In an interview with Gamezone, Dead Space’s art director, Ian Milham, spoke briefly about what influenced the horror aspects of the game. Instead of looking at games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, the team behind Dead Space decided to draw on real world influences. Apparently, they then turned those real life influences into space monsters.
The key I think was to not look at other games and movies too much, but instead look at real life. For horror, we thought about what types of things scared us, what made us uncomfortable, and we integrated those real-world influences into the game. We found that these ideas were usually pretty universal, so if we were scaring ourselves, we’d probably scare other people as well.
It’s interesting that a game centered on survival/horror wouldn’t utilize some of its forbearers for inspiration. Some scenes in the original Silent Hill still make my skin crawl, no matter how many times I see them. I wonder what kind of "real-world influences" they drew from? Hopefully no one on the development staff had a fear of ponies or bananas.
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
17 comments | showing # 1 to 17
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
4:33 PM on 09.13.2008
| 
To make things worse they trashed the place, so my plans on making it into a tourist trap are ruined too.
Terror can't really be original. You can give it a new atmosphere, setting, and backdrop, but in the end, what ends up scaring you will be the same thing that has scared other people for years, and possibly for all of human history.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't like it when developers say stuff like "Oh, we have a completely new and innovative way to scare the living shit out of you!" No you don't. All you have is a new way of presenting it.
I laugh in the face of Silent Hill 5.
Resident Evil is there for the Quick Scare.
And Project Origin looks to scare you when you expect it, but do a good job of it. And MECHS.
Dead Space, I fell for it's "play dead" trick.
O WAIT!
^ This. xD
Doom 3 was scary too but after awhile the monster-jumping-out-whenever-you-go-to-pick-up-a-health-pack thing just got obvious. Too it's hard to be scared when your carrying a BFG 9000.