AGI Studio 1 - Week 2 - Related Works

When it comes to the project I'm developing, there's several video games I'm very heavily inspired by. Both within the horror genre of gaming and outside, there are so many fantastic games that I'll be drawing inspiration from in one way or another. 

Detention (2017) Red Candle Games 

Also known as 'Returning to School' in Chinese, Detention is a fantastic indie horror game that quite inspires me, for this project in particular. It's a 2D side scroller survival game set within a Taiwanese school the 1960s, and is heavily based on the culture and mythology. You play as a student Fang Ray Shin (mainly called Ray in game), who explores her seemingly abandoned school while uncovering mysteries of her school and trauma. I'd say more about the game's plot but it's honestly one of those games that's so much more interesting the less you know about it. 

The atmosphere of this game is phenomenal, thanks to the limited colour palette and striking art style, the game is able to create a lot of suspense with very little on the surface. It's really the story and atmosphere that helps to create such an engaging story. Though I'm unsure how much of a story I necessarily want to tell in comparison to Detention, the use of simplistic art, a character who explores mysterious surroundings, and memorable haunting scenes are really what I'd like to strive for within my project. 

Fran Bow (2015) Killmonday Games

Fran Bow is a point and click 2D puzzle solving horror/fantasy/adventure game funded on Indiegogo. It's a very creepy game to say the least, with a lot of mature themes even with an incredibly young protagonist, exploring many concepts revolving around mental illness. After the main protagonist, Fran Bow, witnesses the death of her parents, she runs away with her pet cat only to be found and sent into an Asylum. A major gameplay mechanic is for Fran Bow to take pills that change her surroundings into a more gruesome looking reality, and swapping between 2 different worlds to solve puzzles. 

With my project I'm unsure how much I want to, but I would like to have some puzzle elements to encourage the player to move through their hostile surroundings in order to achieve their main goal of freedom/survival. I really love the use of the pills to swap between the two different worlds in order to solve the puzzles, though I'm unsure how I could do something like this, or if it would even fit the idea of my game. Fran Bow also has moments where when you focus on a key item the view zooms in, to where you solve a particular puzzle. I'd love a moment within my game, for example, where you click on a window and view outside the plane. The player could interact with what they see outside to progress further in the story. 

Hollow Knight (2017) Team Cherry

A game created within Australia, Hollow Knight is a 2D Metroidvania fantasy/action game featuring a small knight who must explore the depths of a bug themed environment. The silent protagonist knight must explorer their surroundings, and defeat enemies that get in their way. Being inspired by games like Super Metroid and Castlevania, the game heavily revolves around platforming and exploration, rewarding players the more they explore to upgrade their powers and weapon. 

It's really hard to describe just how fantastic Hollow Knight is as a game. Though the game itself isn't much of a horror, though there are certainly scary elements to the game, the use of animation and detailed environments is something that inspires me immensely. At times the animation seems quite simplistic, seen on the main character especially, but that helps all the more for quick player interactions for the character that flow seamlessly as you move through the game. Though I really would like to have some fun animations within my game, Hollow Knight really reminds me that I don't need to have a lot of highly detailed animation to make an enjoyable game. With the main character especially, having so much going on would be a hinderance to the player's movement. If anything the main character should remain simplistic, with more detailed foes. 

Dust an Elysian Tail (2012) Humble Hearts

An incredibly underrated game, Dust an Elysian Tail is one of my all time favourites. It's a 2D side scrolling adventure/fantasy game, that uses anthropomorphic creatures to explore themes of identity, and the horrors of war. The main character Dust awakes with amnesia and along with his companion Fidget and talking sword, he must battle against enemies in order to solve the mystery of his past. The game itself is very story driven, with talented voice actors really helping to drive the emotion of the story and give weight to a lot of emotional beats. 

The game itself is primarily made by one person, Dean Dodrill, who coded and animated everything within the game, only leaving the music and voice acting to partners who aided him. I'm incredibly inspired by the animation he created for this game, he hand animated the main character's attacks and they flow so seamlessly as you fight enemies and fly around the stage slashing your sword. The game uses frame by frame animations, but also uses rigged puppets for idle animations and basic movement of the NPCs. The environments as well are also incredibly detailed with beautiful colours that evolve as the story progresses into more hostile environments. I just.. really love this game, it's always been a huge inspiration and really continues to be.