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[The Mad Engineer]

One thing to remember about true "fear", and not just plain adrenaline, is the technique of the malign paradigm shift.

Make a single thing that the player can rely on amidst all the scariness.  A sidekick, a saferoom, or a friend, and then make them the actual bad guy.  Perhaps instead of spending the whole game in the mansion, give the player some breathing room.  Let them go home once the sun comes up, but when it sets, you have to be in the mansion, or you'll find yourself in the forest.

Let them feel at home.  Give them a loving family, and some interesting subplots.

Then, at the end of the game, make it very clear that the night dimension is, in actuality, a far, FAR more safer place than the daytime.

[Jackrabbit]

I see what you mean. And the best way to do that is to make staying in the saferoom more and more unsettling as time goes on, ala Silent Hill 4.

[Luke_Prowler]

I think that, rather than take the tried and true method of making it impossible to escape, you should let the player be able to leave. They walk down the dirt road away from the mansion, and they get a non-standard game ending. "And [game character] lived happily ever after". It allows you to control the story, but without making it seem like you're putting the player on rails.

[Jackrabbit]

Actually, there's probably a bunch of reasons why that's a bad idea, but since I'm shortsighted, the main thing I can see is this is a wonderful way to convey the fact that your character is insane.

But still, I don't like it. Why would you bother sleeping in the saferoom if you could in fact go home and come back during the day?

Wall Banger.

[Luke_Prowler]

Ok, I'd admit, it's not the best thing I've thought of.

[TheNewerMartianEmperor]

To combat that, let there be a hook, something story-wise that's keeping you there, but not physically. Sure, you can walk away, but something horrible will happen, wether this is explicit in the ending thing you get or not is up to you.

[JoshuaFH]

I suppose, yeah, that could work. I would just be like the 'bad' ending to Cave Story, where you leave on the dragon and let the Doctor do whatever he wants. I'm not fond of the idea though.

[qwertyuiopas]

Maybe have multiple "flee" endings based on some insignificant factor such as what time of day it is, ranging from "ok, I guess" to utter horror.

If the best (escape without solving everything) endings were from fleeing in the early morning, but got progressively worse as night approached, and stayed worse until maybe an hour before the "best" was available...

Also, if the slightly worse flee endings gave the impression of something following you from the house, that you would never be totally free of it, (maybe with text saying 8 years later, your family/friends suddenly started dying/disappearing mysteriously, and then it came for you), and it gets progressively worse.

Possibly explain in the journal/text you find/whatever that once you leave, it isn't safe/isn't possible to return, and that IT doesn't want you to leave unharmed, and there is only one hour of the day where IT is totally powerless to persue you or send it's minions.

Maybe have a plot device trap you in an alternate reality of the house, where it is perpetual midnight, until you solve the plot around it, and the further you travel, the blurrier the world gets, and if you do run all the way to the flee exit, your character would start to fade away as well, and just cease to exist.

[Cthulhu]

I still think there should be no way to escape from the house before you've done what needs to be done.

A "Oh, you finished the game, but you got a bad ending" situation seems like an artificial way to keep the player in.

[The Mad Engineer]

You could make it like the Path, where if you leave without exploring it informs you that nothing happened.

A boring life.  That was enough for me to search out the wolf in The Path, yet still making it scary since you know that you're doing this horrible thing by choice.  Fighting for your life is one thing, and not so horrific.  Fighting because you made a foolish and bad choice is quite another.

[JoshuaFH]

I hear about the Path, but I've never played it. I should really get around to doing that.

[DennyTom]

Maybe even better - it could let you play that "several years later". Anyone played Mafia?

[alfie275]

A cool idea, it would have to be non necessary, would be to use the status lights on the keyboard to convey meaning, ie if there is an item to your left the num lock lights up, if it's forward the caps lights up, if it's to the right the scroll lock lights up and if it's behind then num lock and scroll lock both light up.

[qwertyuiopas]

Then it would be mandatory to have a segment where something circles you and/or scrambles item detection, and causes the lights to blink crazily.

[Luke_Prowler]

What if the keyboard doesn't have those status lights? or if it's a console port (unlikely, but still)?

What's the level of mind screw in this game? Because it should have at least have one endless hallway/stairs/room sequence.