Moodboard

The moodboard was mainly inspirational to me to get a lot of inspiration for pixel-art in grayscale, from character design, to world layout, to shading and spacial perspective. While tonally the game is still not fully confirmed to either go full-spooky vs more fun but eerie, there’s a good enough variation in styles and inspiration here that I feel more easily able to design in either direction.

Playlist (link)

A lot of Undertale and Omori soundtracks, of course. Was mainly looking for things that had 8-bit potential (either already or easily transferable), or things that had eerie qualities to them. There’s still a good variation of slower vs faster-paced, more fun vs more creepy, etc, to draw inspiration from going forward.

Narrative Directions

Direction 1

More whimsical, with mostly fun mechanics but just slight eeriness as you explore the world. Player would not actually have fear of real death. You can befriend the aliens you come across if you reveal the right mechanic. The world itself and the vastness of space itself and an “abandoned” planet would lead to most of the “scariness.” As you uncover more about the planet, it becomes less frightening because abandoned places and unknown creatures become known to you. Likely mostly clicking to interact with the world and with other creatures, and very little actual other mechanics-based actions involved (other than movement and interaction). Fun comes in discovering the story behind what happened to the planet, and potentially making friends along the way. Less explicitly horror.

Direction 2

Multi-directional narrative, depending on how you approach the game. Perhaps a gun mechanic that you can use to attack; and if you do attack the creatures in the world, they will attack back. But if you approach with a more peaceful intention, things will respond in turn and be more friendly. More variety in potential outcome and direction, and potentially harder to implement because there’s more branching narrative paths. Likely more mechanics involved to give you options with how you interact with the world (such as violent options vs peaceful options). Fun comes through choosing what direction to take the game’s narrative, and having more agency in how the game progresses.

Direction 3

Full horror, with scarier graphic design and more unsettling music. Player is less willing to explore new places without feeling scared of what might be there. Things are never revealed to be friendly, only ever unknown and frightening. The aliens in the world would likely be able to kill the player (send them back to home base). The narrative itself should be scarier in turn; something really bad must have happened to lead the inhabitants of the planet to be so ill-intentioned to outsiders. Fun comes through classic horror-game uncertainty, trepidation, and fear during exploration.