Game Research and Inspiration

This blog includes:

- Game Research

- Visual Inspiration Research

- Moodboards

Brief Research

Game Inspiration

For our game, we want to create a 2D style horror exploration game, with puzzles and challenges. Our original idea was for the gameplay to span across two art styles - a 2D isometric type style, and a 3D style for certain levels, minigames or events within the game.

Iron Lung

https://iron-lung.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Lung_(Game)

Iron Lung is a game where the MC is submerged on a planet with a sea of blood in a submarine called ‘the Iron Lung’. The MC is tasked with exploring under this sea, taking pictures of different creatures that slowly develop over time, while being chased down by a creature called ‘the Monster’. The game takes place entirely inside the submarine, except for when looking at the pictures that are taken or checking the map to figure out where you must travel to next. This game is a very simple and short horror game that takes about 45 minutes to complete, but it is still perfectly terrifying and does a great job at what it's meant to (and that's to make you super scared and unsettled.. At least it does for me.)

Things we can take inspiration from:

The story of the game (very similar to our own idea)

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Hades

https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Hades_(game)

Hades is a game that follows the MC, Zagerus, the son of Hades as he tries to escape from the underworld. The game is set in an isometric art style that follows as you venture through different levels and fight different enemies and gain different buffs. When characters talk or interact, cutscenes play or the character will pop up on the screen with a box displaying what they are saying. When we discussed our game, we spoke about some sort of feature similar to this. The style of this game is something I really like about it, and I think this could be a good source of inspiration for our game.

Things we can take inspiration from:

The artstyle

The level and gameplay style (isometric with cutscenes/talking scenes)

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Disco Elysium

https://discoelysium.com/

Disco Elysium is a game that was mentioned in class, but i think it is a great one to research for our game personally. The game is told and played also in an isometric viewpoint, and follows the MC who is controlled by the player. The player can control the MC to move around and interact with objects and other characters. This game is very dialogue heavy, but it has some absolutely beautiful cutscenes. I really like the style of this game, and if we do decide to go with an isometric styled game I think that this would be a really good source of inspiration. It has a more realistic artstyle, but the way the world is created and displayed is really interesting and appealing.

Things we can take inspiration from:

The artstyle

Style of the world, have the scenes are build

How the player interacts with things

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Ocean Keeper

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2845630/Ocean_Keeper/

Ocean Keeper is a game that was released this year, set in an underwater world where creatures and monsters are hunting the player down. Your task is to explore underwater, discovered caves and find valuables and upgrade your gear and weapons. The main game is played through an isometric style, observing the player from above as they crawl through the underwater surface, but the game also has minigames and sections/levels that are completely 2D, and resemble things like a 2d platformer. The game also consists of textboxes that appear when characters are communicating. I think that these could all possibly be useful sources of inspiration for us, as it sounds like a lot of the features we were discussing when coming up with ideas for our game.

Things we can take inspiration from:

The artstyle

2D platformer levels, Isometric viewport of main game

Game storyline/plot

How the player interacts with things/game mechanics

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Song of the Deep

https://insomniac.games/game/song-of-the-deep/

Song of the Deep is a game that follows the MC, Merryn, a young girl whose father goes missing while fishing so she builds a makeshift submarine to search the ocean to find him. The gameplay itself is set on a more 2D plane, but the art and worlds built around each level/scene are really beautiful. I thought we could take some form of inspiration from this game due to how it creates an underwater environment, it really creates a feeling of being trapped and submerged deep within oceans/caverns while still remaining 2D.

Things we can take inspiration from:

The artstyle

2D platformer levels

How the levels and world is built

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Subnautica

https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/

Subnautica is a very popular game that follows the MC, who is a survivor of a spaceshift crash that landed on a planet completely submerged in the ocean. The player is free to explore the world, build, survive and research. The planet contains horrifying monsters of the deep and many strange and unique sea creatures and plants. I think we could definitely take inspiration from the style of monsters/creatures this game has to offer, as well as maybe taking inspiration from the exploration mechanic for some aspects or levels of our game. We decided we wanted to possibly have some levels in 3D, and I think this could be a good route to go down.

Things we can take inspiration from:

The artstyle

The creature design

Aspects of the Gameplay

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