Establishing Influences | seriouspointgames.com

DEVLOG #2

9 May, 2024

Author: Lloyd Green, Editor: Alex Crean

INTRODUCTION:

During the pre-production and ideation phases, the development team turned to all forms of existing media that capsulate aspects of the team’s envisioned final product. Market research was so important to the team to understand what kind of experiences players value and identify areas for innovation and improvement.

So many questions came up during ideation; What made the aspects like storytelling or art “click” in that piece of media? How do these inspirations influence the development? How much inspiration should we take from each piece of media?

The team’s quest for answers led us to explore dozens of references and inspiration. Within this blog, we’ll be covering a handful of major influences that inspired and impacted the team’s decision-making.

LETS DIVE IN...

Storytelling in a 1970s environment with detailed and intricate characters is one of the key driving factors behind what would make The Ski Lodge murders stand out and be memorable. The setting allows for a rich tapestry of cultural references, period-appropriate dialogue, and a nostalgic aesthetic.

'The Invisible Hours' heavily influences The Ski Lodge Murder with its focus on narrative-driven storytelling, set in a single location with a complex cast of characters, all enhancing the immersive VR experience.

During the pre-production and ideation phases, the development team turned to existing forms of media that capsulate aspects of the team’s envisioned final product. Market research was so important to the team to understand what kind of experiences players value and identify areas for innovation and improvement.

So many questions came up during ideation; What made the aspects like storytelling or art “click” in that piece of media? How do these inspirations influence the development? How much inspiration should we take from each piece of media?

STORYTELLING

The Invisible Hours heavily influences The Ski Lodge Murder with its focus on narrative-driven storytelling, set in a single location with a complex cast of characters, all enhancing the immersive VR experience. Something that caught our eye was the fact that player was more so a bystander to duration of the game as they couldn’t physically interact with the characters nor the characters could even see the player instead you got to follow and spectate certain characters and see what happens on their side which pieces the story together overall, the player could even ignore these characters and just explore the environment.

In many ways 'The Invisible Hours' is like a partially interactive movie which took inspiration from the fact The Ski Lodge Murderers has a similar idea only in our game we wanted the player to be a part of the experience but to also feel like the game world exists and moves along without player input.

Of course that was not our only influence another major one would be the movie Knives Out some of the aspects are the main characters needing to sift around a lot of red herrings to ultimately find the true answer to the death of a certain character in that film, something we took inspiration from with our characters with giving them their own motives and goals to blur on just who the true victim is.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay was significantly controlled by the narrative, and after key ideas were established, we narrowed down our main influence of gameplay to 'L.A Noire the VR Cases' by Team Bondi and published Rockstar for its fantastic implementation of detective and interrogation mechanics that are seamlessly integrated into a VR experience.

One of these mechanics is inspecting items during evidence investigations as in the normal game the player has limited movement when inspecting the item before being given a button prompt to inspect the item further, the VR version allows the player to fully inspect the item freely.

Another and one of the most famous mechanics of 'L.A. Noire' is its interrogations where the player has to choose between three persuasion styles to get information out of the person, reading the person’s facial expressions to detect whether or not they are lying is also an important aspect.

The UI overlay within the environments of 'L.A Noire' is seamless and intuitive, providing players with subtle cues and important information without disrupting the immersive experience.

By incorporating these mechanics into our VR experience, we aim to achieve a similar level of narrative depth and player immersion, making the gameplay experience not just about solving crimes but about living out the life of a detective in a richly detailed world.

ART INSPIRATIONS

We knew that the Art for the game had to follow the franchises’ painted and colourful style, and two main inspiration points were 'Arcane' and 'Borderlands'.

'Arcane' shows plenty of attention to detail; lighting is hand-painted onto the characters and environments, adding a rich, dynamic depth that enhances the visual storytelling. The intricate designs are not only striking but also contribute significantly to the atmospheric mood of each scene.

'Borderlands' has a unique style which can be recognised easily in a crowd. It has an old comic book feel through the use of black outlines to show minor and major details. This attention to detail through drawing, rather than adding topology, is an efficient way to add interest to the model in the texturing process.

CONCLUDING:

In general all forms of media a derivative and copy aspects from one another however truly understanding what make that piece of media ticks and implementing it in either a unique or tasteful manner can elevate a piece of media, in our case we aim take and iterate on our inspirations to create something unique yet familiar to fans of this genre of game.

In the next week, explore how the Market Research influenced the key story creation. Stay up to date on development by subscribing to the SPG monthly newsletter.