Developing the game has been a fun, albeit bumpy ride. Despite the “reverse horror experience” slogan we use (which, admittedly, works quite well), I think the idea alone isn’t what makes our game truly unique. Coming up with the concept was, in fact, the easy part, given that our twisted hearts had already been consumed by the Alien and Predator campaigns in Aliens vs. Predator 1 & 2.
Also being somewhat obsessively inspired by John Carpenter’s concept of The Thing, I couldn’t help but wonder why an amorphous antagonist could never get their own video game adaptation. As a programmer keen to explore the idea, I got down to business writing the first few lines of motion code and quickly found that making the concept work was actually pretty straightforward. Making the game solid and fun to play, however, was the real challenge – it turns out that the arcade-inspired monstrous fluidity isn’t an easy thing to capture!
Of course, Carrion isn’t the only game to feature an amorphous physical blob as the main character, but I think the movement issue has naturally deterred many developers from further exploring the gameplay possibilities. In our case, being an omnipotent shapeshifter with non-clunky controls also posed game design and level issues. First of all, we couldn’t use gravity as an obstacle. Second, nothing prevented the player from sprawling across the room, so – depending on the location of the monster – closing certain parts of the level was sometimes tricky.
Revolutionary physical bugs were also more likely to occur due to the number of interacting bodies (i.e. parts of the monster) responding to the same input. Our rule of thumb was to solve these problems without spoiling the fun factor and to keep the workarounds sensitive and explainable mechanically and traditionally.
Having been on the verge of abandoning the project several times during development, I could easily see how other developers might prefer to take a safer path, but we call ourselves Phobia for a reason – we’re not afraid. to take the scariest road to get to where we’re going! We started taking on all the challenges head on, and remarkably the game not only proved to be fun and intuitive to play, it was also very successful, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. The monsters have finally won!
Game and level design aside, I think the attention to detail may have played a huge role in our success. Even a good slice of meat needs a little seasoning to turn into a juicy steak! Would Carrion be the same without his twisting tentacles? I would say it is missing one of the essential components of the overall experience. The tentacles, as soon as they detach from the surface, are physically simulated and accompanied by a wide assortment of “bloody” sound effects (fun fact – the brand’s “whip” sound was obtained by cutting the air with a USB cable), make the main character more organic and vivid. On top of that, the bloodstains and bloodstains, music, tropes and screaming add to the 80s blockbuster horror vibe that oozes from your screen.
That’s why we’re excited to finally release Carrion on PS4. It took us a while to get there, but we think it was worth it. Make sure you grab it today from PlayStation Store, with a 20% discount! Carrion has already changed our lives for the better, and we hope he will positively influence yours (if only a little). Have fun, eat humans and stay safe.
