Deciding on a new project

The release of Aliens: Redacted was fun and exciting for me. It garnered actual, genuine interest from gamers, probably, mostly due to it being a fan project based on a beloved franchise, even still, people seemed to actually enjoy the gameplay, something that quite frankly, I'd never experienced before. It's never really factored into my love of game development. I make games as an expression of myself, never to really please anyone else.

However, when development wrapped up on Aliens: Redacted, I found myself pondering my next move. Do I stick with creating another fan-made project in another established franchise? Do I stick with the retro shooter formula or do for something different?

I decided to do a little bit of both. I felt like there was still a lot I could do within the retro shooter genre, and with the engine that I was using, I was already familiar with creating those types of games but I wanted to stray away from an established franchise. Not only because of the potential legal ramifications of releasing a project in a world that belonged to someone else, but also because I wanted to try and flex my own creative muscles and create something in my own unique world.

False starts...

So now that I had decided the type of game I was going to create I now had the hurdle of deciding the type of world my game was going to be set. Establishing this was going to be key and I spent a while prototyping various types of genres and environments.

At first I prototyped a first person gun hell style game set on a space station. I experimented with a cartoon-y cell shaded type of aesthetic but it never really jelled with me.

Early in-game concepts of the cell shade environment for the scrapped gun hell FPS

I then thought about changing the style to a vector-based game and moving away from the gun hell gameplay and towards a less skill based (and more approachable) run & gun gameplay, yet once again I found that something was just off with the concept. I felt that I was trying to hard to be unique and trying to force the idea to come to me, this is when I decided to take a step back and evaluate exactly what I wanted from this new project.

Animated GIF of the firing and reloading sprites for a vector based concept

Finalising an idea...

Instead of trying to force an idea I wasn't 100% on board with a decided the best course of action was to take a step back, play some videogames and wait until an idea hit me. I started to replay the phenomenal game Control by Remedy Entertainment and as I sit there completely engrossed in a game I have finished countless times I started to wonder to myself. "Just what is it about this game that resonates with me so much?". The atmosphere and sound design are not just a secondary or tertiary thought, it is an integral part of the game. The enemy design, both visually and audibly, plays so much into the combat encounters. The sense of not only the unknown, but the incomprehensible, a horror that is so beyond human understanding that we both need to know more and also fear the knowledge.

Control - Copyright Remedy Entertainment

These aspects, in my mind, where the key reasons that I was compelled to multiple playthroughs of this game. I feel like this is the same reasons why I enjoy HP Lovecraft so much and the entire idea of cosmic horror. That's when it hit me, why not make a cosmic horror style retro shooter. A slower paced affair with striking visuals and engrossing audio that took centre stage a long with the gameplay?

Settling on a story...

I feel that when setting up a story for a game it is best practice to layout a backbone structure and work out from there. What I mean by that is to set up the general principals of the game, the setting and the overall objective of the player character. Once this has been established the story can be fleshed out further.

For the setting of the game I am always drawn to Science fiction, it's one of my favourite genres and for a cosmic horror style game they blend perfectly together. Additionally, setting it on an open world would not be viable, not only for my limited time and resources but also the vibe that I want to convey. It is a game about facing the unknown horrors in front of you, a more linear and cramped setting is needed so, taking notes from my scrapped attempt at a gun hell game I decided to set it on board a giant space station. One that has recently went dark from outside communication and where you, the protagonist, has to go and investigate.

This space station setting can act as a natural framework for the rest of the story. A lone soldier, making his way through the space station, slowly descending further into madness as he faces more and more incomprehensible enemies that blur the lines between reality and...something else...

Some very early concept art for the new project

And that's it so far! I've finally settled on a direction for my new project, now the fun part begins as I start to flesh out the story and pick a direction for the art style and sprite work. I'll be posting further blog posts on here as I make progress, I hope you can join me on this journey!

Thanks for reading :)