.
This is a problem Minecraft has for all mobs, this isn't specific for mods. After X hours playing minecraft a creeper blows up your front door and the only thing you think is 'wow so cool, now I have to rebuild that instead of building my mob farm. great design.'
@@CommissarChaotic That wasn't the point OP made, "My one gripe with the Cave Dweller is that after a certain point he entirely stops being scary and just becomes a nuisance." I was saying this is not only true for mod-specific mobs but vanilla ones as well. After a certain point they cease to be 'scary' or 'threatening' and just become a nuisance you have to take care of. The Cave Dweller can 'just exist' too. As stated, it's a Cave Dweller. You will never run into one unless you're going into a cave. When you're up in your house in the overworld, going through the nether, fighting a dragon in the end? Cave Dweller is just chilling in the caves beneath the overworld. Creepers on the other hand you can encounter both deep underground, or on the overworld, and when they see you their only goal is to follow you and cause an explosion.
I believe the original Herobrine is still the upper echelon of Minecraft horror for two reasons. 1) It maintains a strict connection to the vanilla experience with only a minor adjustment to Steve's eyes which enhances the unnerving element of the entity. 2) It plays on a more psychological and "slow burn" unknown angle. This approach puts constant pressure on the player. Abrupt jump scare horror and custom models don't do it beyond the fight or flight response but true horror is more than that. Its the constant psychological pressure and fear of the unknown that can make a Minecraft mod truly frightening. To date, I believe the modpack in Forge Labs, "How I Survived HEROBRINE in Hardcore Minecraft" is probably one of the best forms of this approach. Though, I would tone down the extra mobs and stick more closely to the Herobrine experience, that gameplay had all the earmarks of a truly unsettling atmosphere and experience. Perhaps, someday mod makes will aim for the psychological approach and make something truly eerie for Minecraft.
One main issue with the Cave Dweller is it's main horror is suspense, once it actually chases you, as long as you have a shield it just becomes a 30 second game of "hold shield and occasionally hit it" in a corner, at which point the scare has completely worn off and any future scares are somewhat meaningless once you realize that.
I was thinking about this after watching him just kill it while shielded, like, it would be interesting imo for it to become worse if you kill it, spawning worse threaths or making it more aggresive next time, or something lol
I brought back the Cave Dweller trend after Gargin's initial trend died down. I do regret doing so. In those months, the entities that I presented and played with were actually scary because I didn't know about them. But as time moved on, they just became plain. There's a reason I quit the Dweller niche; it's becoming cringe-worthy, left-to-right copies, each having the same base AI used by the Cave Dweller. People are actively promoting new dweller copies, which aren't close to scary at all, lots of fake reactions, and scripted videos. All for what? Money. Something I brought back to popularity out of passion is now a hub for money-grinding; viewers are non-stop misled and click baited. Yeah, it does annoy me, but I'm glad I moved away from it.
You know what would be cool? Having one of the songs in minecraft, like any random song, for example Sweden, have a copy of itself as a mod, and it's literally the same song, but over time, all notes are like, lower pitch or unevenly spaced out, slowly turning into Static, and it only happening if you're out in the dark with no lights around you for too long.
was chatting with some friends and came up with a similar idea same concept, some familiar song like Sweden, maybe some pitch changes and reverb if you wanna get fancy but the real kicker is that the song doesn't finish. at a random point it just trails off on an incomplete chord actually now that I think about it this idea would probably work better if the rest of the song was completely unchanged. no way to tell that it's the spooky version until the music suddenly disappears into silence
The OG Cave Dweller was not necessarily scary in a way, eerie for sure, but it actually worked as a mod that you could enjoy because there isn't an entity in your face every 5 seconds and you could reasonably get away from the Dweller, other mods just stick entities in your face and kill you every 5-10 minutes while it could actually take a bit of time to find the Dweller, and it doesn't stick around long, and it might not even attack you. It builds uncertainty in what it'll do, so you try to ease off tensing because it might leave you be, but the tension comes in on if it runs at you. But it doesn't leave any scars, which is what horror mods should do in my opinion, they should be in the moment, not long-lasting.
Honestly, honorable mention to the Dimensional Doors mod for being a pretty neat blend of actual utility/exploration content, and spooky stuff The mod's "front-facing" side focuses on pocket dimensions and dungeons found within these pocket dimensions, but there's also a "limbo" dimension that you get dropped into if you fall out of the world, typically from exploring those pocket dungeons, and it is surprisingly eerie in there There's other factors as well that just, compound upon the mod's horror aspect, but probably the best contributor is the lack of in-game instructions on how you're supposed to resolve the situations that come about from these horror components BlueSomething did a good video talking about the mod overall, would recommend
I think one of the things missed that makes the horror of it that much more understated of the cave dweller is how it'll move *as you're mining*, letting the sound of breaking blocks cover up the noise of it getting closer to you. While it's still just... a very basic 'spoowky' simulator, little things like that to sow paranoia are what really count.
I feel like it's an economic thing. Say Minecraft isn't scary as it get's clicks, the community has heard from people how lonely it us and the cave noises are uncomfortable, with the Cave Dweller using that against the playerbase with unexplained mechanics like literal out of sight, out of mind or out of sight, despawn. But... since it's so popular that people have made monsters similar... saying it isn't scary is a bit of a hottake. That Minecraft Dweller mods aren't scary. That Kinecraft itself is unable to scary extending to its mods, whether people show you examples or you just cherrypikc them. Soon, you got a ton of people watching you for TH-cam money as others copy you for their own TH-cam monetisation. Cynical... I know, but I saw a few videos claiming Minecraft cannot be scary and showing some... odd mods as more examples of "bad Minecraft horror", or as he sold it as, "Minecraft horror". With people (mostly impressionable kids sadly) repeating that as opinion. If you aren't scared by the Dweller, that's fine. Just me being cynical that all these commentary videos on the Cave Dweller or Minecraft in all its forms are popping up when the CD have been popular for a while.
@@harrietr.5073 I get where you're coming from, even if it's a bit messy and over the place, but it's generally just not good horror. Most 'horror' Minecraft mods aren't regardless of any tactic you could use otherwise. Unless it's flush with the game, follows horror principles, and isn't an overdone "SPOOKY SIMILAR MAN WITH LOUD NOISE!" it could at least be considered proper horror, because there certainly is some untapped potential in the bag of cheap tag-along horror here.
@@bayjammer2748 You consider jumpscares as non-horror? Really?? Not all horror needs milsim tactics, many horror games has you run away from the threat like Clocktower or Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. I mean base minecraft has bad pfe since it's TBOI ass contact damage for enemy melee. If you wanna make Minecraft horror that's tactical, you have to "fix" the base, no zombies doing contact damage. Windup for player attacks. Modding combat into horror combat aside, some people do find Dwellers scary. If it doesn't scare you (except jumpscares), that's fine. Other people (outside of TH-camrs who fake it for money as usual) still find it scary. You don't find it scary? You don't find it scary. That's it.
@@harrietr.5073That's like...not the point at all? Like jumpscares are kinda like the cheapest trick in the book, now I am not saying that they can be bad since I've played some games where it actually works, but with the Dweller's case it's not inmersive, it's just an incredibly basic case there, and yes, I am aware games like Spooky's and Outlast have chase sequences as part of their gimmicks, but like, they work so well because they keep you inmersed in the game with a sense of anxiety induced by it, as well that it's not constantly spamming loud noises 24/7. If people don't find the Dwellers scary it's because jumspcares are pretty cliche nowadays, and it's very rare seeing them being well executed in that case. That's the problem I have with the Dwellers here.
@@harrietr.5073 Jumpscares are horror, sure, but they're super cheap and should be used sparingly and strategically. Especially given how they can straight-up bad for the health of certain demographics(the elderly, people with heart problems, people with PTSD). Jumpscares are scary for one moment and get old and predictable quickly, the equivalent of throwing a flashbang at someone or sneaking up and blasting an airhorn behind their back. It relies on pure reflex and shock value.
Personally I prefer atmospheric horror/uneasyness. Rather than an entity, the fear of the unknown, and the knowledge of being alone in a vast biome gives better effect that I really enjoy. It's why I like the mods Sound Physics Remastered and Presence Footsteps. The echo of your block breaking, block placing, and walking around from Sound Physics, along with the more realistic sounds that presence footsteps gives your character really turn caves into something incredible. I wish we had more mods that were like those. It'd also be nice to find more audio mods that give more realism.
These mods should take more inspiration from things like MyHouse.wad from Doom II which was entirely atmosphere/fear of unknown. The Dwellers seem to take inspiration from “those” indie horror games that only 5-year olds find scary.
I agree with this, The man from the fog and the man from the void are so frequent, Whenever I played with them they appeared around a minute after I saw them, And the man from the fog attacks without being even looked at
I feel like this also comes into play as to why most backrooms content simply isn't even slightly scary or as horrifying as it used to be. Kane Pixel's addition to reveal and or add a creature as well as the ability to get in and out just ruined the concept as a whole, there's no fear of not knowing whether there's actually something there, or if you're truly alone and stuck here until you die a gruesome death via something like starvation or dehydration, and if you somehow survive, whether your sanity will be able to endure the crippling loneliness you're suddenly suffering. All of that is gone. Now you know there's a way to escape. That there's a creature you have to avoid or take down. To the human mind, it seems like uncertainty and lack of knowledge create fear, while knowing and acknowledging creates a goal. This happened to me with the cave dweller mod. At first, it was cool not knowing what was happening, but after getting attacked once, I just had the thought of killing the monster instead of being afraid.
Same with adding "lore" to things that do not need it like Skibidi Toilet or Bluey. MattPat is famous for this. He practically wrote the FNAF story for Scott.@@elongatedsedation324
@@elongatedsedation324 you put it into words perfectly. The backrooms has essentially decayed into another facet of "area where scary invincible monsters exist and sciency people go into it and do stuff and run away from scary monsters." It used to be this oddball concept, one that felt to me like a plane of existence made the sum of all of our collective faded memories where you spent your final days exploring unending emptiness, more depressing/existential than outright scary. Now there's 50 million defined levels with 50 million stupid derivative unkillable creatures that live there somehow, and there's also groups of people that live in there surviving on weird wacky food items; it's become a parody of itself structured and designed like a forgettable crappy video game
this would be a good idea in theory.. but if someone has a health issue that renders them unable to play horror games (like a heart disorder) this idea quickly becomes a bad one
Minecraft horror mods are kind of like what a number of other mods or horror games try to do. They either lean way too far in the edgy horror sort of thing. Which is fine. Or it's mostly just jumpscare horrors. That or it's just overall a massive disappointment. Or usually a combination of all those factors.
This is why I love the Amnesia games, most particularly Amnesia The Dark Descent and Amnesia The Bunker, they are a master class of horror games, they popularized a new type of horror and i think they are the only ones who perfected it.
@@it2spooky4me79the horror amnesia uses was originally use in the cathulo/cosmic horror books by h.p love craft which later became phycological horror
@@redwiltshire1816 yeah that's why I love H.P Lovecraft horror, Eldritch horror is such a unique case, because a ton of people can never get it right, movies, shows, and games never found a perfect recipe for Lovecraftian horror.
@@it2spooky4me79 the problem they always have is showing the monster but then it defeats the point of it because these monsters are supposed to be completely unknown no way to describe them and you see this a lot in horror games where the monster is shown so much it’s just goes from scary to a scooby-doo cartoon
@@redwiltshire1816 fear of the unknown, like I said before, Amnesia The Dark Descent did it great, you were always followed by something, but you never see it or know what it is, I think it's called "The Shadow", but you never know what it was was, or the water monster, only you see is the splashing it makes while it comes towards you
This reminds me a lot of the backrooms where people just add entities just cause. IMO the horror of Minecraft comes from the fact you’re all alone. It’s the fear of not knowing what’s out there. Stuff like the Warden work not just because it’s powerful but because it feels like a genuine threat. It only spawns if you’re the one who makes too much noise and it’s a consequence of your actions
Dude I hate how destroyed the backrooms as a concept is nowadays. It used to actually be scary but now it's just "LOOK GUYS BACKROOMS LEVEL 3578 IS A LEVEL FULL OF CREEEEPY MONSTERS THAT WILL KILL YOU!!!!!!!!"
it was terrifying in the original 4chan post, not because it relied on gore or the like, but because it tapped into fear of the unknown and the uncanny valley it fell victim to the scp effect where children and chronically online tumblr users tried to constantly one up each other and kill the concept
Yea, the problem with Horror Mods are that most are less 'horror' and more just jumpscare mobs that pop up for TH-camrs to scream at and shake the camera around. Like you said, they're very formulaic. Almost all these CaveDweller clones are pretty interchangeable with one another.
Yep they are amazing for content mill youtubers. Which is why they have many downloads because they are linked in the youtubers mod pack. Jump scares are the simplest way to get a quick fright especially with the exaggeration of a youtuber. And are easy to make compared to something that has a behaviour engine
Probably the only mod like this that I actually thought looked pretty interesting and scary was Shade. Instead of these mobs that just make loud noises and chase after you over and over again, Shade mainly focused on stalking you. You hear a cave noise and then turn to see it peeking at you, then it would slink behind a wall. It would also focus on hallucinations. Stuff like hearing mobs that aren’t there, seeing white eyed mutated mobs that aren’t there, stuff like that. It would eventually rush and attack you, but it’s main goal was mainly to just make you paranoid. I also like it because it’s concept and design are based off of a scrapped idea for The Warden. Also good lord I completely forgot about John. Kinda happy to see them again.
For those 2 people ^^ and maybe other people. I checked YT and there’s a video talking about something similar? It’s not a play-trough or anything, it’s a “I’m making _____ in Minecraft!” Type of vid. I’m gonna (try to) post a link in this reply section.
@@thewitheredstriker I don’t know if it’s a real mod or if it was just made for that video. That’s actually a trend I’m getting really sick of recently. People making awesome mods on their channel, then learning that the stuff they made isn’t downloadable. Either way I hope it’s downloadable because I love when unused concepts get added into games.
I love the idea of an invisible thing that just observes you. It uses all sorts of sounds, sure, cave sounds, but also mob noises and stuff to try and lure you towards it. The more time you spend near it the more bold it'll get. Like... at low levels it tramples crops and breaks torches, at higher ones it'll take items from chests. If it gets high enough I love the idea of the thing finally revealing itself as your character starts sleeping, then kidnapping you while you're asleep and like... you wake up in some sort of custom structure or dungeon or something.
This sounds actually not too hard to implement. Well, it *is* hard to implement but not as bad as it sounds. You can get iron on the first might pretty easily sometimes, so I'd imagine once you get DIA armor it taking you into the structure would make it feel scarier. Trampling crops could just start once you've obtained the plant achievement. I don't think it should steal items from your chests, maybe instead it'll change blocks near the player spawnpoint. Wood to another block, etc. And only common blocks, no Dia blocks to dirt or vice versa. The watching part could easily be done like in from the fog, probably my favorite part of the mod honestly. And if I ever need to share my laptop to a younger cousin for then to play minecraft, I'll probably put from the fog as a mod/datapack prior to giving it to them.
In my opinion, the best way to make the cave dweller truly scary would be to make it's appearances much more random, much more subtle and much more RARE. I think that the biggest problem with nearly all of the current dwellers is that they spawn and attack you basically all the time (like every 15 minutes or so), and they usually appear or at least start making their noises almost immediately after you have entered a cave. In some mods they are literally so numerous that you can sometimes even be attacked by multiple dwellers at once. This makes their attacks quite predictable and over time wery repeative, which causes them to be far less scary than they could be. The ideal cave dweller in my opinion would appear at almost completely random intervals and rarely enough that sometimes you would have almost forgotten that you even had the cave dweller mod on, until it jumps at you when you least expected it. Like sometimes you could still be attacked by it after only 15 minutes in the caves, but on the other hand sometimes you could spend for example an entire 2 hours of caving or even multiple days/sessions of playing the game without even seeing or hearing it. This would create a much greater element of surprise to the dweller's eventual attacks or appearances, and bring an incredibly tense atmosphere and a feeling of "you never know" to the game. This would also be much more "practical" and fit better with your regular survival minecraft worlds and playthroughs, as your mining and other progress in the game would not be inhibited that much by being constantly attacked and killed by the dweller, as it would be a relatively rare event. Also the dweller's first spawning sound should be just a regular cave sound, and it should be made so that every time you heard a cave sound when mining, there would be like an 80 or 90% change that it was just a regular cave sound with no origin, but around a 10 or 20% change that it meant that somewhere in the deepest and most distant labyrinths of the cavern you are exploring a dweller has spawned and it is slowly starting to make its way towards you... The screaming sounds in the Evolved cave dweller mod are amazing and absolutely horrifying, but they are way too over the top for the FIRST sounds you hear from the dweller. The horrific screaming should be reserved for the moment the dweller finally attacks and starts chasing you, and the first sounds you hear should be much more subtle, like regular cave sounds when it spawns and maybe footsteps as it slowly approaches... It would also be great if the dweller's possible behaviours were more diverse. For example, it would add amazingly to the scary and tense atmosphere if when exploring the caves, you could sometimes just make random sightings of the dweller without it attacking you immediately. Sometimes you would just briefly see a pair of bright glowing eyes in some distant dark tunnel, but it would disappear (go away and despawn) in a few seconds, and you would just hear an eerie cave sound. Like 70% or so of the dwellers that spawned could be the type that doesn't attack you right away, and the remaining 30% would immediately attack you. After this "non-aggressive" dweller sighting there would be an increased possibility of another dweller (this time actually aggressive) spawning near you shortly after. However, that would not always happen. Even more cool would be if once you made a sighting of a dweller, it had a change of triggering an event where the dweller would respawn close to you multiple times in a row in very short intervals of 1-3 minutes. First 1-5 of those rapidly respawning dwellers would be "non-aggressive" ones that would just lurk in the shadows and disappear and despawn quicky after you looked at them, but the final one would eventually attack you. That would simulate the feeling of the player being stalked by the dweller and slowly followed by it through the tunnels... The hunting dweller (or in reality the multiple dwellers) would approach from completely random directions, which would make escape much harder and cause much greater feeling of panic. However, it would need to be coded in a way that only one dweller at the time could exist near the player, and the previous one would have to despawn before the next one could appear, as otherwise it would ruin the immersion of the player being followed by a single stalking dweller. On the contrast, it should also be possible that sometimes the dweller could just attack you randomly without ANY warning whatsoever. No sound of it spawning, no sounds of it approaching you, no sightings, no nothing. You would just enter some random small tunnel where the dweller waits you and then all of a sudden it would jump on your face. It would be one perfect jumpscare.
@@britishtransformersfan I actually partially wrote that to practice for my upcoming English essays in high school :D English is not my native tongue.
@@enkeksinimea4399 Your English is super good! I'm procrastinating and not writing my English project that's due tomorrow. I'm trying to learn a few different languages and the more I learn about other languages the more I realize that English is bs and makes no sense whatsoever
I feel like the same thing happened to the backrooms The whole reason it was scary in the first place was the unknown, the fear of something that you haven't seen but could imagine all sorts of things in your mind hunting you down, and I feel the same goes for Minecraft and how some of its early creepypastas and story's were so good, because it wasnt about the creatures it was about entities which you barely see or hear, things interacting with your builds or the world without your knowledge or consent
_Thank you_ I’ve been saying this forever. A lot of “horror” in video games just means a big, scary, unkillable monster harasses you as often as possible and I wish that wasn’t the case. Especially with The Backrooms, and with Minecraft. [TANGENT- I’m way too passionate about these games, fair warning I have a degree in yapology] In both games there are entities, yes, but they’re diverse- not even hostile, sometimes- and they play well in their environment; they’re not yet another tall guy with a scary face, they use what’s around them and they use it to _hunt_ you. Also on environment, I feel like the potential for horror in the player’s surroundings is scarcely utilized. In The Backrooms there are liminal spaces that create a nostalgic but at the same time uncanny feeling, it’s not quite right, and you’re alone which is scary enough but it also forces you to focus on your environment, pay attention to subtle changes that could alert danger. It evokes paranoia which I _love._ And Minecraft has this infinite yet lonely world for you to experience, rich with its own mysteries and lore you can only scratch the surface of in-game. It really lets you feel like an outsider. Old abandoned structures capitalize on that by showing not only the life, but the destruction you’re privvy to but will never get to be a part of. Massive, strange things passing by erecting monuments, ancient civilizations settling in far-off places, villagers dying in abandoned towns. It’s a different flavor of fear, but one I think is so, so powerful. There’s so much interesting horror inherent to these games, I just wish someone brought that horror out of the games for people to feel rather than forcing it in where it doesn’t need to be. Rant over.
@@a-wild-goose yeah I completely agree with you, you've managed to explain a thing I feel is very hard to put into words because it's all based on feelings, with contradicting nice or places you recognise with areas unfamiliar or are slightly off. And I do also wish these themes would be used to their full potential as they get so easily warped were they forget what made it scary in he first place
Yes! That was a terrifying concept, just you and you alone in a never-ending, silent, creepy environment, and no one around you...or maybe? maybe you're not alone? And if you are in fact alone...you're never going to make it out anyway, you'll just starve to death of go insane. And they made it into a freaking SCP catalogue! The whole concept of "never-ending" is ruined with layers, and the different "monsters"...they just kill the scariness factor, they just as detailed as a scientific report!
*If I wanted to make a unsettling mod, it would be mostly world generation, and subtle things.* - Random patches of no trees (like 2 chunks) - Random times when cave sounds play outside of caves - Music can cut out at random points albeit rare - Torches have a chance to break when not in the same chunk - Mobs not spawning at points randomly (even at night) - Mob AI would be broken for a few seconds at random (rare) - Bedrock fog again - Ambient white dots in caves that despawn - Night and Day may last longer at random - New cave sounds - Far height drops into water trigger old water sound - Random dirt patches - All mobs do slightly less damage (your goal is not to die, just more unsettling) - Some textures get reverted - Entering nether and end will send a chat message like how Pocket Edition did with nether reactor core "Entering Nether..." "Entering End..." - The sun stays out longer - Twighlight lasts longer - Zombies will target you from further in caves - Enderman rarely target you at random - Some nights there is only like 3-15 stars - Mobs run away from exploding creepers - Mobs very rarely try running from you - Thunderstorm darkness randomly on some days To me, this would be a creepy, eerie mod without adding a mob. There is a lot more, but I do not know how to mod... yet.
Yeah this is pretty close to how I feel a scary Minecraft mod should be made. Stuff that players will pick up on as being wrong and in turn it will make them more paranoid that something’s after them
the man from the fog was more subtle before the recent update, it worked like an enderman back then, where if you look at him, thats the only time he attacks. The recent update also made him summon thunderstrikes. Meanwhile the man who watches, was glitched because of the shader, hes supposed to go invisible when you look at him and appear after getting near.
He has always been able to summon infinite lighting if he detected a player cheating him (aka building up) which does not even work right most of the time. He has done it to me when he struggles to climb a mountain. That gimmick nearly ended a hardcore world due to his guest star appearance during my Ender Dragon fight.
Bad programming or an oversight most likely. Since most people like Forge Labs and Swaleyle never go to The End in their “I survived 100 days with assimilated midnight fog lurker in a parasite outbreak in hardcore Minecraft" videos. That or the dev did not play test the mod thoroughly. Thankfully, it was fixed in newer versions, but it is still full of obvious bugs and oversights. @malics06
Hello! Creator of The One Who Watches here. I actually really enjoyed this video and appreciated the constructive criticism. I agree with you 100% on pretty much everything you said. I originally created my mod just as a challenge to see if I could make something even remotely scary. And I did succeed in the challenge, however I did not expect it to get as big as it did. So I have been fixing it over the course of several months trying to actually make it worthy. That thing where it jump scared you right at the beginning has been fixed and now there is a very long buildup of him slowly become more present in your world. But I still have many things to fix and add before it can justly be called "scary". Like I have to fix the goofy animations and stuff. Thanks for hearing me out.
A big factor contributing to the natural horror of Minecraft was the loneliness element that older versions nailed very well. Unfortunately the modern game is far less mysterious and lonely, which doesn’t lend it as well to horror.
Honestly I feel like there is another big issue with these mods aside from fear of the unknown. In my opinion one of the scariest things Minecraft horror does (and why I think Herobrine got so popular) was that you were seeing another “player” in your world. Seeing things strip mined caves, random structures, or written signs or books. I don’t know how well this could be made into a mod, but this is what I personally want from a horror Minecraft mod. The feeling like you aren’t alone, and that something or someone has invaded your personal world.
This gives me an idea, not necessarily horror, but the stripped mine caves etc could for evidence of a past player. There will be books he wrote, chests with his loot, abandoned houses. For horror, i think decayed cave miners could do. These miners died in the caves, you stumble upon a body, it has scar marks on its jaw to the chest, but you pass it for a chest. While checking, you hear steps and turn around. The body has risen but its not undead, some "thing" has taken control over the decayed corpse, moving like a sick and twisted marionette but the strings dont come from above but from within, the tendons. It lunges and a mouth, the chest and jaw scars, opens up and takes a chunk from while not letting you go. You lose too much hearts. Another player has fallen.
0:03 honestly, this was my reaction when I saw an enderman as a kid because I didn’t know back then Minecraft added new mobs so it was basically a horror, for me at least
been saying this to myself for ages since these mods popped up. it just needs to be more subtle, like the stalking parts are perfect but then they just make them just run towards you and scream at you which just ruins it in the long run
yeah, all the old minecraft fears were never about some screaming monster, they were about being watched and stalked yes, but having there be something actually doing the watching and stalking breaks the tension. It's no longer herobrine or some other entity that Notch can't seem to program out of the game, it's just something more annoying than a baby zombie
I think an idea that capitalizes off of constant paranoia would be coding the snail into Minecraft It would definitely stray from all the other "dwellers" modders have added, being completely silent. There's also an ironic value in a snail having more scaring potential than a modpack full of eldritch horrors.
I think it would be really cool if these dwellers altered the world around you. Like maybe they leave books with unsettling messages in chests, maybe they kill your tamed animals, maybe they replace blocks, maybe new creepy structures in places you've already been to. Maybe it sets wooden structures on fire. Maybe for the first few chase scenes, it doesn't kill you, like it's just toying you. Maybe it steals the object your holding and runs off with it. Maybe it gives you a terrible status effect that won't go away until you deal with it. Maybe they take advantage of breaking the fourth wall, sending creepy looking achievements or messages in the chat. Maybe blocks have a small chance of dropping objects that are 'glitched' or 'wrong'. Idek, i just feel like these mods should take advantage of the fact that it is minecraft. Have horror elements based on prexisiting game mechanics that players are already used to.
I think Herobrine was genuinely a bit scary because it was early enough that misinformation was easy to spread and the creator actually ran with it and kept adding those updates with “Herobrine removed” on them. A game like this, where you’re essentially all alone, can only really be made scary if you add another being. An unexpected second party who the player doesn’t expect. In-your-face horror has its place, but that place isn’t in Minecraft.
Yup, its your own paranoia that really freaks you out. Old minecraft felt desolate and empty, like you are alone. If you had a shit laptop, the fog was really close to you, and things just looked more lifeless. Basic lighting, no partical effects, lack of clouds, etc. It makes the game feel dead, add on top the herobribe rumors and patch notes, and how large the world is, I thought that he was somewhere in the world and I was afraid of alerting him to my presence, so I never built flashy houses in survival and usually just played creative. Now I'm not scared cuz I know it doesn't exist but yeah, it's your mind that scares you the most, more so than anything the game actually throws at you. The cave sounds are unsettling and startling but thats because I didn't know they were a thing when I came back to the game years later.
I feel like the first attempt was a pretty good one, especially with the added mechanic of giving it the advantage point of mentally crawling into small spaces like that could seriously take someone off guard thinking that they’re fine because the creature is too tall and then really quickly finding out that they’re screwed over
I saw that very thing happen when Tomato streamed it. Him jumping into a 1-block-tall tunnel thinking he was safe, only to turn around and see it in the tunnel with him a mere block away actually made me jump.
Fear isn't only jumpscares. Its the loud and heavy silence. The pressure of your own footsteps feeling more and more heavy each step you take in the dark. Some noises playing at key moments, the impression of having someone following you, watching over you, almost chasing you. Playing with you, braking blocks on top of you or under you, hitting you then desapearing then nothing, nothing and again, nothing. Until ur almost feeling relaxed again, going to get out of your game and then, finnaly it strikes. And what you could add to top that, is that old outlast fashion of not beeing able to defend, despite having a weapon. Because he "knocks" you out and take whatever item ur holding, adding to that weak defenceless atmosphere, thats what it should do to be scary
I'm just saying, if people want Minecraft horror, how about something that buys into how paranoid vanilla play can make you and create an entity that's designed to spike that paranoia and gives a reason to constantly be looking over your shoulder. Something like the cave dweller, but instead of the loud, unique soundbites it makes, it instead pumps out regular cave ambience noises, which in tandom cave ambiance coming from it's regular non-source, means that you can never tell if an actual cave dweller is near unless you look around for it.
what about a cave dweller that know you look over your shoulder, or when you flickyour mouse in reaction to a sound, once you do it enough times he actually attacks you because it can sense fear
A mod that made me pretty paranoid playing was the “From another world” mod that adds the alien from the Thing movie. It’s not really vanilla friendly but if you’re looking for paranoia I suggest that one.
You may be looking for something like 'From the Fog' which is basically intended to do this. It has it's own issues in staying scary... but it tries a lot harder to be subtle than the a scary monster that runs at you. and it can make cave noises at you too, even. It's main problem is that some of it's features become annoying quick(though you can turn those off), and the others eventually becomes familiar and comfortable.
I've been saying this for a while, I think the issue with the copycats is that they try to just make caves scarier, which only works so much before it gets boring. If I could mod minecraft, I personally would make something along the lines of the "Daytime Walkers", which wouldn't be a single enemy you get used to that only hunts you in caves or at night, but multiple models for multiple humanoid, transparent beings that stalk you during the day. It would be a more complex From the Fog, the herobrine mod that kinda started this whole thing
The best horror is to incrementally unravel the mechanics of the game that make you feel safe. lighting up a cave. blocking off dark tunnels. eating food. sleeping in a bed. the sunrise. make the monster only come out for a few minutes at dawn. make him attracted by torches. he can only track you if you have food on you. your bed becomes a portal for him. instead of feeling safe because you blocked off his cave. he's actually the one sealing you into the cave.
Great idea. Two problems: design and gameplay. It's hard yo design something that wouldn't stood out that much from the game's art style and will make sense. And gameplay wise, if it's triggered often, it would be frustrating, not scary. Even every 5 minutes ( or how much it took him to spawn and activate) for a cave dweller were very short. Balancing all of this out would be a nightmare
They should make it so that a creature doesn't attack for a couple of nights, but it will stroll behind objects and just walk around out of sight, making subtle background noises that are clearly out of place. After a couple more nights, it would start to peak around objects and look at you for extended periods from a distance, and if spotted it would quickly retreat. Then after a few more days again, it would have a chance to start trying to hunt you. I say a chance, because imagine how much more terrifying it'd be if it was random and not an exact schedule. The scariest monster is sometimes the one you never see once. I think giving a monster curiousity is actually more terrifying, because early on you're aware that it exists but it isn't trying to do anything. It just observes you from the shadows. I agree that if you rip the band aid off to fast, it doesn't have any impact at all.
I know right? Having something visible enough to not spot in the first few seconds watching you from the forestline while you're building a house is much creepier than having an instanteneous jumpscare without even having the time to register the monster
It's certainly one way to go forward with a horror creature, minecraft or not, and yeah, this would be very scary. Personally, I feel like it's the idea that this thing might not even know what you are at first, and so it just watches, and learns. And then, eventually, after watching enough, it decides that you're prey. Spooky shit, I tell ya
what your looking for is a mod called The Bear. It’s a creature that stalks the player for days and days, hiding from far distances. It was created by “idk some guy” and it’s genuinely the best minecraft horror mod out there.
I believe that the Scape & Run Parasites mod is the most horrifying mod in Minecraft. Body horror is already a key aspect of horror and seeing those things overwhelm you in such numbers and change the environment around you is so horrifying. Plus it so strikingly resembles the Flood from Halo.
I don't remember the name of the mod, but there was a mod that I think did this concept pretty well, before the cave dweller took off. It was an enderman expansion mod, adding little enderman villages and stuff. Unbeknownst to me, it added a stalker type enderman. It would play whispering sounds every so often and would watch you from just out of your FOV. It attacked very rarely but could watch you for multiple in-game days. It was really fun and kept you on your toes, not knowing when it would attack or if you could even fight it. Especially because it was "hidden" (it wasn't talked about much on the mod page) in a seemingly normal mod.
Probably one of the scariest mobs I've encountered is this one from the between lands modded dimension, in the caves there's this weird crawly predator creature that stalks you knocks out torches and generally messes with you only attacking when your at you most vulnerable and distracted(it also needs all this cause in terms of health kinda fragile) behaving effectively like a xenomorph from the first alien movie
Gargin's Cave Dweller is actually good, as it was pretty much 100% unique at release. However, as you mentioned, much like Gargin's Nextbot Gargitron the Dweller got watered down because of how many people copied it. Dweller got popular, a bunch of people ripped the code, made a "scarier" model, and made it one shot you. Dweller will stalk you, chase you, or run away, whereas 99% of the copy cats spawn, destroy your ears with loud noises, and instakill you.
The problem with these horror mods (in my opinion) is that they allow you to interact with it. The thing that made the cave noises so creepy for me is that, you don't see the thing making the noise, its the primordial fear of the dark, the unknown, that makes the cave noises scary. So, once you add a face to that noise, it just becomes another mob, doesn't matter how many features are added to it, because, as I've said once, its just a mob, a piece of code able to be killed and farmed into oblivion. A good example of this is from the animated show "Primal", the 2 main characters, Fang, a dinosaur, and Spear, a cavemen, they both go up against a dinosaur called the "Nightfeeder" in one of the episodes. It's a fast, sharp-clawed, but flammable dinosaur, yet, the only reason why it scares the 2 MC's, is that it uses the darkness of night to invoke fear, so, once Spear finally got a torch to see the Nightfeeder, it wasn't scary anymore, it became another dinosaur, able to be killed.
The first cave dweller's premise was great because it relied on vanilla cave sounds, it could sneak up on you, but all the follow-up mods missed the point of needing to blend in with the vanilla game to surprise the player
Mod pitch: "Empty Caves". It does exactly as titled, it makes vanilla mobs not spawn in caves, with the mob description continuously pitching it as a difficulty aid for those who want a less stressful mining experience but still want to fight mobs on the surface. The mod would do exactly this. What the modpage wouldn't tell you, however, is that it adds a new mob that spawns exclusively in caves, only one allowed per however significant distance, that only has a chance of spawning once a player is below a certain Y level. This mob is invisible, and it's only functions are following the player (teleporting, if need be), while creating new unnerving ambience. Can produce vanilla cave noises and, rarely, new cave noises. Maybe even the exact sounds the Cave Dweller makes on occasion. Will play noises like footsteps, falling damage, and maybe even a creeper hiss to jumpscare players. The most directly aggressive thing the mob could possibly do, under normal circumstance, is have a chance to punch the player into lava if they're near a pool (important note: the mod developer should explain these away if questioned as "mobs spawning and getting despawned instantly" or w/e). Could leave it at that or add escalation, but overall, I think that's a good way to do an unsuspecting horror mod.
what if that mob represents your fear, like you usually see mobs in caves, but you still feel like there are and it is unsettling to your character, causing them to hallucinate about them maybe sprinkle some nod to it in the description like, "Do not be afraid."
@@halinaqi2194 then you can put a spoiler explaining everything, or a disclaimer saying that some parts aren't completely true, maybe play into the creature or whatever being unknown and not much research being possible
the fascinating part is how well designed the warden is in comparison to these (i'd love to see a followup video comparing mojang's attempt to make a horror structure/biome in the maingame and how modders can take notes from it!) you arent scared of the warden right as it spawns, youre scared of it catching you as you hide until it goes away or sniffs you out causing you to make a mad dash away, which with the sonic shriek attack going through walls and ancient cities being open is a difficult task it makes the deep dark a scary place and whenever a shrieker goes off its only some time until it pops out if youve lost your freebie chances the darkness effect also reinforces the fear of the unknown as you cant tell where you are or where to go, and having the warden be an absolute tank with little weaknesses with a ton of strong attacks that pierce armor makes it a threat in all progressions of the game (unless you have an elytra but thats when you beat the game and doesnt even protect you that well in the grand scheme of things) less notably, it also isnt a lanky white guy that needs to visit a dentist the design is pretty cool i love the warden and kingbdogz and the mojang team did an excellent job on it which is underlooked by 1.19 being controversial
this really feels like "the cat sploinger" would play a 220 db loud ass noice, so instead of being startled or scared all i get is permanent eardrum damage and an annoying oneshot mechanic :D
Hey, Maker of the John Mod Reborn here. At 13:58, we did not revive the John Mod because of this trend. We revived it because we loved the mod when we was younger. Leave our mod out of this lol. But yeah, It's kind of hard to find something spooky, if you don't find it spooky. Like the John. The mod was made in 2012, MC Beta 1.8, around this creature who looked like some dude who had a stroke and who bleached himself white lol. But you were afraid of the John cause you was told to be afraid. But after awhile it's just some loud creature that had 40 health... a more powerful zombie. Jump scares are a cheap. Especially if you're on your toes already. That's how FNAF got so "scary". It's not true horror if not done right. We want to add some horror elements into the new John Mod. but it's not gonna be truly scary, unless we make a whole new world around it. And that's where adventure maps get it right. Minecraft at least nowadays is a lot different from what it was. You can't just slap a scary creature in the middle of it and tell the player to be scared. But if you can transform the world around the player you can really make an immersive environment for them to enjoy.
I think there are a lot of subtlety in making a good horror that you just can't make up in your head. It would certainly require a lot more research and the idea you have right now just doesn't seem to be good enough
@@mayhaps3915 They said they were gonna make an adventure map. I just told them to do more research into horror before they ended up making some bloober team slop
@@-o-1695 I never said we're going to make a adventure map. Sorry if it came off that way to you. I can edit it tho to make more sense. There probably is more "research" to be done but, I don't think it's that deep lol
Not to mention, your mod released 2 whole months before Gargin made the Cave Dweller. I am pretty sure that 95% of the people who downloaded your mod are not even scared of John, and instead see him as early 2010s nostalgia.
I just want to see a mod that makes the caves completely empty and silent, and only spawns one silent mob somewhere in the cave system. Imagine mining, with only the sound of your footsteps, knowing that there's a creature in there with you that you cannot hear approach at all. Whether or not it's hostile doesn't really matter imo. Just knowing it's there would be eerie to me.
This is what Metroid Revival does with the Phazon Mines cave biome. Nothing spawns there, not even bats. I had both Metroid Revival and Buffed Cabe Dweller in the same hardcore world, and the Metroid Prime ambience that plays in the biomes from the mod made me more uncomfortable than Cave Dweller ever did. Sure, Cave Dweller was scary for the first two encounters, but he quickly become a joke once I figured out how to break its AI.
The problem is that horror in Minecraft doesn't work unless there's a sadness to it. Herobrine is scary but also sad because it seems like it's trying to communicate with you, but can't. I feel like the only way to make an actually good horror mod would be to make it actually more sad than anything. Like imagine walking though a cave and you just find a sign next to a chest that says something like "xXxSwaglLord69xXX was here! Have a free apple!" and inside you just find some cobblestone, dirt, and other junk items. The sadness comes from the neglect. From the idea that this was something made a lot time ago and it was left to rot.
I think the fundamental problem is that they're all just more powerful zombies. In a game where you can just respawn and run back to your stuff, a thing that just punches you isn't that scary. If you want it to make an impact, make it do something no other mob can do, make it dig 2x2 Herobrine tunnels, make structures spawn that look like poor imitations of your house, make it so your door is open even though youre sure you closed it, and was your furnace always in that place..?
What I would like is more Minecraft horror mods taking inspiration from cosmic horror, Mojang has already tried it with everything to do with the Skulk, the Warden and Ancient cities so we know that it works (And yes they have confirmed that they based those things off of the works of Lovecraft and cosmic horror in general, if you want me to give the link to a video where they talk about that then feel free to ask.)
There was a mod that added "eyes" to the darkness that kept watching you. I dont remember if it did something else, i think it did, but just the eyes in the darkness, following you around is more scary than 99% of the "horror" mods
One time I slept over at my neigh ours house as a kid, and their mf cat likes to walk around the house at night and just stare at you. Creeped the fuc out of me as a kid.
something that ive personally been waiting for is a ''in the water'' mod, im afraid of lakes/rivers/ocean so it would be nice to see a mod that reflects how scary the water can be without a stereotypical monster - more like a spirit, can't see her or fight her but you hear the soft singing, the whispers, the crying, luring you into the depths. splashes in the water when you get near, it gets close to you and suddenly, radio silence. then you get dragged down to the bottom of wherever you are and have to swim back up, maybe you hear some giggles afterwards😃just a lil troll mod like herobrine
My main issue with a lot of the horror mods is that they stem from the thought “the cave noises SHOULD have a source” and that not having one is bad. It’s like someone saying why doesn’t Mice on Venus had a diegetic source? It’s mood setting ambience. (Although, on that note, the backpack mods can get unnerving when you start hearing a jukebox playing without an apparent source, or in some place you thought was safe/lit)
Cave noises are probably player character hallucinating from being in caves for too long. They're either caused by oxygen deprivation or simply represent paranoia through audio.
I think one of my favourite mods in this category is probably Beware The Rain. You've got your standard fare of spooky fellows, but they all appear when it starts to rain. You've got Vapor, probably the second most common monster in the mod, the skull spiders, the most common enemies in the mod, Valon, the typical slenderman of the mod, and Rosemary, an armless monster that I believe only spawns in caves? Dont quote me in that though.
From the Fog and the True Herobrine mods are probably the only mods that make my ass genuinely scream even after 80 hours of playing with them (although this only accounts for From the Fog as I played the Fear Nightfall modpack, but I did play a little with the True Herobrine mod for a few hours.) My biggest gripe with the 'Dweller' mods is that they're not scary because they're horrifying, they're scary because of the inconvenience of being unfortunate enough to come across them. In the Fear Nightfall modpack, the cave dweller mod is there and it was the main reason why most people on the server I hosted barely touched the caves, because more often than not we would just instantly die after it spawned in, to the point that we all just decided on disabling the mod. Fear quickly dwindles when the monster I'm supposed to be afraid of becomes more annoying than anything.
Yeah I've only put so much time into Fear Nightfall, but it feels more like a horror themed challenge/difficulty mod than a horror mod. It's not about scaring you, it's about being hard, and some of the ways it does it have a spooky aesthetic. Like it's got some creepy stuff, definitely. First night I ever played I woke up to what I'm pretty sure was a herobrine skin just watching me on a hill. It like, crouched at me and waved like a player would, which was creepy cause from the fog couldn't do that last time I played with it on without fear nightfall. Watched me try to deal with the 10 creepers outside my walls. Was definitely spooky, but at the same time the main feature was the 10 goddamn creepers. And that sort of thing remains the case. I find it hard to focus on being scared when I'm mostly just worried that I'm going to have to repair things.
I have three dweller mods, cave dweller, man from the fog and midnight lurker. I also have the “from the fog” mod, which in my opinion more funny than scary. Those dweller mods though, they genuinely make me paranoid when I play my modded survival.
Oh definitely, the creepers were the worst part by a long shot, especially so when they were smart enough to blow up the walls/ground to get to the bunker I had set up. After you get over the initial fear factor, the challenge is a lot more apparent, but a part from the occasional rage moment, I've really been enjoying myself! More so with friends, because its just neat to have that little extra help and to walk around to see how everybody else was doing. We haven't reached turrets yet, but bamboo spike pits are by far my favourite way to deal with the abundance of mobs.@@potatoesstarch2376
From the Fog still gets the occasional scare from me, and I definitely agree on it being funny sometimes (my friends and I have reached a point where we just call him Brine/Brian now because he's like a pesty little neighbour just trying to check in.)@@Mossyoakwendigo4.6
Golden rule of horror creature design, if it's too powerful and aggressive, it will lose its scare factor. One of the best horror games of all times is the perfect example of it: Alien isolation. In normal difficulty, the Alien is actually terrifying. It's unpredictable, and once it stayed half an hour in a vent right above my locker making it really difficult to tell if he was here or not, with occasional creepy noises. I KNEW the fucker was there, that's not normal behaviour for him, but i knew he was there the entire time. I got out of the locker and instantly went back in without skipping a beat. Bastard dropped right in front of the locker instantly. Pure gold moment. This is what horror is. This moment felt real, like a real creature was truly after my real life. I knew it was there, IT knew I was here. Then if you try to play on the hardest difficulty, the AI is made to just be constantly on your ass at the slightest noise and always 5m away from you, looking for you 24/7. It loses so much of its scariness as a result. This is what all those dwellers mods are missing. That and the sound design not being ambiguous enough, too loud, too screechy, etc... What terrifies players is being stalked and constantly made to doubt if they are or not. Eventually confirming they are and making them paranoid, but it's not time to go on the chase sequence that will be greatly enhanced yet... you have to try to keep the player being stalked as much as possible in a way where it's really hard for them to notice, and when they do, the creature tries to hide as fast as possible to make them doubt if they really saw anything. It's all about the doubt. And the creepiness of having your fear confirmed where after staring at something you don't trust for a long time... peekaboo. It needs to slowly close in on you, and when it catches you off guard, you can start a chase sequence. And you need to have a decent but not too high chance of escaping, for escaping to be terrifying. In which case you could have the creature play hide and seek if the player manages to hide. You need to be able to lose a creature for it to be scary. It's another problem with the dwellers. And it's all chase. Chase chase chase chase. You know what's really terrifying? Ambushes. Make the monster lie in wait for you. Give you some clues it's there but if you miss them, you're in for a rough time.
Idea for a mod: call it “another copypasta unscary Minecraft mod” and for the first few Minecraft days have it be some annoying creature that tries too hard to be scary. Only for it to one day be gone. No more noises, no more encounters. But everything will start to get darker, so dark you can’t even tell day and night apart. Get rid of all mobs, hostile and nonhostile. Build dread. And if the player goes to bed, they will hear slow, footsteps. And occasionally they will see a shadow looming over them for nothing to be there. Put torches in spots they know they’ve never gone. Then finally, show their threat looming over them before deleting the world.
Tldr: A mob that gets increasingly rare and there are sounds to add to the paranoia of the mob not showing up. My idea for a mob would be something that makes noises similar to the regular cave sounds but slightly altered. Also faint footsteps and noises would occasionally play. The difference would be that once you encounter and interact with the mob the chance of it appearing decreases. Everytime you encounter it the odds decrease more until its like a 0.1 percent chance for it to spawn when conditions are met. The altered sounds would still occasionally play even if he is not there. The goal would be to have the sounds become like the vanilla cave sounds and just shruged off. There is still a chance he spawns and it will truly be unexpected. Hope you liked my sleep deprived ramblings.
At 0.1%, make the monster different, change its ai, maybe it stalks you more, and perhaps mutates into a more horrifying looking creature that is more relentless once it decides to aggro, then after that it resets to the normal spawn rate/AI/appearance.
Wow I did not expect to make an appearance in this video! Great points about the topic, One thing I don't like about the dwellers are that most of them are either unkillable or deal way too much damage
The bloated stats or unkillable nature of the Cave Dweller clones make them feel more like DeviantART Mary Sue OCs than genuine horror characters. The bad copy-and-paste designs and barebones textures do not help as well.
One mod that did it quite well is The Betweenlands. It has some scary mobs, Stalkers are probably the best, but also Wights (which even remind me of the Cave Dweller a little). But their crimson sky event is really unsettling, the audio design is great, and it is rare enough where it always feels special, and you just don't get used to it. No loud jumpscares, no constant chasing, it's not a pure horror mod for the sake of it, it's just part of the mood, it's a great mod with great execution.
The only mod I can see doing this correctly is the mod the Manbear. It is by the same person who made the update cave dweller, but this time the AI is more intelligent and does more stalking
Yes I have seen it, it perfectly does what every horror mod should do. Another good mod I know from the same guy is the Obsessed. The only problem is that the mod heavily relies on distance sightings, and considering the creator has eagle eyes most people will find it hard to see the Manbear in the distance until it decides to attack.
14:04 You know what, compared to the rest of the cave dweller copycats the john mod is the only one that deserves existence. Mainly because of nostalgia.
Nah, the john mod is a crappy mcreator recreation with basic, bland mechanics. It isn't even scary when you first play with it, it just adds annoying hordes of little johns and the occasional giant sized one. Mediocre at best
I never really saw it as scary, just nostalgic as John was the original "Scariest Minecraft mod" before the Mary Sue stick bug trend. John is not supposed to be a super complex mod like the original Cave Dweller or From the Fog, as the concept of John is from Beta Minecraft. I do agree that Baby Johns speed and default group size need to be nerfed though. Unlike the attention seeker mods like One Who Watches, Baby John CAN be avoided as he only spawns on the surface, and he can be killed by pillaring.@@sacrificed9116
@@sacrificed9116well the original mod was pretty much the same. this new version just adds more. and some of these mechanics are done pretty well for mcreator. and I found it to be pretty fun.
I think some of them work. The Cave Dweller was effective at first but I would like some minor changes like him breaking torches and such to throw you off. The Man from the Fog is too common and should be tied to a mechanic, I do like him a bit cause his whistling is creepy and his ability to break doors and windows is cool but I think he shouldn't break Iron Doors as to give reason to have them. The One who Watches is good but the hallucinations (the transparent variants) just kill the buildup and get in the way of other stuff. Also changing the format from spooky entities that appear randomly to stuff more like the Deep Dark really leaning in on the alien stuff like the Depth Crawlers.
Man From the Fog can even destroy Enhanced Iron Doors from SecurityCraft. You know, the mod that allows players to enhance blocks to be as tough as Bedrock. I guess he is just programmed to destroy any block categorised as a door regardless of hardness. I did report this bug to the developer, so I hope that it is fixed.
Honestly one of my biggest problems with the man from the fog is it’s name. Not can it be a bit of a mouth full but it feels like they named it that to leech of the popularity of From The Fog making it feel kinda soulless to me
I never knew about him changing the title screen. I always play with a resource pack that uses a title screen. He is still not really worthy of the name though. He spawns way too close to the player based on my experiences. So I never see him in the fog.
It's interesting how the scariest part of all of this has nothing to do with actually seeing the cave dweller and more or so the leadup (the sounds, footsteps). Horror takes subtlety, whether that's things being there that shouldn't be, sounds you shouldn't be hearing, a threatening environment, etc. These cave dwellers are at best jumpscares: once you've seen it, the horror aspect goes away. It becomes an annoyance or it even just becomes comical because of predictable the behaviors are. I think there's potential for a really good and scary mod but a lot more thought needs to be put into it. And I think the less information a mod gives about what players can expect, the better. If you already know what the entity you're dealing with does and looks like ahead of time, you can prepare for it.
I think if you're gonna put a stalker in the overworld, there should be some kind of trigger for it, rather than it gunning it for you right at the start. Like maybe you hear a creepy noise at night, that indicates you need to complete some sort of ritual. If you don't, the next night the creature attacks you, something like that. To me horror monsters are most compelling when they have some kind of ruleset they follow. It creates a bit of mythology for the creature, and rewards players that are calm and composed enough to strategize around it.
That is one of the main problem with the mods. There is no anticipation/build up, due to how hard it is to get down in an infinite randomly generated game
It also builds tension if there's a semi complex method of repulsion. "I'll be fine if I do this, but what if I forget to stock up on materials, or fuck up?" And then you do, eventually.
Given how Base Minecraft's horror works, I feel the best way to improve these mods is to make it so that you rarely *ever* encounter them if ever. As Daggz said, the first dweller mod did so well, up until you actually meet it. So maybe have a png that blends in to the darkness appear on the edge of the player's screen and then disappear the second they look away/at it or right before the light level increases. Maybe the thing only spawns until the player acquires enough xp, say, a cumulative 60 levels. Maybe add a couple new underground chambers containing a book and quill and that triggers plot to spawn. The point is, play with the players mind. Make them paranoid, but never actually put them in danger. New spoopy mp3's should definitely be added though. Even after all these years the cave noises still unsettle me. Also, letting the thing break blocks, especially player placed ones is kind of dumb. "oh whoops it got in, killed me, and now I need to rebuild what the bastard broke". That's not fun; That's annoying, and it's the main reason I despise creepers. However It could work in theory, as long as it's not going to get in the way of the player's building.
I think its fair to have the mob mine through naturally generated blocks, but NOT any player placed ones, or not any unnatural blocks, ex you place stone down, it can mine that, but not cobblestone. The scariest scenario is strip mining and you hear somethin I the walls mining towards you.
@@halinaqi2194a major issue with that is that there isnt really an easy way to detect man made vs natural blocks when it comes to programming mods for mc iirc, otherwise i believe a lot more mods would make use of mechanics like that
@@crystalflare0684 yeah which is why I suggested an alternative, give it a pallete of blocks it will not mine through no matter what. Tough conundrum as I don't have experience coding in Java.
I do think part of the problem there is that when the player holds a monopoly over placing and breaking blocks, there's very little challenge. Prepared players will have a panic room handy to run to if something shows up, even an unprepared player can just wall themselves in a corner and wait for the thing to go away. Obviously there need to be limitations on what a monster can do, but making a player feel like there's nowhere they're truly safe from it is a very effective way to make something scary.
Thing is, there ARE genuinely scary mods. Problem for the "scary" mod ones are that they are too in your way. Mix a mod with fog, a mod with "Eyes in the dark", and a mod that causes some sort of spooky structures where you have, i dunno, an abandoned village with a church or something... and boom. The mod is scary. Not traditionally, and only scary in the sense of being unnerving, and only to newer playrers, but still scary. The point in the video where you are most scared is when something you DIDNT expect happened. What you SHOULD do with these mods is discuising it as a traditional "big oogy boogy," then instead just make it _unnerving._ No big scary herobrine at 3AM. No "dweller" FNAF jumpscares. Just... scary. Not loud. Not in your face. Just.. a quiet, unnatural world.
I still remember watching somebody play the dimension doors mod in 2014 and being super creeped out by the limbo dimension. IIRC, going through the doors would occasionally trap you in a limbo dimension with creepy monoliths watching you and slowly becoming aware of your presence as you try to escape. But I was also 13 at the time, so take it with a grain of salt. It would also probably just become annoying after a while.
Dimensional Doors is still being developed (now it has a forge version for 1.20.1) At least in my opinion the reason why I like the mod and other liminal space stuff is that it focuses on the series and unsettling vibe those spaces give since they don't follow any conventional logic for why they were designed or exist in the shape they do, the uneasiness that they give is from the fear of the unknown, the fact they seem so disconnected and separate from our reality and logical standards is what makes them such good horror, but putting in some big bad that you can't escape causes you to focus on that and completely ruins the suspense and unease from the space itself
The problem is that while building tension/dread does not require the active participation of the player, actually scaring them does. The player can’t stop you from filling them with dread. But the moment you decide to pay off that dread with a scare the player always has the option to not participate, and either let themselves die or attack the monster. Since dying in the game doesn’t cause any sort of harm or pain to the player, the illusion of danger immediately dissipates as soon as the player decides they don’t really care what happens to their avatar. What you need to actually scare a player is for the player to be invested in escaping the monster. These sorts of “I am not going to get scared” challenges immediately smother that potential in the crib because your not really playing the game for real your playing just to futz about with the monster. The same is true of mods where the monster is too omnipresent or difficult to overcome, players will get too frustrated to stay invested (if they were invested in the first place).
What's funny is I have seen scarier maps than actual mods, like adding a random entity doesn't automatically make the game a "horror game" but limiting your options and making a story out of it can get you closer
What I liked about the cave dweller is that unlike other horror mods at the time, the monster had a unique AI tree to help behave in a way different then other mods, and use subtle interactions to its advantage. That is something that I think a lot of other dwellers mods miss, because they more or less use the same tree as the original mod with some tweaks and therefor become redundant. That sums of the problem. Cave dweller was original. Its successor mods are not. Though I agree that the cave dweller mod could definitely use a better paint job to fully realize its horror. What the horror mod developers need to do is push out more into experimentation. I think minecraft has a lot of potential to create some scary encounters, but the potential hasn't been fully realized yet. I think playing more into subtlety and ambience would help a lot.
Most of the copy cats tend to copy and paste 90% of the “Evolved” Cave Dweller code that removes the fleeing and staring mechanics, and instead just makes Cabe Dweller entirely aggressive like any other hostile mob. Of course, the copy cats also bloat the stats of the mob, make them extremely common, and add more gimmicks that seem scary, but become annoying past the first interaction.
@@Daralexen exactly. Not only are they unoriginal, but they also dumb down the design. I think people also have a 'my monster is so strong' mentality. Difficulty doesn't necessarily mean horror. You could argue not being able to fight a monster adds to some terror, and it sometimes can, but because you take away an element of how you can react to it it only serves to make it boring that much faster without anything unique too it. It also takes a way from the vanilla feel too though, as minecraft is ultimately built on freedom of choice being a sandbox. So not being able to fight something doesn't really fit the environment.
They can be immortal/unkillable but being able to escape/avoid them entirely is necessary for balance. None of these mods do that aside from Cave Dweller. The Grue is immortal, but it can be entirely avoided just by bringing some torches. The Warden can be avoided by being quiet in the Deep Dark and mining the blocks that summon it. @@shockwaveherp9823
I feel like the only one that doesn't feel out of place is Rat's dimension one, which I don't even believe is public, because it preys upon that core dreariness of Minecraft. For those who don't know It's a 3-layer dimension inspired by swimming pool liminal spaces, and there isn't anything to even hurt you until the final one (giant angler-fish creatures that eat you). And I think it works because it isn't "scary monster go BRRRRFKASNFKLASD at 5000 decibels" it's more "what is this? where am I? why is it suddenly so dark? and most importantly WHAT IS _THAT?"_
But even adding a monster fully defeats the original point of liminal spaces. They made people feel fear because of the idea of wandering a maze of literally nothing forever, not even death being an escape. Though the original idea doesnt work in videogame form
@@eightcoins4401 it does exactly that for the first 2 layers of it, then the final one pulls the rug out from under you. rare case where the addition of a monster actually improved the end result
I hope that it is public. It sounds a lot like MyHouse.wad from Doom II. One of the best modern gaming horror experiences in my opinion. I feel like many of these boogeymen should take inspiration from that as opposed to FNAF or Poppy Playtime.
liminal spaces are scary because you dont understand them, its the fear of the unknown if you knew there was no monster there it wouldnt be scary, but if you get one too early the payoff wouldnt have any buildup value is found in absence, which rat does incredibly well
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I think some people like these mods you should just leave it at that no point in trying to force someone into it. Unless if someone is being exposed for liking kids then well that should get out there
@@manachromeYTeveryone's entitled to like the mods if they want!! That's not the point of the video, the title and thumbnail are hyperbolic, but all I do in the video itself is just lay out criticisms of things I think they should do better
try from the fog
@@Daggz I think a mod that made childhood Minecraft TH-camrs being tormented twisted and corrupted by a mysterious flesh that turns everything into these twisted fleshy creatures as you're world gets converted into flesh
@@manachromeYT What mod is that?
The original cave dweller worked because it was avoidable. It appeared, walked away, and didn't overstay its welcome. The mods based on it, however, overstayed their welcome and never walked away.
@@Gog426 it sucks dick
It went from being a nightmare fueled demon to an annoying nuisance that hinders your gameplay experience.
@@Gog426nightmare is just a reskin of Cave Dweller Evolved, bruh
@@Gog426 he copies Cave Dweller's AI. He spawns in the same area as Cave Dweller, although more frequently. He isn't really any better or worse, it is just slightly changed Cave Dweller Evolved.
@@Gog426 that "tho" at the end make \s it lesser convincing. L
If I made a mod and someone just goes and changes a model in that mod, has the GUTS to call it "Better [mod name]", I would throw hands without hesitating
fr like that's so disrespectful 😭
"[mod name] Reloaded" at least sounds inspired/like it was created out of appreciation for the original. "Better [mod name]" is just rude
If you’re talking about the cave dweller reimagined mod it also made a rework for the script so now it can actually climb up your structures for example
I'd be glad people saw what I made and are doing what they want with it.
@@tralactic4347if you like it good for you, but not everyone wants that
@@tralactic4347criticism is a crime and if you improve it, you are bad
The Cave Dweller being able to be killed pretty easily somehow makes it make more sense. It's an ambush predator, relying on taking targets by surprise instead of by raw endurance. If you wanted to "enhance" it, you'd probably want to play into that. Have it retreat after a certain time or if its' opening attack doesn't do much damage, because it realizes you're not easy prey. Then it comes back with a friend, or starts deliberately setting off sculk shriekers to summon a warden: something it knows can kill a well-armored player. It'd still die easily, but it would feel like a more dangerous presence the entire time it's around as opposed to only during combat.
I also think that it would be nice to play into the stalking aspect by adding a monster that doesn't come running at you and screaming but just stalks up on you nearly silently and takes you out to keep you checking over your shoulder.
@@genericcatgirl, So, like a creeper, then?
And it DEFINITELY is one fast ambush predator.
@@genericcatgirl basically just sounds like the Bracken from Lethal Company. Which honestly, would be really cool put into MC.
That's exactly was I was thinking. In another chat I said that I'm surprised somebody hasn't made a Bracken-inspired dweller considering the popularity of Lethal Company. @@Slaking_
you know what would be scarier that all those mods combined? A simple knocking on your base door with no explanation from time to time
Shockingly interesting. Or something like sound of door opening when you go to sleep in your base
Thanks I hate that
Sounds of something moving around your house while you sleep. Or even having the chance to get to see that something looking at you while you sleep, it doesn't kill you or attack you.
I would like more mods where it's not some entity attacking u but more like that
The last person in the world sits alone in a room. Then, a knock on the door is heard.
I think the main problem with it is that they tend to base these new mods too heavily on the Cave Dweller. The Cave Dweller was a genius concept for the time, but once it came out, everyone had to throw their hats into the ring. Dweller this, dweller that, night dweller, day dweller, skinwalker dweller, it's practically transformed into a parody
Wouldn’t even be surprised if Basement Dweller was a mod at this point
Ong...and here I am still waiting for the vault dweller mod
I await for the day someone makes a bathroom dweller mod
They might as well make an ocean dweller at this point
@@jjiffalbthat’s me bro IBS is no joke 😔
Me when the butt sniffer dweller starts making loud af noises and kills me with 2 hits:
UNDERRATED COMMENT
real
peak mod design
Oh plus it's invincible and 4 times faster than you😱😱😱😱😱😱
@@bigdiddyzp1762 plus breaks blocks and crawls
A mod that REALLY does the concept right is ‘From the Fog’ because it simply revisits those old herobrine mods and has that buildup that you signaled to at the end of the video
I mean I feel u, but it overplays itself too!
After just a few days in-game, it gets so exaggerated it stops being scary.
From the Fog isn't made to be a horror mod, its just meant to be as close to the classic Herobrine myths as possible... But because of this, it kinda struggles to be actually scary. Its only really scary if you're already scared of Herobrine. Often times you'll have situations where Herobrine just shows up and stares at you and if you aren't scared of him it just feels silly. Sometimes his AI will bug out and he's just walk into walls.
@@wander7812that goes for anything horror related tho once it makes you jump once every time after will be diminishing results
A trend was never expected, the original cave dweller was just meant to add fear to what could actually lurk below, but can get tiring, so I definitely agree.
@@wander7812at some point the mod actually becomes wholesome because I have a companion watching over me
The issue is that most of the Dweller or horror mod mobs are just too stupid to be really a threat. If your going to make something actually scary, your going to need to make a mob with a lot of complexity to it, which is out of the scope of most quick attention-grab projects.
i think is is also an issue with just how simple minecraft ai is. for minecraft it works fine, but if ur trying to make an effective horror element there would have to be some sort improvement or change to the ai since you need those more complex systems to design a creature that could have unpredictable movement
Exactly
Dude is making a house while surrounded by eldritch horrors and it STILL looks better than anything I've ever created
Fucking hell, how bad are you at making houses??
What's the reply?
lmao, for real.
i just hollow out a mountain and call it a day lol.
in survival mode i have almost never gone above the level of "wooden cube in the middle of nowhere". i always plan to make a nice house but i just never get around to it
@@ketaminepoptarts me with my hollow mountain lol
i'll go "i should replace the walls with wood or something" but end up going "eh, nobody's gonna see it. Why bother?"
Cave Dweller actually has such a clever sound design! The footsteps are only heard whlie you're mining, as soon as you stop it stops too. Like it's sneaking up on you while you're less likely to hear it
Yeah thats honestly really creepy.
Last night i was thinking of making a horror mod inspired by skinwalkers.
A monster that takes on your own skin. Imagine seeing a twisted image of yourself peeking at you from behind a tree in a dark forest.
Or walking home after a long day of mining and seeing yourself standing there in your own house only for it to dissapear when you get closer.
I would not make it stupid and agressive. I would want it to show up multiple times and when encountered it copies your movement. When you walk away from it, it walks after you, when you stop it stops. When you walk towards it, it giggles and walks away. When you look away, it dissapears.
Making you question if its all in your head.
I want it to feel like its always there. When your walking through the forest you suddenly see it walking along with you in the distance.
It hides behind blocks and is only visible for short amounts of time. Making you feel like he is always there.
It moves objects when your not looking. You will never see it doing this. But you will swear that block wasnt there before.
It only engages you when your health is low. It always watches you and knows when your weak. Its smart and when it finally attacks it kills you very fast because of your health.
If you gain health while its attacking you somehow ( golden apple or something )
It will run away/dissapear to come back another time when your weak.
It plays this game forever until your dead.
Its programmed to never come close to you when you have enough health to kill it.
And if you hit it more than 2 times it gives you blindness and dissapears.
You wont be able to kill it with a sword or any other conventional way becuase when you give it damage over a certain point it always dissapears and waits till its full health before it strikes again.
@@wtfgebeurdmij2991 That.... sounds pretty sick. If you can make that, Id definitely play it.
@@danieltortellinijr.6594 thanks man! Good to hear. If you have any ideas you want to share feel free!
I really want to make you feel anxious with this mod.
So for example when you take some simple fall damage and you become more vulnerable because of it you can hear it giggle somewhere behind you.
Waiting for the right moment..
It laughs because it gets excited when you hurt yourself..
I was maybe thinking about adding clicking noises. That it uses echo location to find you in the dark.
So when your out at night and you take fall damage, you suddenly hear something laugh in the distance followed by clicking noises getting closer to you.
It does variations on this depending on your health. Sometimes it only giggles, sometimes the clicking noises come closer and then when its almost reached you it turns around and disappears again.
And one of these it kills you.
@@wtfgebeurdmij2991 Keep me updated.
@@wtfgebeurdmij2991lemme know if or when u make this cuz i really wanna try it
I think one issue is that Minecraft is inherently less scary these days. The world just isn't as empty and unsettling. It's no longer this oppressive fog hanging over an eerie, barren landscape. You can see for miles and the world is far more diverse and explorable. Going underground, the caves are far too open to ever get snuck up on, you won't feel that cramped, claustrophobic sense of the classic twisting tunnels full of dark corners and dead ends. It's not an environment conducive to horror like the earlier versions.
I think why Minecraft was scarier back then, was because the Internet wasn't as advanced as it is now, and there was less information, plus creepypasta's were in their height, so people could spread mass rumors and others will spread them and believe them, this is how humans work, thats why ghost stories, alien sightings, mythology, and deep sea creature stories occur, people spread their words to one another, and those who believe will be scared, and this brings us to Minecraft, it can have the creepy atmosphere, accdiental horror.
The game is still scary especially if your spending long amounts of time playing
@@redwiltshire1816that’s called sleep deprivation everything gets scary if you do it long enough
Sadly the devs don't want the game to be scary because they're hellbent on making the game for children who all grew up and want more mature games. They can't even get new children to play the game because there are things like Fortnite to play and even if they do get new young players, TH-camrs and Discord group users will just groom them.
@@Andulvar what you yapping about? Of course they won't make the game scary, that's not what Minecraft is about, you goofy, The Warden supplies it well enough, the mechanics for it is good for a blocky game.
I hate how everything spooky in Minecraft has to be a “dweller” like goddamn it’s not that hard to name something
The basement dweller 👻
@@Belisimoo real
same thing as the leviathans from subnautica
what honestly annoys me more is how the names dont even make sense half the time. "cave dweller" works because thats what it does: it DWELLS in CAVES
"mimic dweller" DOESNT LIVE IN MIMICS
@@bigheadstudios6639 tbf there aren't that many other classifications for big sea creatures (that I know of)
classic minecraft was a horror game, literally went back and i was genuinely afraid of mining, and immediately remembered why herobrine was such a popular thing
Minecraft beta was superior horror game
As a Beta Minecraft player this is so true. It is survival horror.
i was so scared of mobs and night time, like that was the most horrifying thing about Minecraft when i was younger so i would only play on peaceful mode lmao
@@diorssereal, always hid in dirt spaces and dirt towers
Ok obv it's scary as a little kid
Why Minecraft was scary sometimes was simply just the fear of the unknown combined with the endless isolation of the player so hearing or seeing something unusual for must a second like seeing a Herobrine screenshot would usually be enough to be terrifying, not knowing what’s going on but feeling like something is off
Daggz’s conclusion said it all
Subtly is key
Yep. Personally the most scared I was playing minecraft (and tbh any game, though I don't play many horror games it was still quite scary) was when I was exploring far away from my base and suddenly heard a soundtrack I'd never heard before. If anyone knows what it is, please lmk because I know it's a normal track but doesn't come up much. It was just very rhythmic and drum heavy with extra instrumentals coming in but never overpowering the drum track. The fact it coincided with me finding my first coral forest/underwater city ever, the track continuing much longer than I thought any tracks did, and that despite exploring for an extended time period I hadn't found any villages all made me freak out bad enough to exit the game. I know it was mostly just my weird response to that kind of music doing it, but I think an ideal minecraft horror mod would capture that feeling.
Like I think a truly terrifying mod would just be a large collection of unsettling assets/events/environments/osts/creatures/etc that are applied on a dice roll to each new seed. Specifically ones that don't just pop up at you immediately, ones that you only notice gradually after you've progressed in the world a little. That way it's always a surprise when something happens and you can't just get used to it immediately
The minute you can hurt what is "scary", it stops being scary but if you just make the scary thing invincible then it becomes annoying. You need to be able to hide somehow
The power of analogue horror
I think another big part of Minecraft’s horror back then was the fear of something invading your world. The whole point is that you are supposed to be by yourself, only to later see things like strip-mine tunnels, structures that don’t spawn naturally, stuff like that. That’s why I think Herobrine did so well.
I would even wait to do anything actually scary in the world for a long time because that builds up a feeling of isolation and loneliness in the world. If you do it right, you can really break a player.
I think the simpler the Minecraft “horror” mod is, the scarier it is.. as goofy as the og model is, the more and more these mods look like they don’t belong in minecraft the more the atmosphere is completely broken and no longer scary.
+ the real scare is dying deep in a cave with barely a way to fight back honestly. The run up to you and look stupid part never scared me
I do not know why people find them so scary. The models and textures look so bad/goofy. I even played with the Insanity Shaders that fans of these mods say are a requirement to get the full experience. They still looked like shite with Insanity, PS1, and Xbox 360 shaders.@@purp6973
i like the retexture that someone did that was inspired by newer minecraft mobs. i think it fits in perfectly
this gave me a monster idea :
a "living world" monster, a monster that is the world itself
the world is normal at first, but in rare occasions you will sometimes hear rumbling and see tentacles on the distance that quickly retract once you look at it, and once you start mining you will find gaping wounds on the bedrock layer where the bedrock is broken, instead of the void its just a mass of flesh blocks, the more you dig down, the more weird and dangerous it gets.
i feel like it would be more scary than those "in-the face" cave dweller mods, just imagine just mining and realizing that your world is a living being and you were living on its shell the entire time.
Dang, I wish I was a modder this sounds amazing ы
@@phenom...ы?
@@supercelllover7695 Ы!!!
and if you mine too much into its flesh it will start making crying noises or something
ah, mystery flesh pit national park!
The original dweller seemed the best to me. Being initially pretty tall, but then being able to crouch down into 2 block tall spaces, and drag itself through 1 block holes to get to the player seems the most frightening.
The second one going entirely prone to try to go through 2 block tall spaces really just made it seem janky.
Both of them do that lol, he just happened to capture one of them doing it.
Played the first one blind and god that 1 block squeeze through was the scariest moment in my minecraft career.
What makes the Cave Dweller work the best is that it came from someone's actual imagination instead of just following a trend. The Cave Dweller is just someone's headcanon on what's making those alien cave noises turned into a mod
@@keksidyYou stole this comment
@@twinzzlers you're right, I confess. Lock me up internet police
Minecraft's horror excelled when it took advantage of the fear of the unknown. The ambient cave sounds can put anyone off guard, and a surprise hostile mob attack is equally unnerving. Horror mods are very hit or miss, as sometimes they take advantage of that fear of the unknown and other times it just throws horror tropes into places where they don't belong.
I think thats also the issue with mods. If you install a horror mod, there is no fear of the *unknown*, you know that theres gonna be something spooky happening.
I feel like the only way it would work is sneaking creepy things into a mod without mentioning their existance. But thats also very optimistic considering how easily you can look at all the files in a mod once downloaded.
@@eightcoins4401 The Betweenlands is a good example that in my opinion. It was very scary when I had to explore it in SevTech. It's a weird separate dimension that feels very different to normal Minecraft, and I didn't know anything about the mod. The mobs are kinda creepy and the color scheme is overall darker. Apparently there's also a chance of dense fog appearing with some creepy silhouettes in the distance that don't do anything, which is just unexpectedly creepy. It's not really a "horror" mod, just a mod that happens to feel very scary if you don't know anything about it.
It's very hard to make minecraft scary, because while playing you know you play horror mod. Hearing cave noises in vanilla minecraft feels supernatural, that's why they are terrifying.
You know, it would be a cool idea to create some QoL mod (like another one backpack mod, or something like a new mining instrument), and secretly add here something like a Cave Dweller. That would be unexpected and really scary, at least for the first clash with this thing as well.
@@ГотаБГJust have a mod that swaps around some sound files, but secretly hase a tone of hidden ones that screw with the player.
Footsteps, knocking, the sound of someone mining in the distance. Make it sound like you're being followed, but no actual mob is in the game
Maybe you could have a system like the Dead Space remake, which dynamically changes how difficult/scary the game is based off player performance.
Oh, you could even have light blocks turn off at random points as well.
@@pixels_per_minute that's exactly what I thought, the ominous feeling of not being alone is so fecking unsettling, maybe even some glimpses of a entity but not the entirety of it would work
...the same.logic applies to playing a horror game, though you know you're playing a horror game, yet they still can scare you.
wouldn't the solution be to look like a normal mod with psychological elements? Imagine making a house with several new items from the mod and you see silhouettes that you have to pay close attention to notice.
it would be like the mod added new items and new missions, but added something else.
DUDE imagine if you released one of these mods but never actually had a creature (but still advertized itself as such) so it was just noises and paranoia waiting for it to show up
Literally just an empty zip or something
That would unironically be better than all these mods, because the moment the fear becomes tangible in a game, it turns from a fear into frustration and inconvenience
Thanks, I hate it.
ironically this works because horror, like _really_ getting scared comes from dread
that's why the best horror movies work off paranoia and the unease that comes with not knowing when something will happen. The tension being released isnt what's scary (the jumpscare, the monster reveal, that sort of thing) but the build up TO ANYTHING is what's nerve wracking
and what makes it better?
doing nothing with that tension, just let your audience sit there with their paranoia and anticipate the next scare.
I think the main problem is that it’s a lot easier for our minds to imagine something that we think is super scary with smaller hints to tell us what could be lurking around the corner.
And creating a defined version of that scary thing risks killing any built suspense or imagined threat.
The unknown is scarier than the known. Once the novelty of playing the latest your-mama-dweller mod and having no idea what it does wears off, you're left with basically another hostile mob with unique mechanics. You know when it spawns, you know the sounds that announce it, you know what it does, how it works, how to exploit it, etc.
Minecraft cave sounds are scary *because* they don't mean anything. There's nothing that follows them. But what if...?
That "what if" is why they're so scary.
@@xGOKOPxCreepers, Endermen, and Baby Zombies are all infinitely scarier than even the original Cave Dweller; adding too many unique blends of "fuck you" turns 'threats' into 'annoyances'.
Creepers are completely silent as they approach, so you have to keep watching your back.
Don't look Endermen in the eyes or you'll get bodied if you're not prepared.
If you see a Baby Zombie, be careful, because they're faster than you think.
Fear is the emotion of avoidance. You do not fear what you cannot avoid. It's why I hate the phantoms; their hit box is atrocious, and they always seem to hit you anyways. I can't avoid them, so I do not fear them like I do other enemies.
The Cave Dweller, similarly, is difficult to avoid. In fact, the creator went _out of his way_ to make it nearly _unavoidable._ That's not scary, it's annoying. It's why I think the Warden would be better off without the sonic attack. If you can't avoid it, the only option is to fight it, which triggers _anger,_ which is basically the opposite emotion that it's supposed to invoke.
One of the thoughts I’ve had is that the original Cave Dweller would be a lot scarier if it avoided lit areas even after it aggro’d. A huge part of the build up in the OG video is how creepy the damn thing looks in the dark, but once it’s in a well lit area it just looks goofy, and of course as you mentioned it’s far less scary once you know what to expect. Keeping it in a context where you are already going to be unsettled and wary, and *staying* there so it remains this THING that you never quite clearly see would make it much more unnerving, IMO
@@redjive_industries3760 The thing that makes a monster scary in a game is that in a vacuum they're very easy to avoid, but in actual gameplay they may not be. It's like the Tetris. Dealing with a bunch of mobs that each only do one scary thing is like dealing with all of the individual blocks that normally do; the more you deal with in a shorter timeframe, the scarier the situation gets.
On the other hand, blending all of the "scariness components" into one entity is like if Tetris sent a giant block at you that's almost impossible to clean. Sure, the whole point is that it's you vs the game... but that style of "game development" fails to reward the desired emotion.
A 3 block tall mob that crouches down to fit in a 2 block tall hole is already enough. Trying to make it "more scary" will just make it more annoying instead. A lot of feature I see that people want added to a single "super scary" mob would be better off as multiple mobs with inbuilt synergy. A mob that places torches to confuse you, another that removes them, and another that attacks the player only when they're in darkness. Instead of forcing the player to play by it's rules, let the player dictate the rules instead, so that it doesn't just make the whole encounter unfair.
also if you have a build up to the reveal you might end up disappointing people because the way they envisioned it was scarier than what it actually looks like
To be fair, the Cave Dweller actually was pretty good, as it was the first of its kind, and was actually pretty well designed (conceptually at least)... The problem came when everyone started copying it to try and leech off of its success.
The worst part of these copycat mods is that they make the mobs invincible. They don't give it a ton of HP like the Warden, they just straight up make it an unstoppable unkillable threat. And there's no way to avoid them really other than just straight up hiding in a box. Also, the pngs aren't very scary and the loud noises are startling, but ultimately are just really painful for your ears.
Yeah pretty much. The problem I this is because you can't kill a majority of these dwellers. I like the original cave dweller because it is still pretty close to vanilla. It's not impossible to escape it. The chases aren't long and drawn out, you can kill it, and it isn't constantly appearing.
@@allozabdplus the Dweller is actually more advanced cause he'll sometimes run away
the idea of "a scary, strong mob that chases you" is good! i like the idea of a mini-boss similar to the Warden but more aggressive, the problem with a lot of these cave dweller clones is that they spawn waaaaay too often, just zoom at you super fast and insta-kill you, it's not a scary thing where you have to run away or stand and fight, it's just an annoying jumpscare you can't react to
Man From The Fog has 300 HP which is the same as the Wither, a boss summoned by choice of the player while the Man spawns every 10 minutes. Others like Modnight Lurker and One Who Watches are nigh-unkillable. Their only weakness is that they have no AI to fight back against Iron Golems or Zoglins. They all feel like DeivantART OC Mary Sues instead of horror characters. The unoriginal designs and bad textures do not help as well.
@@Daralexen yeah i dont normally like to diss people's art work, but you can tell a lot of these "dweller" characters are just made to look similar because that's what's trending, so they all just look kind of like The Peeker
I thought of an interesting way to do a “cave dweller,” where he isn’t a malevolent stalker, but actively runs from players and only attacks (with gnarly damage like a glass cannon) when cornered. Besides just creepy noises and the glowing face, it also attacks and breaks torches and glowing blocks. It’s not an evil monster, but a neutral creature that you’ve walked in on in the world they inhabit.
That would be cool especially considering if it just destroys you instantly it just becomes frustrating instead of scary
@@iamahiphopfan3759 I don’t play Minecraft and kind of am too busy with my solo game dev and comic work so I won’t be making it but it’s a free to use idea for anyone who is talented
I think a mix of that and stalking would be a good idea it never actually chases you it just watches you from the dark then runs away if you either look at it too long or try getting closer
@@larsthedude1984 what was the point of this comment?
wait shit i didnt realise this reply and the original commenter were the same person
@@wadejean-louis8905rude? they were just purposing an idea
What was it with all the monsters just randomly appearing outside your window, getting sad that they didnt scare you, and then running away?
I honestly quite like the first iteration of the cave dweller, because it seems to be the one that understands the most about what makes minecraft creepy.
It’s not just adding a le spooki tall monster to run at you screaming in a random location, it’s playing off of the already existing feature of the cave noises. I think it’s the one that gets the closest to what works with minecraft horror.
I think the thing that could really elevate the cave dweller is making it way more subtle. What if it wandered around breaking light sources or even quietly hunting and killing other mobs around its cave system, only leaving the loot behind as a sign that it’s there. Isolating you from everying, including the other hostile mobs in the game. Plunging the cave system into complete silence and darkness. By the time you notice just how close by it actually is, it would already be too late as it has trapped you entirely alone with it, in the dark, in it's territory.
I think the pay off needs some work and the model could be improved, but I don’t think the ‘better cave dweller’ approach of making it bigger really works, mainly due to it just making the problem regarding the clunky animations all the more noticeable.
Breaking light sources, yes! I actually love that.
The Parasites mod has some that do that too, although Parasites isn't exactly subtle, haha.
The cave dweller is a great idea for mob, as it does things NO OTHER MOB CAN DO, like crawling through 1 block holes, that would terrify me. But your ideas would literally make it the perfect horror mob in my opinion. One that toys with you and uses the cave sounds to increasingly make you more paranoid before getting after you
@@They0ungTravler I watched Tomato stream a horror modpack that had the cave dweller in it and everything in the modpack wasn't really scary, except the cave dweller which actually made me jump while watching. Tomato was getting chased and jumped into a 1x1 tunnel, acted triumphant, turned around while still in the tunnel, and the cave dweller was just right there crawling through the tunnel. Actually startling. I'd share a link to the clip but TH-cam has a tendency to delete comments containing links.
In a game where a major tip for not getting lost in caves is keeping torches in one direction, seeking out and breaking light sources is a really good way for a monster to create the feeling of trapping the player in the caves!
It doesn't help that the "Reimagined" version just rips sounds straight from SOMA, which feels extremely out of place in Minecraft.
My issue with all of these mods is that their concept of horror always revolves around the entities being inherently hostile and hands on murdering. Any degree of intelligence given to them is mostly negated by the fact that their behaviours are limited to stalking and trying to kill you with their own hands.
It would be far scarier if an entity treated you like a toy, sabotaging your efforts to watch you dance with death. An entity you know is there, but can never see.
Things like blighting crops or animals, burning away coal, slowly picking away at your durability, or even changing how other mobs behave. Just to see you fight for your life.
You'll live in vigilance.
You... you really get it.
Best take I've seen on this.
@@justseffstuff3308 There's a quote that I'm a big fan of:
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
I think this also applies to intelligence. A kind of valley of uncertainty, between intelligence and animal instinct.
An intelligent, rational being may be scary in that it can deceive and outwit you , but you can reason with it.
An animal may be scary in that you can't reason with it, but you can deceive and outwit it.
Both are predictable and knowable in their own ways.
But in-between, there's that unknown area where you don't know, nor can you predict what's going on in its head, and I think that's scarier than either of those.
Maybe do the same as the Cave Dweller and not use loud.mp3 files but the same sounds of the game.
Imagine hearing a creeper tss, you look back and there is nothing there.
I've always been really fond of how the OG Herobrine mod would spam random structures in your world, make you drop all of your items, turning animals hostile, etc.
This comment section have an IQ of 20 holy shit
My one gripe with the Cave Dweller is that after a certain point he entirely stops being scary and just becomes a nuisance. I do like that he actually does scale to Vanilla Minecraft and isn't some absurd abomination that'll two-tap you in full Rite, but at the same time that makes him insane annoying when I'm doing something like mining a perimeter or building underground at lategame. Like damn, you got me bro that screaming sure is scary, now please go away I'm trying to dig a perimeter for this Witch Farm. It feels like he's only designed for quick survival worlds that are done as soon as the dragon is dead.
Just treat it like a basic zombie you can't walk away from, once you have iron gear. That's like an hour of gameplay.
This is a problem Minecraft has for all mobs, this isn't specific for mods. After X hours playing minecraft a creeper blows up your front door and the only thing you think is 'wow so cool, now I have to rebuild that instead of building my mob farm. great design.'
@@RealJoJoDragon I mean, Creepers can just exist... The Cave Dweller seems to be there for you specifically. If that makes sense.
@@CommissarChaotic That wasn't the point OP made, "My one gripe with the Cave Dweller is that after a certain point he entirely stops being scary and just becomes a nuisance."
I was saying this is not only true for mod-specific mobs but vanilla ones as well. After a certain point they cease to be 'scary' or 'threatening' and just become a nuisance you have to take care of.
The Cave Dweller can 'just exist' too. As stated, it's a Cave Dweller. You will never run into one unless you're going into a cave. When you're up in your house in the overworld, going through the nether, fighting a dragon in the end? Cave Dweller is just chilling in the caves beneath the overworld. Creepers on the other hand you can encounter both deep underground, or on the overworld, and when they see you their only goal is to follow you and cause an explosion.
The CD was never scary. It’s just stupid
I believe the original Herobrine is still the upper echelon of Minecraft horror for two reasons. 1) It maintains a strict connection to the vanilla experience with only a minor adjustment to Steve's eyes which enhances the unnerving element of the entity. 2) It plays on a more psychological and "slow burn" unknown angle. This approach puts constant pressure on the player.
Abrupt jump scare horror and custom models don't do it beyond the fight or flight response but true horror is more than that. Its the constant psychological pressure and fear of the unknown that can make a Minecraft mod truly frightening. To date, I believe the modpack in Forge Labs, "How I Survived HEROBRINE in Hardcore Minecraft" is probably one of the best forms of this approach. Though, I would tone down the extra mobs and stick more closely to the Herobrine experience, that gameplay had all the earmarks of a truly unsettling atmosphere and experience.
Perhaps, someday mod makes will aim for the psychological approach and make something truly eerie for Minecraft.
One main issue with the Cave Dweller is it's main horror is suspense, once it actually chases you, as long as you have a shield it just becomes a 30 second game of "hold shield and occasionally hit it" in a corner, at which point the scare has completely worn off and any future scares are somewhat meaningless once you realize that.
I was thinking about this after watching him just kill it while shielded, like, it would be interesting imo for it to become worse if you kill it, spawning worse threaths or making it more aggresive next time, or something lol
He can make it so he maybe breaks the shield like a vindicator
it would be cool if the cave dweller learned from that and disables or breaks your shield the next encounter to catch you off guard
Or if you hit it a bit it retreats back to the shadows and doesn’t give you the safety of knowing it’s been defeated
it's good horror, but it's bad TERROR. and terror is the part that's scary. horror is for twenty minute youtube creepypastas.
I brought back the Cave Dweller trend after Gargin's initial trend died down. I do regret doing so. In those months, the entities that I presented and played with were actually scary because I didn't know about them. But as time moved on, they just became plain.
There's a reason I quit the Dweller niche; it's becoming cringe-worthy, left-to-right copies, each having the same base AI used by the Cave Dweller. People are actively promoting new dweller copies, which aren't close to scary at all, lots of fake reactions, and scripted videos. All for what? Money.
Something I brought back to popularity out of passion is now a hub for money-grinding; viewers are non-stop misled and click baited. Yeah, it does annoy me, but I'm glad I moved away from it.
You know what would be cool?
Having one of the songs in minecraft, like any random song, for example Sweden, have a copy of itself as a mod, and it's literally the same song, but over time, all notes are like, lower pitch or unevenly spaced out, slowly turning into Static, and it only happening if you're out in the dark with no lights around you for too long.
That's actually a good idea.
I think there is a mod that plays a distorted version of Sweden, but it happens all the time, not just in the dark.
Is this an Amnesia Sanity + Astroneer low oxygen reference
was chatting with some friends and came up with a similar idea
same concept, some familiar song like Sweden, maybe some pitch changes and reverb if you wanna get fancy
but the real kicker is that the song doesn't finish. at a random point it just trails off on an incomplete chord
actually now that I think about it this idea would probably work better if the rest of the song was completely unchanged. no way to tell that it's the spooky version until the music suddenly disappears into silence
Running from Evil...?
The OG Cave Dweller was not necessarily scary in a way, eerie for sure, but it actually worked as a mod that you could enjoy because there isn't an entity in your face every 5 seconds and you could reasonably get away from the Dweller, other mods just stick entities in your face and kill you every 5-10 minutes while it could actually take a bit of time to find the Dweller, and it doesn't stick around long, and it might not even attack you. It builds uncertainty in what it'll do, so you try to ease off tensing because it might leave you be, but the tension comes in on if it runs at you. But it doesn't leave any scars, which is what horror mods should do in my opinion, they should be in the moment, not long-lasting.
Honestly, honorable mention to the Dimensional Doors mod for being a pretty neat blend of actual utility/exploration content, and spooky stuff
The mod's "front-facing" side focuses on pocket dimensions and dungeons found within these pocket dimensions, but there's also a "limbo" dimension that you get dropped into if you fall out of the world, typically from exploring those pocket dungeons, and it is surprisingly eerie in there
There's other factors as well that just, compound upon the mod's horror aspect, but probably the best contributor is the lack of in-game instructions on how you're supposed to resolve the situations that come about from these horror components
BlueSomething did a good video talking about the mod overall, would recommend
You just gave me massive flashbacks to one of the scariest things that ever happened to me in Minecraft.
GOD I LOVE BIG BLACK SQUARED-EYE!
I literally came here to say this. Truly astonishing how they manage to set the mood with this mod.
Love that mod, a main stay in my mod pack
wandering the massive dimentional labyrinths never failed to spook me
I think one of the things missed that makes the horror of it that much more understated of the cave dweller is how it'll move *as you're mining*, letting the sound of breaking blocks cover up the noise of it getting closer to you. While it's still just... a very basic 'spoowky' simulator, little things like that to sow paranoia are what really count.
I feel like it's an economic thing.
Say Minecraft isn't scary as it get's clicks, the community has heard from people how lonely it us and the cave noises are uncomfortable, with the Cave Dweller using that against the playerbase with unexplained mechanics like literal out of sight, out of mind or out of sight, despawn.
But... since it's so popular that people have made monsters similar... saying it isn't scary is a bit of a hottake. That Minecraft Dweller mods aren't scary. That Kinecraft itself is unable to scary extending to its mods, whether people show you examples or you just cherrypikc them. Soon, you got a ton of people watching you for TH-cam money as others copy you for their own TH-cam monetisation.
Cynical... I know, but I saw a few videos claiming Minecraft cannot be scary and showing some... odd mods as more examples of "bad Minecraft horror", or as he sold it as, "Minecraft horror". With people (mostly impressionable kids sadly) repeating that as opinion. If you aren't scared by the Dweller, that's fine.
Just me being cynical that all these commentary videos on the Cave Dweller or Minecraft in all its forms are popping up when the CD have been popular for a while.
@@harrietr.5073 I get where you're coming from, even if it's a bit messy and over the place, but it's generally just not good horror. Most 'horror' Minecraft mods aren't regardless of any tactic you could use otherwise. Unless it's flush with the game, follows horror principles, and isn't an overdone "SPOOKY SIMILAR MAN WITH LOUD NOISE!" it could at least be considered proper horror, because there certainly is some untapped potential in the bag of cheap tag-along horror here.
@@bayjammer2748 You consider jumpscares as non-horror? Really?? Not all horror needs milsim tactics, many horror games has you run away from the threat like Clocktower or Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. I mean base minecraft has bad pfe since it's TBOI ass contact damage for enemy melee.
If you wanna make Minecraft horror that's tactical, you have to "fix" the base, no zombies doing contact damage. Windup for player attacks.
Modding combat into horror combat aside, some people do find Dwellers scary. If it doesn't scare you (except jumpscares), that's fine. Other people (outside of TH-camrs who fake it for money as usual) still find it scary. You don't find it scary? You don't find it scary. That's it.
@@harrietr.5073That's like...not the point at all? Like jumpscares are kinda like the cheapest trick in the book, now I am not saying that they can be bad since I've played some games where it actually works, but with the Dweller's case it's not inmersive, it's just an incredibly basic case there, and yes, I am aware games like Spooky's and Outlast have chase sequences as part of their gimmicks, but like, they work so well because they keep you inmersed in the game with a sense of anxiety induced by it, as well that it's not constantly spamming loud noises 24/7. If people don't find the Dwellers scary it's because jumspcares are pretty cliche nowadays, and it's very rare seeing them being well executed in that case. That's the problem I have with the Dwellers here.
@@harrietr.5073 Jumpscares are horror, sure, but they're super cheap and should be used sparingly and strategically. Especially given how they can straight-up bad for the health of certain demographics(the elderly, people with heart problems, people with PTSD).
Jumpscares are scary for one moment and get old and predictable quickly, the equivalent of throwing a flashbang at someone or sneaking up and blasting an airhorn behind their back. It relies on pure reflex and shock value.
Personally I prefer atmospheric horror/uneasyness. Rather than an entity, the fear of the unknown, and the knowledge of being alone in a vast biome gives better effect that I really enjoy. It's why I like the mods Sound Physics Remastered and Presence Footsteps. The echo of your block breaking, block placing, and walking around from Sound Physics, along with the more realistic sounds that presence footsteps gives your character really turn caves into something incredible. I wish we had more mods that were like those. It'd also be nice to find more audio mods that give more realism.
These mods should take more inspiration from things like MyHouse.wad from Doom II which was entirely atmosphere/fear of unknown. The Dwellers seem to take inspiration from “those” indie horror games that only 5-year olds find scary.
I agree with this, The man from the fog and the man from the void are so frequent, Whenever I played with them they appeared around a minute after I saw them, And the man from the fog attacks without being even looked at
I feel like this also comes into play as to why most backrooms content simply isn't even slightly scary or as horrifying as it used to be. Kane Pixel's addition to reveal and or add a creature as well as the ability to get in and out just ruined the concept as a whole, there's no fear of not knowing whether there's actually something there, or if you're truly alone and stuck here until you die a gruesome death via something like starvation or dehydration, and if you somehow survive, whether your sanity will be able to endure the crippling loneliness you're suddenly suffering. All of that is gone. Now you know there's a way to escape. That there's a creature you have to avoid or take down. To the human mind, it seems like uncertainty and lack of knowledge create fear, while knowing and acknowledging creates a goal. This happened to me with the cave dweller mod. At first, it was cool not knowing what was happening, but after getting attacked once, I just had the thought of killing the monster instead of being afraid.
Same with adding "lore" to things that do not need it like Skibidi Toilet or Bluey. MattPat is famous for this. He practically wrote the FNAF story for Scott.@@elongatedsedation324
@@elongatedsedation324 you put it into words perfectly. The backrooms has essentially decayed into another facet of "area where scary invincible monsters exist and sciency people go into it and do stuff and run away from scary monsters." It used to be this oddball concept, one that felt to me like a plane of existence made the sum of all of our collective faded memories where you spent your final days exploring unending emptiness, more depressing/existential than outright scary. Now there's 50 million defined levels with 50 million stupid derivative unkillable creatures that live there somehow, and there's also groups of people that live in there surviving on weird wacky food items; it's become a parody of itself structured and designed like a forgettable crappy video game
I want someone to make a mod that looks friendly, but is secretly an actual good horror mod
and also try to keep the horror part hidden as long as possible
this would be a good idea in theory.. but if someone has a health issue that renders them unable to play horror games (like a heart disorder) this idea quickly becomes a bad one
@@sxmxndthx put a disclaimer somewhere lol
madoka magica style
DDLC type mod 😭
Minecraft horror mods are kind of like what a number of other mods or horror games try to do. They either lean way too far in the edgy horror sort of thing. Which is fine. Or it's mostly just jumpscare horrors. That or it's just overall a massive disappointment. Or usually a combination of all those factors.
This is why I love the Amnesia games, most particularly Amnesia The Dark Descent and Amnesia The Bunker, they are a master class of horror games, they popularized a new type of horror and i think they are the only ones who perfected it.
@@it2spooky4me79the horror amnesia uses was originally use in the cathulo/cosmic horror books by h.p love craft which later became phycological horror
@@redwiltshire1816 yeah that's why I love H.P Lovecraft horror, Eldritch horror is such a unique case, because a ton of people can never get it right, movies, shows, and games never found a perfect recipe for Lovecraftian horror.
@@it2spooky4me79 the problem they always have is showing the monster but then it defeats the point of it because these monsters are supposed to be completely unknown no way to describe them and you see this a lot in horror games where the monster is shown so much it’s just goes from scary to a scooby-doo cartoon
@@redwiltshire1816 fear of the unknown, like I said before, Amnesia The Dark Descent did it great, you were always followed by something, but you never see it or know what it is, I think it's called "The Shadow", but you never know what it was was, or the water monster, only you see is the splashing it makes while it comes towards you
This reminds me a lot of the backrooms where people just add entities just cause. IMO the horror of Minecraft comes from the fact you’re all alone. It’s the fear of not knowing what’s out there.
Stuff like the Warden work not just because it’s powerful but because it feels like a genuine threat. It only spawns if you’re the one who makes too much noise and it’s a consequence of your actions
Bats: allow us to introduce ourselves.
Dude I hate how destroyed the backrooms as a concept is nowadays. It used to actually be scary but now it's just "LOOK GUYS BACKROOMS LEVEL 3578 IS A LEVEL FULL OF CREEEEPY MONSTERS THAT WILL KILL YOU!!!!!!!!"
@@Purplesome_ fr. Its getting stale atp
@@bungiecrimes7247 I thought Sculk doesn't spawn Wardens off of any noises that aren't the player's doing?
it was terrifying in the original 4chan post, not because it relied on gore or the like, but because it tapped into fear of the unknown and the uncanny valley
it fell victim to the scp effect where children and chronically online tumblr users tried to constantly one up each other and kill the concept
Yea, the problem with Horror Mods are that most are less 'horror' and more just jumpscare mobs that pop up for TH-camrs to scream at and shake the camera around. Like you said, they're very formulaic. Almost all these CaveDweller clones are pretty interchangeable with one another.
Yep they are amazing for content mill youtubers.
Which is why they have many downloads because they are linked in the youtubers mod pack.
Jump scares are the simplest way to get a quick fright especially with the exaggeration of a youtuber.
And are easy to make compared to something that has a behaviour engine
The sticky keys sound at 0:19 got me bro shit too funny XD
Probably the only mod like this that I actually thought looked pretty interesting and scary was Shade. Instead of these mobs that just make loud noises and chase after you over and over again, Shade mainly focused on stalking you. You hear a cave noise and then turn to see it peeking at you, then it would slink behind a wall. It would also focus on hallucinations. Stuff like hearing mobs that aren’t there, seeing white eyed mutated mobs that aren’t there, stuff like that. It would eventually rush and attack you, but it’s main goal was mainly to just make you paranoid. I also like it because it’s concept and design are based off of a scrapped idea for The Warden.
Also good lord I completely forgot about John. Kinda happy to see them again.
Is there a link to the mod? I kinda wanna see this
Yeah, ngl, you've caught my interest here. Can't find that mod anywhere, though. So I second the question for a link.
For those 2 people ^^ and maybe other people. I checked YT and there’s a video talking about something similar? It’s not a play-trough or anything, it’s a “I’m making _____ in Minecraft!” Type of vid. I’m gonna (try to) post a link in this reply section.
The comment got deleted... so it’s from a YT channel called “JoshBlueMoon”, Titled: “Mojang removed this scary mob... so i recreated it”
@@thewitheredstriker I don’t know if it’s a real mod or if it was just made for that video. That’s actually a trend I’m getting really sick of recently. People making awesome mods on their channel, then learning that the stuff they made isn’t downloadable.
Either way I hope it’s downloadable because I love when unused concepts get added into games.
I love the idea of an invisible thing that just observes you. It uses all sorts of sounds, sure, cave sounds, but also mob noises and stuff to try and lure you towards it.
The more time you spend near it the more bold it'll get. Like... at low levels it tramples crops and breaks torches, at higher ones it'll take items from chests. If it gets high enough I love the idea of the thing finally revealing itself as your character starts sleeping, then kidnapping you while you're asleep and like... you wake up in some sort of custom structure or dungeon or something.
This sounds actually not too hard to implement. Well, it *is* hard to implement but not as bad as it sounds.
You can get iron on the first might pretty easily sometimes, so I'd imagine once you get DIA armor it taking you into the structure would make it feel scarier.
Trampling crops could just start once you've obtained the plant achievement.
I don't think it should steal items from your chests, maybe instead it'll change blocks near the player spawnpoint. Wood to another block, etc. And only common blocks, no Dia blocks to dirt or vice versa.
The watching part could easily be done like in from the fog, probably my favorite part of the mod honestly. And if I ever need to share my laptop to a younger cousin for then to play minecraft, I'll probably put from the fog as a mod/datapack prior to giving it to them.
That's the from the fog mod featuring Herobrine.
That sounds like it would just be annoying as hell
@@Nolan15692 skill issue
>gets kidnapped and moved to a structure
>its a cart
"Hey you, you're finally awake"
In my opinion, the best way to make the cave dweller truly scary would be to make it's appearances much more random, much more subtle and much more RARE. I think that the biggest problem with nearly all of the current dwellers is that they spawn and attack you basically all the time (like every 15 minutes or so), and they usually appear or at least start making their noises almost immediately after you have entered a cave. In some mods they are literally so numerous that you can sometimes even be attacked by multiple dwellers at once. This makes their attacks quite predictable and over time wery repeative, which causes them to be far less scary than they could be.
The ideal cave dweller in my opinion would appear at almost completely random intervals and rarely enough that sometimes you would have almost forgotten that you even had the cave dweller mod on, until it jumps at you when you least expected it. Like sometimes you could still be attacked by it after only 15 minutes in the caves, but on the other hand sometimes you could spend for example an entire 2 hours of caving or even multiple days/sessions of playing the game without even seeing or hearing it. This would create a much greater element of surprise to the dweller's eventual attacks or appearances, and bring an incredibly tense atmosphere and a feeling of "you never know" to the game. This would also be much more "practical" and fit better with your regular survival minecraft worlds and playthroughs, as your mining and other progress in the game would not be inhibited that much by being constantly attacked and killed by the dweller, as it would be a relatively rare event.
Also the dweller's first spawning sound should be just a regular cave sound, and it should be made so that every time you heard a cave sound when mining, there would be like an 80 or 90% change that it was just a regular cave sound with no origin, but around a 10 or 20% change that it meant that somewhere in the deepest and most distant labyrinths of the cavern you are exploring a dweller has spawned and it is slowly starting to make its way towards you... The screaming sounds in the Evolved cave dweller mod are amazing and absolutely horrifying, but they are way too over the top for the FIRST sounds you hear from the dweller. The horrific screaming should be reserved for the moment the dweller finally attacks and starts chasing you, and the first sounds you hear should be much more subtle, like regular cave sounds when it spawns and maybe footsteps as it slowly approaches...
It would also be great if the dweller's possible behaviours were more diverse. For example, it would add amazingly to the scary and tense atmosphere if when exploring the caves, you could sometimes just make random sightings of the dweller without it attacking you immediately. Sometimes you would just briefly see a pair of bright glowing eyes in some distant dark tunnel, but it would disappear (go away and despawn) in a few seconds, and you would just hear an eerie cave sound. Like 70% or so of the dwellers that spawned could be the type that doesn't attack you right away, and the remaining 30% would immediately attack you. After this "non-aggressive" dweller sighting there would be an increased possibility of another dweller (this time actually aggressive) spawning near you shortly after. However, that would not always happen.
Even more cool would be if once you made a sighting of a dweller, it had a change of triggering an event where the dweller would respawn close to you multiple times in a row in very short intervals of 1-3 minutes. First 1-5 of those rapidly respawning dwellers would be "non-aggressive" ones that would just lurk in the shadows and disappear and despawn quicky after you looked at them, but the final one would eventually attack you. That would simulate the feeling of the player being stalked by the dweller and slowly followed by it through the tunnels... The hunting dweller (or in reality the multiple dwellers) would approach from completely random directions, which would make escape much harder and cause much greater feeling of panic. However, it would need to be coded in a way that only one dweller at the time could exist near the player, and the previous one would have to despawn before the next one could appear, as otherwise it would ruin the immersion of the player being followed by a single stalking dweller.
On the contrast, it should also be possible that sometimes the dweller could just attack you randomly without ANY warning whatsoever. No sound of it spawning, no sounds of it approaching you, no sightings, no nothing. You would just enter some random small tunnel where the dweller waits you and then all of a sudden it would jump on your face. It would be one perfect jumpscare.
Bro just made an entire page about scary minecraft mods💀
id pay to play with this
@@britishtransformersfan I actually partially wrote that to practice for my upcoming English essays in high school :D English is not my native tongue.
@@enkeksinimea4399 Your English is super good! I'm procrastinating and not writing my English project that's due tomorrow. I'm trying to learn a few different languages and the more I learn about other languages the more I realize that English is bs and makes no sense whatsoever
@@enkeksinimea4399Good luck with them
Fun Fact: In vanilla Minecraft, cave sounds only play in pitch black areas, and can be useful to find unexplored caves
I feel like the same thing happened to the backrooms
The whole reason it was scary in the first place was the unknown, the fear of something that you haven't seen but could imagine all sorts of things in your mind hunting you down, and I feel the same goes for Minecraft and how some of its early creepypastas and story's were so good, because it wasnt about the creatures it was about entities which you barely see or hear, things interacting with your builds or the world without your knowledge or consent
that's what made the first creepypasta (ted the caver) so good
yes, big trends to exploit tend to ruin everything remotely interesting
_Thank you_ I’ve been saying this forever. A lot of “horror” in video games just means a big, scary, unkillable monster harasses you as often as possible and I wish that wasn’t the case. Especially with The Backrooms, and with Minecraft.
[TANGENT- I’m way too passionate about these games, fair warning I have a degree in yapology] In both games there are entities, yes, but they’re diverse- not even hostile, sometimes- and they play well in their environment; they’re not yet another tall guy with a scary face, they use what’s around them and they use it to _hunt_ you. Also on environment, I feel like the potential for horror in the player’s surroundings is scarcely utilized. In The Backrooms there are liminal spaces that create a nostalgic but at the same time uncanny feeling, it’s not quite right, and you’re alone which is scary enough but it also forces you to focus on your environment, pay attention to subtle changes that could alert danger. It evokes paranoia which I _love._ And Minecraft has this infinite yet lonely world for you to experience, rich with its own mysteries and lore you can only scratch the surface of in-game. It really lets you feel like an outsider. Old abandoned structures capitalize on that by showing not only the life, but the destruction you’re privvy to but will never get to be a part of. Massive, strange things passing by erecting monuments, ancient civilizations settling in far-off places, villagers dying in abandoned towns. It’s a different flavor of fear, but one I think is so, so powerful. There’s so much interesting horror inherent to these games, I just wish someone brought that horror out of the games for people to feel rather than forcing it in where it doesn’t need to be. Rant over.
@@a-wild-goose yeah I completely agree with you, you've managed to explain a thing I feel is very hard to put into words because it's all based on feelings, with contradicting nice or places you recognise with areas unfamiliar or are slightly off. And I do also wish these themes would be used to their full potential as they get so easily warped were they forget what made it scary in he first place
Yes! That was a terrifying concept, just you and you alone in a never-ending, silent, creepy environment, and no one around you...or maybe? maybe you're not alone? And if you are in fact alone...you're never going to make it out anyway, you'll just starve to death of go insane.
And they made it into a freaking SCP catalogue! The whole concept of "never-ending" is ruined with layers, and the different "monsters"...they just kill the scariness factor, they just as detailed as a scientific report!
*If I wanted to make a unsettling mod, it would be mostly world generation, and subtle things.*
- Random patches of no trees (like 2 chunks)
- Random times when cave sounds play outside of caves
- Music can cut out at random points albeit rare
- Torches have a chance to break when not in the same chunk
- Mobs not spawning at points randomly (even at night)
- Mob AI would be broken for a few seconds at random (rare)
- Bedrock fog again
- Ambient white dots in caves that despawn
- Night and Day may last longer at random
- New cave sounds
- Far height drops into water trigger old water sound
- Random dirt patches
- All mobs do slightly less damage (your goal is not to die, just more unsettling)
- Some textures get reverted
- Entering nether and end will send a chat message like how Pocket Edition did with nether reactor core "Entering Nether..." "Entering End..."
- The sun stays out longer
- Twighlight lasts longer
- Zombies will target you from further in caves
- Enderman rarely target you at random
- Some nights there is only like 3-15 stars
- Mobs run away from exploding creepers
- Mobs very rarely try running from you
- Thunderstorm darkness randomly on some days
To me, this would be a creepy, eerie mod without adding a mob. There is a lot more, but I do not know how to mod... yet.
that kinda seems more like tweaks to the base game rather than it being creepy
The Creeper mechanic was in older versions of the game, but it was removed due to causing too much lag.
@@Daralexen yeah, it was poorly made mechanic
@@Mudkipf4n tweaks that make it creepier, it isn’t scary, just it emphasizes the base games eeriness
Yeah this is pretty close to how I feel a scary Minecraft mod should be made. Stuff that players will pick up on as being wrong and in turn it will make them more paranoid that something’s after them
the man from the fog was more subtle before the recent update, it worked like an enderman back then, where if you look at him, thats the only time he attacks. The recent update also made him summon thunderstrikes. Meanwhile the man who watches, was glitched because of the shader, hes supposed to go invisible when you look at him and appear after getting near.
He has always been able to summon infinite lighting if he detected a player cheating him (aka building up) which does not even work right most of the time. He has done it to me when he struggles to climb a mountain. That gimmick nearly ended a hardcore world due to his guest star appearance during my Ender Dragon fight.
@Daralexen
Why can he spawn in the end 💀
Bad programming or an oversight most likely. Since most people like Forge Labs and Swaleyle never go to The End in their “I survived 100 days with assimilated midnight fog lurker in a parasite outbreak in hardcore Minecraft" videos. That or the dev did not play test the mod thoroughly. Thankfully, it was fixed in newer versions, but it is still full of obvious bugs and oversights. @malics06
Hello! Creator of The One Who Watches here. I actually really enjoyed this video and appreciated the constructive criticism. I agree with you 100% on pretty much everything you said. I originally created my mod just as a challenge to see if I could make something even remotely scary. And I did succeed in the challenge, however I did not expect it to get as big as it did. So I have been fixing it over the course of several months trying to actually make it worthy. That thing where it jump scared you right at the beginning has been fixed and now there is a very long buildup of him slowly become more present in your world. But I still have many things to fix and add before it can justly be called "scary". Like I have to fix the goofy animations and stuff. Thanks for hearing me out.
I think it's very funny that some of the Slenderman mods from years back were far better executed than most of the mods showcased
A big factor contributing to the natural horror of Minecraft was the loneliness element that older versions nailed very well. Unfortunately the modern game is far less mysterious and lonely, which doesn’t lend it as well to horror.
Honestly I feel like there is another big issue with these mods aside from fear of the unknown. In my opinion one of the scariest things Minecraft horror does (and why I think Herobrine got so popular) was that you were seeing another “player” in your world. Seeing things strip mined caves, random structures, or written signs or books. I don’t know how well this could be made into a mod, but this is what I personally want from a horror Minecraft mod. The feeling like you aren’t alone, and that something or someone has invaded your personal world.
From the fog does alot of that
@@YvngKrishna…Is that so? I like this.
From the Fog and Distant Friends do all of that. Although, From the Fog did become more annoying than scary to me over time.
@@YvngKrishna yeah... but you'd immediately know it's just the mod doing it. How is that scary?
This gives me an idea, not necessarily horror, but the stripped mine caves etc could for evidence of a past player. There will be books he wrote, chests with his loot, abandoned houses.
For horror, i think decayed cave miners could do. These miners died in the caves, you stumble upon a body, it has scar marks on its jaw to the chest, but you pass it for a chest. While checking, you hear steps and turn around. The body has risen but its not undead, some "thing" has taken control over the decayed corpse, moving like a sick and twisted marionette but the strings dont come from above but from within, the tendons. It lunges and a mouth, the chest and jaw scars, opens up and takes a chunk from while not letting you go. You lose too much hearts.
Another player has fallen.
I’m honestly 90% sure The Starved Stalker is JUST a parody of all these hell spawn Dwellers
0:03 honestly, this was my reaction when I saw an enderman as a kid because I didn’t know back then Minecraft added new mobs so it was basically a horror, for me at least
I had other reasons
been saying this to myself for ages since these mods popped up. it just needs to be more subtle, like the stalking parts are perfect but then they just make them just run towards you and scream at you which just ruins it in the long run
yeah, all the old minecraft fears were never about some screaming monster, they were about being watched and stalked yes, but having there be something actually doing the watching and stalking breaks the tension. It's no longer herobrine or some other entity that Notch can't seem to program out of the game, it's just something more annoying than a baby zombie
@@cara-seyunme when herobrine appears in my game for 0.2 seconds half behind a tree: (its scary)
I think an idea that capitalizes off of constant paranoia would be coding the snail into Minecraft
It would definitely stray from all the other "dwellers" modders have added, being completely silent.
There's also an ironic value in a snail having more scaring potential than a modpack full of eldritch horrors.
so glad the snail is just common internet knowledge at this point
I think it would be really cool if these dwellers altered the world around you. Like maybe they leave books with unsettling messages in chests, maybe they kill your tamed animals, maybe they replace blocks, maybe new creepy structures in places you've already been to. Maybe it sets wooden structures on fire.
Maybe for the first few chase scenes, it doesn't kill you, like it's just toying you. Maybe it steals the object your holding and runs off with it. Maybe it gives you a terrible status effect that won't go away until you deal with it.
Maybe they take advantage of breaking the fourth wall, sending creepy looking achievements or messages in the chat. Maybe blocks have a small chance of dropping objects that are 'glitched' or 'wrong'.
Idek, i just feel like these mods should take advantage of the fact that it is minecraft. Have horror elements based on prexisiting game mechanics that players are already used to.
That’s basically herobrine
I think Herobrine was genuinely a bit scary because it was early enough that misinformation was easy to spread and the creator actually ran with it and kept adding those updates with “Herobrine removed” on them. A game like this, where you’re essentially all alone, can only really be made scary if you add another being. An unexpected second party who the player doesn’t expect. In-your-face horror has its place, but that place isn’t in Minecraft.
Yup, its your own paranoia that really freaks you out. Old minecraft felt desolate and empty, like you are alone. If you had a shit laptop, the fog was really close to you, and things just looked more lifeless. Basic lighting, no partical effects, lack of clouds, etc. It makes the game feel dead, add on top the herobribe rumors and patch notes, and how large the world is, I thought that he was somewhere in the world and I was afraid of alerting him to my presence, so I never built flashy houses in survival and usually just played creative.
Now I'm not scared cuz I know it doesn't exist but yeah, it's your mind that scares you the most, more so than anything the game actually throws at you. The cave sounds are unsettling and startling but thats because I didn't know they were a thing when I came back to the game years later.
havent watched the video trough yet, but i already can agree...i just wish more horror modders would realize that less is sometimes much more.
I feel like the first attempt was a pretty good one, especially with the added mechanic of giving it the advantage point of mentally crawling into small spaces like that could seriously take someone off guard thinking that they’re fine because the creature is too tall and then really quickly finding out that they’re screwed over
I saw that very thing happen when Tomato streamed it. Him jumping into a 1-block-tall tunnel thinking he was safe, only to turn around and see it in the tunnel with him a mere block away actually made me jump.
Fear isn't only jumpscares. Its the loud and heavy silence. The pressure of your own footsteps feeling more and more heavy each step you take in the dark. Some noises playing at key moments, the impression of having someone following you, watching over you, almost chasing you. Playing with you, braking blocks on top of you or under you, hitting you then desapearing then nothing, nothing and again, nothing. Until ur almost feeling relaxed again, going to get out of your game and then, finnaly it strikes. And what you could add to top that, is that old outlast fashion of not beeing able to defend, despite having a weapon. Because he "knocks" you out and take whatever item ur holding, adding to that weak defenceless atmosphere, thats what it should do to be scary
I'm just saying, if people want Minecraft horror, how about something that buys into how paranoid vanilla play can make you and create an entity that's designed to spike that paranoia and gives a reason to constantly be looking over your shoulder.
Something like the cave dweller, but instead of the loud, unique soundbites it makes, it instead pumps out regular cave ambience noises, which in tandom cave ambiance coming from it's regular non-source, means that you can never tell if an actual cave dweller is near unless you look around for it.
what about a cave dweller that know you look over your shoulder, or when you flickyour mouse in reaction to a sound, once you do it enough times he actually attacks you because it can sense fear
A mod that made me pretty paranoid playing was the “From another world” mod that adds the alien from the Thing movie. It’s not really vanilla friendly but if you’re looking for paranoia I suggest that one.
You may be looking for something like 'From the Fog' which is basically intended to do this. It has it's own issues in staying scary... but it tries a lot harder to be subtle than the a scary monster that runs at you.
and it can make cave noises at you too, even.
It's main problem is that some of it's features become annoying quick(though you can turn those off), and the others eventually becomes familiar and comfortable.
I've been saying this for a while, I think the issue with the copycats is that they try to just make caves scarier, which only works so much before it gets boring. If I could mod minecraft, I personally would make something along the lines of the "Daytime Walkers", which wouldn't be a single enemy you get used to that only hunts you in caves or at night, but multiple models for multiple humanoid, transparent beings that stalk you during the day. It would be a more complex From the Fog, the herobrine mod that kinda started this whole thing
Noted.
The best horror is to incrementally unravel the mechanics of the game that make you feel safe. lighting up a cave. blocking off dark tunnels. eating food. sleeping in a bed. the sunrise. make the monster only come out for a few minutes at dawn. make him attracted by torches. he can only track you if you have food on you. your bed becomes a portal for him. instead of feeling safe because you blocked off his cave. he's actually the one sealing you into the cave.
Great idea. Two problems: design and gameplay. It's hard yo design something that wouldn't stood out that much from the game's art style and will make sense. And gameplay wise, if it's triggered often, it would be frustrating, not scary. Even every 5 minutes ( or how much it took him to spawn and activate) for a cave dweller were very short. Balancing all of this out would be a nightmare
They should make it so that a creature doesn't attack for a couple of nights, but it will stroll behind objects and just walk around out of sight, making subtle background noises that are clearly out of place.
After a couple more nights, it would start to peak around objects and look at you for extended periods from a distance, and if spotted it would quickly retreat.
Then after a few more days again, it would have a chance to start trying to hunt you. I say a chance, because imagine how much more terrifying it'd be if it was random and not an exact schedule.
The scariest monster is sometimes the one you never see once.
I think giving a monster curiousity is actually more terrifying, because early on you're aware that it exists but it isn't trying to do anything. It just observes you from the shadows. I agree that if you rip the band aid off to fast, it doesn't have any impact at all.
I know right? Having something visible enough to not spot in the first few seconds watching you from the forestline while you're building a house is much creepier than having an instanteneous jumpscare without even having the time to register the monster
It's certainly one way to go forward with a horror creature, minecraft or not, and yeah, this would be very scary. Personally, I feel like it's the idea that this thing might not even know what you are at first, and so it just watches, and learns. And then, eventually, after watching enough, it decides that you're prey.
Spooky shit, I tell ya
what your looking for is a mod called The Bear. It’s a creature that stalks the player for days and days, hiding from far distances. It was created by “idk some guy” and it’s genuinely the best minecraft horror mod out there.
yeah, just let me call my friend that made java to code this.
there is a mod similar to what u said. The anomaly
I believe that the Scape & Run Parasites mod is the most horrifying mod in Minecraft. Body horror is already a key aspect of horror and seeing those things overwhelm you in such numbers and change the environment around you is so horrifying. Plus it so strikingly resembles the Flood from Halo.
I don't remember the name of the mod, but there was a mod that I think did this concept pretty well, before the cave dweller took off. It was an enderman expansion mod, adding little enderman villages and stuff. Unbeknownst to me, it added a stalker type enderman. It would play whispering sounds every so often and would watch you from just out of your FOV. It attacked very rarely but could watch you for multiple in-game days. It was really fun and kept you on your toes, not knowing when it would attack or if you could even fight it. Especially because it was "hidden" (it wasn't talked about much on the mod page) in a seemingly normal mod.
That’s nice where is the link
@@Yurik-the-marksman They said they dont remember the mod's name so how can they have the link
Could it be Enderman Overhaul or Farlanders?
@@CactusBreadmillit’s definitely farlanders since enderman overhaul doesent add structures. Farlanders adds enderman village things.
Probably one of the scariest mobs I've encountered is this one from the between lands modded dimension, in the caves there's this weird crawly predator creature that stalks you knocks out torches and generally messes with you only attacking when your at you most vulnerable and distracted(it also needs all this cause in terms of health kinda fragile) behaving effectively like a xenomorph from the first alien movie
Gargin's Cave Dweller is actually good, as it was pretty much 100% unique at release. However, as you mentioned, much like Gargin's Nextbot Gargitron the Dweller got watered down because of how many people copied it. Dweller got popular, a bunch of people ripped the code, made a "scarier" model, and made it one shot you. Dweller will stalk you, chase you, or run away, whereas 99% of the copy cats spawn, destroy your ears with loud noises, and instakill you.
The problem with these horror mods (in my opinion) is that they allow you to interact with it. The thing that made the cave noises so creepy for me is that, you don't see the thing making the noise, its the primordial fear of the dark, the unknown, that makes the cave noises scary. So, once you add a face to that noise, it just becomes another mob, doesn't matter how many features are added to it, because, as I've said once, its just a mob, a piece of code able to be killed and farmed into oblivion. A good example of this is from the animated show "Primal", the 2 main characters, Fang, a dinosaur, and Spear, a cavemen, they both go up against a dinosaur called the "Nightfeeder" in one of the episodes. It's a fast, sharp-clawed, but flammable dinosaur, yet, the only reason why it scares the 2 MC's, is that it uses the darkness of night to invoke fear, so, once Spear finally got a torch to see the Nightfeeder, it wasn't scary anymore, it became another dinosaur, able to be killed.
The first cave dweller's premise was great because it relied on vanilla cave sounds, it could sneak up on you, but all the follow-up mods missed the point of needing to blend in with the vanilla game to surprise the player
Mod pitch: "Empty Caves". It does exactly as titled, it makes vanilla mobs not spawn in caves, with the mob description continuously pitching it as a difficulty aid for those who want a less stressful mining experience but still want to fight mobs on the surface. The mod would do exactly this.
What the modpage wouldn't tell you, however, is that it adds a new mob that spawns exclusively in caves, only one allowed per however significant distance, that only has a chance of spawning once a player is below a certain Y level. This mob is invisible, and it's only functions are following the player (teleporting, if need be), while creating new unnerving ambience. Can produce vanilla cave noises and, rarely, new cave noises. Maybe even the exact sounds the Cave Dweller makes on occasion. Will play noises like footsteps, falling damage, and maybe even a creeper hiss to jumpscare players. The most directly aggressive thing the mob could possibly do, under normal circumstance, is have a chance to punch the player into lava if they're near a pool (important note: the mod developer should explain these away if questioned as "mobs spawning and getting despawned instantly" or w/e).
Could leave it at that or add escalation, but overall, I think that's a good way to do an unsuspecting horror mod.
what if that mob represents your fear, like you usually see mobs in caves, but you still feel like there are and it is unsettling to your character, causing them to hallucinate about them
maybe sprinkle some nod to it in the description like, "Do not be afraid."
I honestly wouldn't encourage lying on the modpage about what the mod is
I feel like ppl wouldn't take kindly to that as they'd want to know whatever it is downloaded on to their computer is doing in their minecraft world.
@@ballsacsincorp
Mod file named "There_is_nothing_in_there"
Make the mob a "Passive" mob so it's there even in paceful.
@@halinaqi2194 then you can put a spoiler explaining everything, or a disclaimer saying that some parts aren't completely true, maybe play into the creature or whatever being unknown and not much research being possible
the fascinating part is how well designed the warden is in comparison to these (i'd love to see a followup video comparing mojang's attempt to make a horror structure/biome in the maingame and how modders can take notes from it!)
you arent scared of the warden right as it spawns, youre scared of it catching you as you hide until it goes away or sniffs you out causing you to make a mad dash away, which with the sonic shriek attack going through walls and ancient cities being open is a difficult task
it makes the deep dark a scary place and whenever a shrieker goes off its only some time until it pops out if youve lost your freebie chances
the darkness effect also reinforces the fear of the unknown as you cant tell where you are or where to go, and having the warden be an absolute tank with little weaknesses with a ton of strong attacks that pierce armor makes it a threat in all progressions of the game (unless you have an elytra but thats when you beat the game and doesnt even protect you that well in the grand scheme of things)
less notably, it also isnt a lanky white guy that needs to visit a dentist the design is pretty cool
i love the warden and kingbdogz and the mojang team did an excellent job on it which is underlooked by 1.19 being controversial
Holy shit you're right
this really feels like "the cat sploinger" would play a 220 db loud ass noice, so instead of being startled or scared all i get is permanent eardrum damage and an annoying oneshot mechanic :D
Hey, Maker of the John Mod Reborn here. At 13:58, we did not revive the John Mod because of this trend. We revived it because we loved the mod when we was younger. Leave our mod out of this lol.
But yeah, It's kind of hard to find something spooky, if you don't find it spooky. Like the John. The mod was made in 2012, MC Beta 1.8, around this creature who looked like some dude who had a stroke and who bleached himself white lol. But you were afraid of the John cause you was told to be afraid. But after awhile it's just some loud creature that had 40 health... a more powerful zombie.
Jump scares are a cheap. Especially if you're on your toes already. That's how FNAF got so "scary". It's not true horror if not done right.
We want to add some horror elements into the new John Mod. but it's not gonna be truly scary, unless we make a whole new world around it. And that's where adventure maps get it right.
Minecraft at least nowadays is a lot different from what it was. You can't just slap a scary creature in the middle of it and tell the player to be scared. But if you can transform the world around the player you can really make an immersive environment for them to enjoy.
I think there are a lot of subtlety in making a good horror that you just can't make up in your head. It would certainly require a lot more research and the idea you have right now just doesn't seem to be good enough
@@-o-1695what on earth are you talking about? What idea did they pitch?
@@mayhaps3915 They said they were gonna make an adventure map. I just told them to do more research into horror before they ended up making some bloober team slop
@@-o-1695 I never said we're going to make a adventure map. Sorry if it came off that way to you. I can edit it tho to make more sense.
There probably is more "research" to be done but, I don't think it's that deep lol
Not to mention, your mod released 2 whole months before Gargin made the Cave Dweller. I am pretty sure that 95% of the people who downloaded your mod are not even scared of John, and instead see him as early 2010s nostalgia.
I just want to see a mod that makes the caves completely empty and silent, and only spawns one silent mob somewhere in the cave system. Imagine mining, with only the sound of your footsteps, knowing that there's a creature in there with you that you cannot hear approach at all. Whether or not it's hostile doesn't really matter imo. Just knowing it's there would be eerie to me.
This is what Metroid Revival does with the Phazon Mines cave biome. Nothing spawns there, not even bats. I had both Metroid Revival and Buffed Cabe Dweller in the same hardcore world, and the Metroid Prime ambience that plays in the biomes from the mod made me more uncomfortable than Cave Dweller ever did. Sure, Cave Dweller was scary for the first two encounters, but he quickly become a joke once I figured out how to break its AI.
I not sure how feasible this is but it would be cool to have less and less mobs spawn the longer you spend in a cave before the creature attacked
@@iamahiphopfan3759 That's a solid idea.
And maybe make the creature move only when you don't see it, similar to scp 173
Be on the look out for the next cave dweller inspired mod: 'The Spooky Nooky'
I shit my pants reading this bro why man
Oh a goblin that drops Waxed Weathered Cut Copper Stairs
I’m making a new dweller:
“The Dude Whomst Walks”
@@ripit.3457 Me too! It's called "The Guy Who Watches You at Night (spooky)".
Does he walk @@ripit.3457 ?
The problem is that horror in Minecraft doesn't work unless there's a sadness to it. Herobrine is scary but also sad because it seems like it's trying to communicate with you, but can't. I feel like the only way to make an actually good horror mod would be to make it actually more sad than anything. Like imagine walking though a cave and you just find a sign next to a chest that says something like "xXxSwaglLord69xXX was here! Have a free apple!" and inside you just find some cobblestone, dirt, and other junk items. The sadness comes from the neglect. From the idea that this was something made a lot time ago and it was left to rot.
I think the fundamental problem is that they're all just more powerful zombies. In a game where you can just respawn and run back to your stuff, a thing that just punches you isn't that scary. If you want it to make an impact, make it do something no other mob can do, make it dig 2x2 Herobrine tunnels, make structures spawn that look like poor imitations of your house, make it so your door is open even though youre sure you closed it, and was your furnace always in that place..?
What I would like is more Minecraft horror mods taking inspiration from cosmic horror, Mojang has already tried it with everything to do with the Skulk, the Warden and Ancient cities so we know that it works (And yes they have confirmed that they based those things off of the works of Lovecraft and cosmic horror in general, if you want me to give the link to a video where they talk about that then feel free to ask.)
Hey, shulks being inspired by cosmic horror stuff is actually very interesting, can you send the video please ?
There was a mod that added "eyes" to the darkness that kept watching you. I dont remember if it did something else, i think it did, but just the eyes in the darkness, following you around is more scary than 99% of the "horror" mods
The eyes jumpscare and deal damage if you touch them but simply looking at them makes the entity despawn
lots of somethings just standing back and watching you is chilling, it'll definitely set off the primal part of the brain
One time I slept over at my neigh ours house as a kid, and their mf cat likes to walk around the house at night and just stare at you. Creeped the fuc out of me as a kid.
something that ive personally been waiting for is a ''in the water'' mod, im afraid of lakes/rivers/ocean so it would be nice to see a mod that reflects how scary the water can be without a stereotypical monster - more like a spirit, can't see her or fight her but you hear the soft singing, the whispers, the crying, luring you into the depths. splashes in the water when you get near, it gets close to you and suddenly, radio silence. then you get dragged down to the bottom of wherever you are and have to swim back up, maybe you hear some giggles afterwards😃just a lil troll mod like herobrine
My main issue with a lot of the horror mods is that they stem from the thought “the cave noises SHOULD have a source” and that not having one is bad. It’s like someone saying why doesn’t Mice on Venus had a diegetic source? It’s mood setting ambience.
(Although, on that note, the backpack mods can get unnerving when you start hearing a jukebox playing without an apparent source, or in some place you thought was safe/lit)
Cave noises are probably player character hallucinating from being in caves for too long. They're either caused by oxygen deprivation or simply represent paranoia through audio.
I think one of my favourite mods in this category is probably Beware The Rain. You've got your standard fare of spooky fellows, but they all appear when it starts to rain. You've got Vapor, probably the second most common monster in the mod, the skull spiders, the most common enemies in the mod, Valon, the typical slenderman of the mod, and Rosemary, an armless monster that I believe only spawns in caves? Dont quote me in that though.
From the Fog and the True Herobrine mods are probably the only mods that make my ass genuinely scream even after 80 hours of playing with them (although this only accounts for From the Fog as I played the Fear Nightfall modpack, but I did play a little with the True Herobrine mod for a few hours.) My biggest gripe with the 'Dweller' mods is that they're not scary because they're horrifying, they're scary because of the inconvenience of being unfortunate enough to come across them. In the Fear Nightfall modpack, the cave dweller mod is there and it was the main reason why most people on the server I hosted barely touched the caves, because more often than not we would just instantly die after it spawned in, to the point that we all just decided on disabling the mod. Fear quickly dwindles when the monster I'm supposed to be afraid of becomes more annoying than anything.
Yeah I've only put so much time into Fear Nightfall, but it feels more like a horror themed challenge/difficulty mod than a horror mod. It's not about scaring you, it's about being hard, and some of the ways it does it have a spooky aesthetic.
Like it's got some creepy stuff, definitely. First night I ever played I woke up to what I'm pretty sure was a herobrine skin just watching me on a hill. It like, crouched at me and waved like a player would, which was creepy cause from the fog couldn't do that last time I played with it on without fear nightfall. Watched me try to deal with the 10 creepers outside my walls. Was definitely spooky, but at the same time the main feature was the 10 goddamn creepers. And that sort of thing remains the case. I find it hard to focus on being scared when I'm mostly just worried that I'm going to have to repair things.
I have three dweller mods, cave dweller, man from the fog and midnight lurker. I also have the “from the fog” mod, which in my opinion more funny than scary. Those dweller mods though, they genuinely make me paranoid when I play my modded survival.
Oh definitely, the creepers were the worst part by a long shot, especially so when they were smart enough to blow up the walls/ground to get to the bunker I had set up. After you get over the initial fear factor, the challenge is a lot more apparent, but a part from the occasional rage moment, I've really been enjoying myself! More so with friends, because its just neat to have that little extra help and to walk around to see how everybody else was doing. We haven't reached turrets yet, but bamboo spike pits are by far my favourite way to deal with the abundance of mobs.@@potatoesstarch2376
From the Fog still gets the occasional scare from me, and I definitely agree on it being funny sometimes (my friends and I have reached a point where we just call him Brine/Brian now because he's like a pesty little neighbour just trying to check in.)@@Mossyoakwendigo4.6
Golden rule of horror creature design, if it's too powerful and aggressive, it will lose its scare factor. One of the best horror games of all times is the perfect example of it: Alien isolation. In normal difficulty, the Alien is actually terrifying. It's unpredictable, and once it stayed half an hour in a vent right above my locker making it really difficult to tell if he was here or not, with occasional creepy noises. I KNEW the fucker was there, that's not normal behaviour for him, but i knew he was there the entire time. I got out of the locker and instantly went back in without skipping a beat. Bastard dropped right in front of the locker instantly. Pure gold moment. This is what horror is. This moment felt real, like a real creature was truly after my real life. I knew it was there, IT knew I was here. Then if you try to play on the hardest difficulty, the AI is made to just be constantly on your ass at the slightest noise and always 5m away from you, looking for you 24/7. It loses so much of its scariness as a result.
This is what all those dwellers mods are missing. That and the sound design not being ambiguous enough, too loud, too screechy, etc...
What terrifies players is being stalked and constantly made to doubt if they are or not. Eventually confirming they are and making them paranoid, but it's not time to go on the chase sequence that will be greatly enhanced yet... you have to try to keep the player being stalked as much as possible in a way where it's really hard for them to notice, and when they do, the creature tries to hide as fast as possible to make them doubt if they really saw anything. It's all about the doubt. And the creepiness of having your fear confirmed where after staring at something you don't trust for a long time... peekaboo. It needs to slowly close in on you, and when it catches you off guard, you can start a chase sequence.
And you need to have a decent but not too high chance of escaping, for escaping to be terrifying. In which case you could have the creature play hide and seek if the player manages to hide. You need to be able to lose a creature for it to be scary. It's another problem with the dwellers.
And it's all chase. Chase chase chase chase. You know what's really terrifying? Ambushes. Make the monster lie in wait for you. Give you some clues it's there but if you miss them, you're in for a rough time.
Idea for a mod: call it “another copypasta unscary Minecraft mod” and for the first few Minecraft days have it be some annoying creature that tries too hard to be scary. Only for it to one day be gone. No more noises, no more encounters. But everything will start to get darker, so dark you can’t even tell day and night apart. Get rid of all mobs, hostile and nonhostile. Build dread. And if the player goes to bed, they will hear slow, footsteps. And occasionally they will see a shadow looming over them for nothing to be there. Put torches in spots they know they’ve never gone. Then finally, show their threat looming over them before deleting the world.
Tldr: A mob that gets increasingly rare and there are sounds to add to the paranoia of the mob not showing up.
My idea for a mob would be something that makes noises similar to the regular cave sounds but slightly altered. Also faint footsteps and noises would occasionally play. The difference would be that once you encounter and interact with the mob the chance of it appearing decreases. Everytime you encounter it the odds decrease more until its like a 0.1 percent chance for it to spawn when conditions are met. The altered sounds would still occasionally play even if he is not there. The goal would be to have the sounds become like the vanilla cave sounds and just shruged off. There is still a chance he spawns and it will truly be unexpected. Hope you liked my sleep deprived ramblings.
Sounds like a good idea
"noises similar to the regular cave sounds but slightly altered" Ooooh, I like that!
Noted too.
At 0.1%, make the monster different, change its ai, maybe it stalks you more, and perhaps mutates into a more horrifying looking creature that is more relentless once it decides to aggro, then after that it resets to the normal spawn rate/AI/appearance.
Wow I did not expect to make an appearance in this video! Great points about the topic, One thing I don't like about the dwellers are that most of them are either unkillable or deal way too much damage
Wow I watched your video
The bloated stats or unkillable nature of the Cave Dweller clones make them feel more like DeviantART Mary Sue OCs than genuine horror characters. The bad copy-and-paste designs and barebones textures do not help as well.
One mod that did it quite well is The Betweenlands. It has some scary mobs, Stalkers are probably the best, but also Wights (which even remind me of the Cave Dweller a little). But their crimson sky event is really unsettling, the audio design is great, and it is rare enough where it always feels special, and you just don't get used to it. No loud jumpscares, no constant chasing, it's not a pure horror mod for the sake of it, it's just part of the mood, it's a great mod with great execution.
The betweenland is my FAVOURITE mod it's so spooky and atmospheric
I’m pretty sure it’s much older than the cave dweller
erebus just triggers me,
and alex mobs mosquito, fucking hate them
I love the stalkers, I kinda wish they were ported to vanilla and spawned below y=-32 or something lmao
The only mod I can see doing this correctly is the mod the Manbear. It is by the same person who made the update cave dweller, but this time the AI is more intelligent and does more stalking
Yes I have seen it, it perfectly does what every horror mod should do. Another good mod I know from the same guy is the Obsessed. The only problem is that the mod heavily relies on distance sightings, and considering the creator has eagle eyes most people will find it hard to see the Manbear in the distance until it decides to attack.
18:09 mans really just came up to your window and hit the "MR BEAAAAAST" pose
Mr breast jumpscare
14:04
You know what, compared to the rest of the cave dweller copycats the john mod is the only one that deserves existence. Mainly because of nostalgia.
It is also a more original idea and better balanced for general gameplay. John doesn’t overstay his welcome unlike oogeyboogey man #000978.
Nah, the john mod is a crappy mcreator recreation with basic, bland mechanics. It isn't even scary when you first play with it, it just adds annoying hordes of little johns and the occasional giant sized one. Mediocre at best
I never really saw it as scary, just nostalgic as John was the original "Scariest Minecraft mod" before the Mary Sue stick bug trend. John is not supposed to be a super complex mod like the original Cave Dweller or From the Fog, as the concept of John is from Beta Minecraft. I do agree that Baby Johns speed and default group size need to be nerfed though. Unlike the attention seeker mods like One Who Watches, Baby John CAN be avoided as he only spawns on the surface, and he can be killed by pillaring.@@sacrificed9116
@@sacrificed9116well the original mod was pretty much the same. this new version just adds more. and some of these mechanics are done pretty well for mcreator. and I found it to be pretty fun.
@@sacrificed9116also the mod back in the day was one of the first horror mods. It might not live up to modern day horror. but it is still great
I think some of them work. The Cave Dweller was effective at first but I would like some minor changes like him breaking torches and such to throw you off. The Man from the Fog is too common and should be tied to a mechanic, I do like him a bit cause his whistling is creepy and his ability to break doors and windows is cool but I think he shouldn't break Iron Doors as to give reason to have them. The One who Watches is good but the hallucinations (the transparent variants) just kill the buildup and get in the way of other stuff. Also changing the format from spooky entities that appear randomly to stuff more like the Deep Dark really leaning in on the alien stuff like the Depth Crawlers.
Man From the Fog can even destroy Enhanced Iron Doors from SecurityCraft. You know, the mod that allows players to enhance blocks to be as tough as Bedrock. I guess he is just programmed to destroy any block categorised as a door regardless of hardness. I did report this bug to the developer, so I hope that it is fixed.
Honestly one of my biggest problems with the man from the fog is it’s name. Not can it be a bit of a mouth full but it feels like they named it that to leech of the popularity of From The Fog making it feel kinda soulless to me
I never knew about him changing the title screen. I always play with a resource pack that uses a title screen. He is still not really worthy of the name though. He spawns way too close to the player based on my experiences. So I never see him in the fog.
@@Daralexen Honestly I'm thinking he should come with a custom weather effect that rolls the fog in close silent hill style
It's interesting how the scariest part of all of this has nothing to do with actually seeing the cave dweller and more or so the leadup (the sounds, footsteps).
Horror takes subtlety, whether that's things being there that shouldn't be, sounds you shouldn't be hearing, a threatening environment, etc. These cave dwellers are at best jumpscares: once you've seen it, the horror aspect goes away. It becomes an annoyance or it even just becomes comical because of predictable the behaviors are.
I think there's potential for a really good and scary mod but a lot more thought needs to be put into it. And I think the less information a mod gives about what players can expect, the better. If you already know what the entity you're dealing with does and looks like ahead of time, you can prepare for it.
I think if you're gonna put a stalker in the overworld, there should be some kind of trigger for it, rather than it gunning it for you right at the start.
Like maybe you hear a creepy noise at night, that indicates you need to complete some sort of ritual. If you don't, the next night the creature attacks you, something like that.
To me horror monsters are most compelling when they have some kind of ruleset they follow. It creates a bit of mythology for the creature, and rewards players that are calm and composed enough to strategize around it.
That is one of the main problem with the mods.
There is no anticipation/build up, due to how hard it is to get down in an infinite randomly generated game
It also builds tension if there's a semi complex method of repulsion. "I'll be fine if I do this, but what if I forget to stock up on materials, or fuck up?"
And then you do, eventually.
Given how Base Minecraft's horror works, I feel the best way to improve these mods is to make it so that you rarely *ever* encounter them if ever. As Daggz said, the first dweller mod did so well, up until you actually meet it. So maybe have a png that blends in to the darkness appear on the edge of the player's screen and then disappear the second they look away/at it or right before the light level increases. Maybe the thing only spawns until the player acquires enough xp, say, a cumulative 60 levels. Maybe add a couple new underground chambers containing a book and quill and that triggers plot to spawn. The point is, play with the players mind. Make them paranoid, but never actually put them in danger. New spoopy mp3's should definitely be added though. Even after all these years the cave noises still unsettle me.
Also, letting the thing break blocks, especially player placed ones is kind of dumb. "oh whoops it got in, killed me, and now I need to rebuild what the bastard broke". That's not fun; That's annoying, and it's the main reason I despise creepers. However It could work in theory, as long as it's not going to get in the way of the player's building.
I think its fair to have the mob mine through naturally generated blocks, but NOT any player placed ones, or not any unnatural blocks, ex you place stone down, it can mine that, but not cobblestone.
The scariest scenario is strip mining and you hear somethin I the walls mining towards you.
@@halinaqi2194a major issue with that is that there isnt really an easy way to detect man made vs natural blocks when it comes to programming mods for mc iirc, otherwise i believe a lot more mods would make use of mechanics like that
@@crystalflare0684 yeah which is why I suggested an alternative, give it a pallete of blocks it will not mine through no matter what. Tough conundrum as I don't have experience coding in Java.
I do think part of the problem there is that when the player holds a monopoly over placing and breaking blocks, there's very little challenge. Prepared players will have a panic room handy to run to if something shows up, even an unprepared player can just wall themselves in a corner and wait for the thing to go away. Obviously there need to be limitations on what a monster can do, but making a player feel like there's nowhere they're truly safe from it is a very effective way to make something scary.
Cobblestone still spawns naturally via Villages, Dungeons, and Lava.
Thing is, there ARE genuinely scary mods. Problem for the "scary" mod ones are that they are too in your way. Mix a mod with fog, a mod with "Eyes in the dark", and a mod that causes some sort of spooky structures where you have, i dunno, an abandoned village with a church or something... and boom. The mod is scary. Not traditionally, and only scary in the sense of being unnerving, and only to newer playrers, but still scary.
The point in the video where you are most scared is when something you DIDNT expect happened. What you SHOULD do with these mods is discuising it as a traditional "big oogy boogy," then instead just make it _unnerving._ No big scary herobrine at 3AM. No "dweller" FNAF jumpscares. Just... scary. Not loud. Not in your face. Just.. a quiet, unnatural world.
I still remember watching somebody play the dimension doors mod in 2014 and being super creeped out by the limbo dimension. IIRC, going through the doors would occasionally trap you in a limbo dimension with creepy monoliths watching you and slowly becoming aware of your presence as you try to escape. But I was also 13 at the time, so take it with a grain of salt. It would also probably just become annoying after a while.
Dimensional Doors is still being developed (now it has a forge version for 1.20.1) At least in my opinion the reason why I like the mod and other liminal space stuff is that it focuses on the series and unsettling vibe those spaces give since they don't follow any conventional logic for why they were designed or exist in the shape they do, the uneasiness that they give is from the fear of the unknown, the fact they seem so disconnected and separate from our reality and logical standards is what makes them such good horror, but putting in some big bad that you can't escape causes you to focus on that and completely ruins the suspense and unease from the space itself
*space not series, I swear my phone has auto-incorrect
Facts, the chance of some kind of escape helps keep it tense@@ultranovva
The problem is that while building tension/dread does not require the active participation of the player, actually scaring them does.
The player can’t stop you from filling them with dread. But the moment you decide to pay off that dread with a scare the player always has the option to not participate, and either let themselves die or attack the monster.
Since dying in the game doesn’t cause any sort of harm or pain to the player, the illusion of danger immediately dissipates as soon as the player decides they don’t really care what happens to their avatar.
What you need to actually scare a player is for the player to be invested in escaping the monster. These sorts of “I am not going to get scared” challenges immediately smother that potential in the crib because your not really playing the game for real your playing just to futz about with the monster. The same is true of mods where the monster is too omnipresent or difficult to overcome, players will get too frustrated to stay invested (if they were invested in the first place).
What's funny is I have seen scarier maps than actual mods, like adding a random entity doesn't automatically make the game a "horror game" but limiting your options and making a story out of it can get you closer
What I liked about the cave dweller is that unlike other horror mods at the time, the monster had a unique AI tree to help behave in a way different then other mods, and use subtle interactions to its advantage. That is something that I think a lot of other dwellers mods miss, because they more or less use the same tree as the original mod with some tweaks and therefor become redundant. That sums of the problem. Cave dweller was original. Its successor mods are not. Though I agree that the cave dweller mod could definitely use a better paint job to fully realize its horror.
What the horror mod developers need to do is push out more into experimentation. I think minecraft has a lot of potential to create some scary encounters, but the potential hasn't been fully realized yet. I think playing more into subtlety and ambience would help a lot.
Most of the copy cats tend to copy and paste 90% of the “Evolved” Cave Dweller code that removes the fleeing and staring mechanics, and instead just makes Cabe Dweller entirely aggressive like any other hostile mob. Of course, the copy cats also bloat the stats of the mob, make them extremely common, and add more gimmicks that seem scary, but become annoying past the first interaction.
@@Daralexen exactly. Not only are they unoriginal, but they also dumb down the design. I think people also have a 'my monster is so strong' mentality. Difficulty doesn't necessarily mean horror.
You could argue not being able to fight a monster adds to some terror, and it sometimes can, but because you take away an element of how you can react to it it only serves to make it boring that much faster without anything unique too it. It also takes a way from the vanilla feel too though, as minecraft is ultimately built on freedom of choice being a sandbox. So not being able to fight something doesn't really fit the environment.
They can be immortal/unkillable but being able to escape/avoid them entirely is necessary for balance. None of these mods do that aside from Cave Dweller. The Grue is immortal, but it can be entirely avoided just by bringing some torches. The Warden can be avoided by being quiet in the Deep Dark and mining the blocks that summon it. @@shockwaveherp9823
I feel like the only one that doesn't feel out of place is Rat's dimension one, which I don't even believe is public, because it preys upon that core dreariness of Minecraft.
For those who don't know It's a 3-layer dimension inspired by swimming pool liminal spaces, and there isn't anything to even hurt you until the final one (giant angler-fish creatures that eat you). And I think it works because it isn't "scary monster go BRRRRFKASNFKLASD at 5000 decibels" it's more "what is this? where am I? why is it suddenly so dark? and most importantly WHAT IS _THAT?"_
But even adding a monster fully defeats the original point of liminal spaces.
They made people feel fear because of the idea of wandering a maze of literally nothing forever, not even death being an escape.
Though the original idea doesnt work in videogame form
@@eightcoins4401 it does exactly that for the first 2 layers of it, then the final one pulls the rug out from under you. rare case where the addition of a monster actually improved the end result
I hope that it is public. It sounds a lot like MyHouse.wad from Doom II. One of the best modern gaming horror experiences in my opinion. I feel like many of these boogeymen should take inspiration from that as opposed to FNAF or Poppy Playtime.
liminal spaces are scary because you dont understand them, its the fear of the unknown
if you knew there was no monster there it wouldnt be scary, but if you get one too early the payoff wouldnt have any buildup
value is found in absence, which rat does incredibly well