Dark & Eerie Games Based on Real Life

Thanks to Trinity over at The Pub, I got some great ideas for games based on real life.  Look at the pictures full-sized to read what each one says.



The mystery inherent in the mass suicide of the birds would make a great game!


We've seen movies about this kind of thing... I don't remember the name of it, but there was something like mutant human-zombies in one that I saw.  Games, though?  The closet thing I can think of is Lost in the City.


We've seen PLENTY of asylum-themed games, but one based on a real place?


It's the last part of this story that makes it so incredibly creepy.


I haven't played the House of 1000 Doors series, yet.  Is it something like this?

These. are. AWESOME!!!
Isla de las Munecas gave me chills.

Wow...very chilling! Same here, R-Mom. I DO NOT like dolls!!! I remember watching a documentary on the Winchester House.

There's a supposedly haunted hospital somewhere here in Ohio. It's called "The Waverly Hills Sanitarium." I think there was a horror movie which was loosely based on this hospital.

From what I've read, it's not a place I would want to visit.  

I looked up some more, including the sanitarium you mentioned!  Here is what I found:

Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Source: About.com

The original Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a two-story wooden structure, was opened in 1910, but the larger brick and concrete structure as it stand today was completed in 1926. The hospital was always dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis patients, a disease that was fairly common in the early 20th Century.

It is estimated that as many as 63,000 people died as the sanatorium. Those deaths coupled with the reports of severe mistreatment of patients and highly questionable experiments and procedures are ingredients for a haunted location.

Ghost investigators who have ventured into Waverly have reported a host of strange paranormal phenomena, including voices of unknown origin, isolated cold spots and unexplained shadows.

Screams have been heard echoing in its now abandoned hallways, and fleeting apparitions have been encountered.

In the article, Those That Linger, by Keith Age, Jay Gravatte and Troy Taylor, you can read more about these investigators' experiences.

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Myrtles Plantation


The Myrtles Plantation is an antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The plantation is rumored to be on top of an ancient Tunica Indian burial ground - Source: Wikipedia

Touted as "one of America's most haunted homes", the plantation is supposedly the home of at least 12 ghosts. It is often reported that 10 murders occurred in the house, but historical records only indicate the murder of William Winter. In 2002, Unsolved Mysteries filmed a segment about the alleged hauntings at the plantation. According to host Robert Stack, the production crew experienced technical difficulties during the production of the segment.

Yep, that's the one, Genki. Eww...now, I'm getting the chills. Oh, it could be because I just turned the fan on that's sitting on my desk.

lol~   Here's one more for tonight:

Helltown


The Northern part of Summit County in Ohio is known by the eerily blunt moniker, Helltown. In the 70’s, Boston Township was the site of a government buyout, and subsequent mass eviction of citizens. The houses were intended to be torn down and the land used for a national park, but the plans never quite manifested. Legends spawned wildly, and who can blame the legend mongers? Driving through the dark, wooded landscape was enough to give you chills even when it was populated, let alone when you have to drive by boarded up houses standing next to the burnt out hulks of others (the local fire department used some buildings for practice). - Source: listverse.com

Hundreds of individuals have reported widespread violence, murder, stalking, wild animal attacks, satanic worship and other occult activity, and unexplained (possibly supernatural) phenomenon isolated within and around Boston Township, Bath, Sagamore Hills and Peninsula.

Details are sketchy. Corroborating sources could not be reached for comment as of press time.  However, the individuals making these allegations are largely relatives or friends-of-friends of the witnesses involved.  Many of these incidents date back more than thirty years.

Local citizens have been unable to confirm these incidents, although some have filed criminal reports of late-night trespassing, loitering, and other suspicious activity by gangs of unidentified youths. - Source: DeadOhio.com



The above is "The End of the World"

Stanford Road, nicknamed "the Highway to Hell", is the road usually centering around Helltown's myths and legends. A point on the road, known as "The End of the World", is a huge drop off where a hill goes down at a sharp decline, leading to a barricade. - Source: kprs.webs.com

This one reminds me of a cross between Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock and Shiver: Vanishing Hitchhiker.

Take a look at this place... Ohh, what the mind invents when looking at it!

The Hotel del Salto in Colombia


And look, I even found an interesting blurb on it!

Abandoned (Haunted) Hotel in Colombia


The Hotel del Salto is located near Tequendama Falls on the Bogotá River in Colombia. It was opened in 1924 and shut its doors in the 1990′s. The hotel’s Gothic design is perfectly enhanced by a river and waterfall. Some say the hotel is haunted and no one wanted to stay there. Others state that the adjoining river was extremely polluted and they had to close. For whatever reason, the hotel stands as a beautifully macabre landmark for lovers of classic architecture, urban exploration, and maybe a few ghosts.

Source: CuriousHistory.com

I *love* this thread and was hoping there would be further posts! Where do you find these places?

Most of it is just Google research, but they were originally inspired by Trinity at DBP.  She's got a neat thread with random pictures in in, and I just had to find out about these places!

No worries, I'll find more creepy places as I think to do it!   and y'all are welcome to make your own additions!

Spittalfields-Whitechapel, East London, England

The Spittalfields/Whitechapel area of East London was commercially growing during Middle Ages. It mostly consisted of wealthy moneylenders that were either Jewish or Anglos. The town grew as such that it seemed like an exact replica of cities found in classic Shakespearian plays. But like there is other side to every coin – poverty too prevailed in Whitechapel that consisted of poor prostitutes, thieves and soldiers.

In 1888, East London saw some brutal murders that left whole world shocked and stunned at sadistic tortures. Five prostitutes namely – Mary Nicholls, Catherine Eddowes, Elizabeth Stride, Annie Chapman and May Kelly were found horribly disfigured and mutilated. All these murders happened in period of four months, often described as “Autumn of Terror”. The most astonishing fact about these incidents is that no one could ever find out who did such nasty crimes. The murderer, infamously named as “Jack the Ripper” remained a mystery forever.

Hawksmoor’s Christ Church, Spitalfields

Today, the residents of Whitechapel experience many unusual sensations and eerie feelings a lot of times. Many believed that Jack’s disfigured victims still roam the streets. Some have seen a ghostly black carriage that disappears as you blink your eyes. You can even hear the marching of dead Roman soldiers.

Sources:  WorldofFemale.com and Londonist.com

Riverside State Hospital


This insane asylum, as it was once called, sits hidden amidst green rolling hills, with a grand view of the mountainous landscape and a river running nearby. The main building on the campus is a gothic-revival style Kirkbride design, where male and female patients are separated by the two wings on either side of a central administration section.


Construction began in 1868, and finished in 1871. A unique revision to the Kirkbride design was that because of a lower expectance of female patients than male, the female wing was built at almost half the size of the male wing - the original design calls for a symmetrical building.


The Kirkbride had to be modernized as running water, fire escapes and other new technologies were worked into building codes, making the basements a nightmarish maze of pipes and wires squeezing into the spaces of the old design. The state hospital eventually expanded to over 100 buildings, the largest of which is a nine story building that looms in front of the Kirkbride, and the facility was treating over 6,000 patients at it's peak. All the patients were eventually moved out of the Kirkbride sometime around the mid 1970's, and the wards have since fallen into major disrepair. Administration was still used however, until around 2001 when the property went up for sale and was eventually sold to a developer.



In June 2007, the larger male wing had caught fire, destroying much of this section of the building. The cause was determined to be lightning, as the lightning rods had been removed during renovation. The future of the building is now uncertain.


Source: dgrin.com

The Abandoned (Haunted) Hotel in Columbia reminds me of the hotel in Phantasmat.

Me, too!  That was my first though, actually -- the Drowned Dead Hotel! 

I need to see if I can find some more really interesting ones... Abandoned asylums and hospitals have been done to death, BUT, the colored light coming through the windows in post #11 just begs for a puzzle, don'cha think?

Yes, it would make a very good "stained glass" puzzle! I just finished one in Echoes of the Past: Kingdom of Despair that was killer! It took me 45 minutes to put it together!
(BTW, fantastic game, I love it!)

Oh, I'm one who never gets tired of abandoned hospital/asylum themed games!

Oh, I'm not saying that I don't enjoy them, but when they're predictable and same old-same old, I get kind of irritated.  There was one in particular that I REALLY didn't like... It was made well, but so predictable (to me) that I found myself gritting my teeth in order to finish it! 

Which one was it...? *goes to look at her reviews index* *interrupts own search when she remembers the Games Sorted by Theme list!*

NICE!  I'm so glad I put that list together.  Needs to be updated, but very helpful!

OK, it was Committed: Mystery at Shady Pines that I was mad at.

Gunkanjima

Literally translated as Battleship Island due to its supposed resemblance to the massive vessel, like several other places on this list Gunkanjima used to be a mining facility, and just like those other places it shut down. Since then it has deteriorated even further and even been featured on the History Channel’s show Life After People


See more amazing photography and information on this island HERE.

Additional source: https://imgur.com/gallery/MA55k

Varosha

As a result of Turkish intervention on the island of Cyprus, several areas are no longer accessible to modern Cypriots. For this reason entire seaside resorts like Varosha sit completly empty and abandoned.


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Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery

Normally 1 overcrowded cemetery is enough to be considered creepy. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, however, takes things to a whole new level considering that it is actually 11 cemeteries stacked on top of each other! That’s right, the cemetery got so full that not once, not twice, but 11 times they actually decided to just build another cemetery right on top of the old one.


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British Sea Forts

Constructed by the British Royal Navy during the Second World War as an advance line of defense these forts now sit abandoned a few feet above the waves of the North Sea.


Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/MA55k

OMG I love this thread!!!

On the lighter side of things <ahem> I used to love googling images of hobbit homes. There are so many which beautifully invite thoughts of fantasy games based on the faery realm.

Hobbit Home images

Oh wow, those are awesome!  Thanks for the link!

This one from THIS SITE  reminds me of the Dream Chronicles series!


I will be back with more creepy places later... but when?

This hotel is one of my favorite 'fairy' places. Nicknamed the Magic Mountain Lodge, the cone-shaped Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve in northern Chile’s Patagonia region is a charming hobbit-like hotel with dormer windows enveloped by a vegetated and stone facade. When standing at the base of the building, a stream of water playfully journeys down, soaking everything and everyone in its path.  The design of the The Magic Mountain Lodge was intended to evoke a local and ancient legend that tells of a magic mountain in the area that grants wishes.

Here are images of this fantastical hotel. What an amazing piece of architecture! Visiting this place is officially on my 'bucket' list.

Oh my goodness, how beautiful are these quaint little homes, R-Mom! And the hotel, wow!

Definitely from the Dream Chronicles, Genki!

Another amazing place that would make a great game backdrop:

Cambodia

Angkor Thom, West Gate

Built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, the temples at Angkor and the great city that surrounded them represent one of mankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. The structures you see today are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings—palaces, public buildings, and houses—were built of wood and are long since decayed and gone.

Ta Prohm gate

Satellite photographs reveal Angkor to have been the largest preindustrial city in the world, with an urban sprawl of 3000 square kilometres (the closest rival is Tikal in Guatemala, at most 150 square kilometres) and supporting a population of up to one million people. Mysteriously abandoned in the 15th century, the Angkor site remained largely cloaked by the forest until the late 19th century, when archaeologists began to clear away the forest and embark on a long restoration process that continues today.

Angkor Thom aerial view

Source: http://www.friendlyplanet.com/past/best-of-vietnam.html


Ta Prohm temple

Ta Prohm is a beautiful temple, bound by massive roots of huge trees. Back in the days it was very different: one could see walls decorated by precious stones, hear beautiful music, and dancing in the halls. When in late nineteenth century Ta Prohm was discovered by French, they decided not to conduct a full-scale restoration of the temple. The decision was made due to the fact that giant trees, such as ficus and silk tree, were so merged with ancient walls that eventually they became whole. So now we can see this unique Cambodia monument in the state it was discovered by the researchers.

There is another Khmer capital in Angkor vicinity: Hariharalaya built by Jayavarman II. There are numerous interesting monuments on its territory, including the five-level Bakong temple. Here you can also find Phnom Kulen mountain and Kbal Spean river ("Valley of a thousand lingas") with stone phallic symbols and statues of Gods at its bed:

Hariharalaya

Source: http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Ta-Prohm-Cambodia

I highly suggest checking out this second link, it's AMAZING, with a 360-degree view!  Simply breathtaking!

And one last pic of Ta Prohm, this one from 9GAG (and thanks to Trinity over at the Pub):

Wow - fascinating and the link is amazing, Genki!

Stanley Hotel, seventy miles north of Denver, Colorado

It is a quite lovely hotel nestled in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains,


but a darkness lies over the estate -- a darkness that inspired Stephen King, himself.  Mr. King was looking for inspiration for his third book, and found it whilst staying at the Stanley Hotel.



I'm sure you can guess which book he wrote...


The Shining!  The movie was filmed at Tillamook Lodge, but the inspiration was The Stanley.


Tour guides tell a story of the ghost of a small child who has been seen by many of the staff in various areas of the old hotel. Reportedly, Stephen King also saw the child, who was calling out to his nanny on the second floor. Other past employees report footsteps and apparitions seen throughout the building. However, it is not simply the hotel proper that is haunted; ghostly activity has been reported in all three buildings. There are frequent reports of activity on the 4th floor, which reportedly was once employee quarters. Guests repeatedly complain of hearing children running and playing in the hallways on this floor, only to discover that no children are staying at the hotel. There are several rooms in the hotel that seem to be particularly haunted. One is Room 407, which is said to sometimes be occupied by Lord Dunraven, who owned the land prior to F.O. Stanley. Reportedly, he likes to stand in the corner of the room near the bathroom door. On one such account, witnesses reported that a light in that corner kept turning on and off. While the light was off, they told the ghost that they knew that he was there, they would only be staying two nights, and would he please turn the light back on. The light turned back on. However, later when the lights were turned off and they were trying to sleep, noises were constantly heard from the nearby elevator during a time when the elevator was not in use. At other times, a ghost has been reported to be looking out the window of Room 407, when the room is not booked.



Room 1302 in the manor has been difficult for housekeeping, as they often make up the room only to come back later and find it a mess again. The windows on the second floor of the manor apparently go up and down on their own. Footsteps can be heard in the concert hall, where a homeless woman who had sought refuge in the basement froze to death one winter. There is also reportedly also a girl named Katie who haunts the boiler room and downstairs employee passage.

Source: http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/hauntedhotels/Stanley/

Franklin Castle


Cleveland's Franklin Castle has the distinction of being known as Ohio's most haunted house. It is a big, dark building with stone walls, a turret, and a six-foot wrought iron fence. Hans Tiedemann, a german immigrant who got rich from his barrel-making business and later the banking industry, built the house in the mid-1800's. The count varies, but it was supposed to have 21 rooms. It also featured a fourth floor ballroom accessible by its own staircase, marble fireplaces, dumbwaiters, wine cellars, and numerous hidden passageways.

The house has been a clubhouse for a German Singing Society, home to a German Socialist organization, a doctor's office, apartments, a party house, and even a home to bootleggers.

The ghosts here are numerous. In a small room at the rear of the house a pile of baby skeletons was found, supposedly the victims of some inept doctor; today, babies can be heard crying the walls. There was a mass murder when some of the Nazis were machine gunned to death in a political dispute; their discussions can be heard throughout the house. There are rumors of an axe murder in the front tower room, the victim of which is occasionally seen standing in the window. The secret passageways around the ballroom are said to be where Tiedemann hung his illegitimate daughter Karen. Karen's ghost is the main one seen in the castle, usually in a third floor room known as "the cold room" because it stays ten degrees colder than the rest of the house at all times. Karen may have lost her life in a fight between her father and her boyfriend and then been hung from a rafter to make the death appear self-inflicted. She was just thirteen, but her ghost is often described as a woman, garbed in black, tall and thin and eerie, and often seen by people in the neighborhood.

Karen's ghost was often encountered by staff of the Universal Christian Church, which made an attempt to occupy the building after buying it in September of 1975. A UPI news story which ran a year later details the church's efforts to turn it into a soup kitchen by charging for ghost tours and overnight stays in the haunted castle, as well as Rev. Tim Swope's own brushes with the paranormal there. Famed parapsychologist Hans Holzer also relates his thoughts about the ghosts that reside there--particularly the thin lady in black, the erstwhile Karen Tiedemann.

from the Mansfield News Journal, June 8, 1976 pg. 5A:


Check out more stories and pictures about this place at Forgottenoh.com