prismrosez

29/07/2026 So...yeah. It's been a couple of days since the introductory post, and here I am starting this (yay procrastination). But I have been up to stuff during this time. So, here it is: my attempt at actually recording my work. I have no clue how this works, since for my previous projects - all of which were game jam things made in a week - I, very obviously, did not need to do this. But I guess trying a long-term thing comes with stuff like this, which is exciting to try. As I was researching how people do these things, it has come to my attention that devs do GDDs - huge Design Documents. As someone who has no structure and discipline in their life whatsoever and has regarded schedules and documentation as convoluted nonsense, I kinda have no idea how to make one. A bit of Reddit researching later (who knew that reading about people's experience is very useful), I am now trying to build said almanac with zero clue and experience. It's very funny to me how this whole thing is just me winging shit, but it'd be fun to see how that endsss.... Anyhow, as I am realizing that there is more record filing to do than I initially anticipated, here is what I've got so far.

The Birth of the Idea

Essentially, the idea for this project boils down to me venting. My favorite genre of games ever is a point-and-click adventure with some kinda creepy spin, so I guess I'm subconsciously influenced by that - and like any good point-and-click, you must have a story. So the concept of this, so far, is as follows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A person wakes up in a strange, dark place that has grown around the remnants of a broken world, inhabited by mangled insectoid creatures. Having lost any kind of recollection of events, the person has to escape -- but there is a problem. They are deathly terrified of bugs...which surround them in every crevice, watching their every move, every step of the way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thus, they must traverse through the place - which they suspect they may have been intentionally sent to - perhaps solving puzzles along the way, while confronting and defending themselves from the insectoids. (Yeah, we're adding combat to this, baby.) I think I might workshop it some more, because I really don't have anything more detailed beyond "player goes through dark world and fights bugs". Although that kinda sounds familiar. I initially got the idea as I was working on a Game Jam submission with my studio partners about two weeks ago. I just...randomly sketched a wasp-like bug-looking thing with disproportionally long crooked legs and a long furry neck (since we needed insect-like enemies), and....it was kinda good. A little uncanny with just a touch of elegantly unsettling, yet very simple. And now, I kind of want an excuse to reuse the design that I liked. And I also want an excuse to draw more things with that brush I found that makes everything look sketchy in bleeding ink. That may have been the entire reason, actually. So, now that I've had a couple of random creepy bug drawings, I kinda got the inspiration to keep on with the creepy stuff. I'll expand on the whole shebang later, but this is basically the gist. Now, all I gotta do is just figure out how it will look like...

The Inspiration

So...I may have been unknowingly influenced by a couple of things I like -- and I realize that it is probably normal. All great things have been inspired by others, and while my thing ain't great, it is also very much shaped by ideas of other stuff I've consumed. I guess everyone starts from somewhere, so the following examples from existing games - I hope - will help guide me what the genre of what I want to do is like. Aesthetics

Ever since I got the first image of this project in my head (when I drew the bugs), I knew that Hollow Knight would be a massive inspiration.

Image from "Hollow Knight - Trailer"; IGN I am genuinely captivated by the art of this masterpiece. It's one of my favorite aesthetics ever -- a dark, cool color palette; flowers and vegetation, and it's all intricately hand-drawn. And, it's quite literally, like...the place for creepy bug guys. Obviously, I am not going to recreate Hollow Knight, but the vibes of the creatures and the world of it, I definitely admire. I mean, c'mon.

Image from "Gris" on Steam

To get a better idea of the environment- with black walls and dark vegetation-covered stuff - I also am really inspired by this particular location from Gris. I, admittedly, have never played the game, and this is literally the only thing I know about it so far - and it's cool as fuck. Cool forest + vertical, linear screen division are the elements that I think would suit the feel - as if to visually trap the player into a sort of tunnel, where they have no choice but to move only forward. I think that's kinda symbolic.

Image from "Sally Face: Complete Guide" on Steam Community

Now for the actual character art and sprites, I cannot possibly not make an excuse to sneak in Sally Face somewhere. I can go on a tangent about how much I love this game and how impressed I am by Steve Gabry's work for it, but this post is already concerningly long, so maybe some other time. Anyhow, I like the slightly disturbing, 80s cartoon vibe - and also just the fact that it's a story-driven puzzle point-and-click means that its art style is tailored to the specifics of that genre. Another major point of inspo that made me want to incorporate it into my game study is the sort of 'sketchy' idle animation of all the sprites that makes them look more hand-drawn:

Having each animation/sprite have those extra 3 frames for a sketchy look does so much for it, in my opinion. Definitely amplifies the uncanny -- might I say unstable -- vibe of the whole thing; as if something is constantly just...off.

So, Hollow Knight, Gris and Sally Face (and other games of its kind; think something like Fran Bow and Little Misfortune) are definitely my big inspirations, but obviously, this is going to be my own thing.

Since art is pretty much the only thing relating to game dev that I can do, I will make it a personal goal to focus on the art and environmental storytelling for this project. So the gameplay won't be the most exciting, as I'm trying to navigate how to use the damn engine. Mechanics

For the basic mechanics of the gameplay, I want to make a sort of Frankenstein between a story-based point-and-click and a bit of an RPG thing (just the combat). Basically, a story with some puzzles and lotsa fighting.

For the puzzle aspect, point-and-click games mentioned above all follow a roughly the same formula, so nothing new there. I'll just have to think of puzzles (which I suck at). So we'll see how it goes. I am thinking of doing a small inventory which can be opened up separately and won't be a constant part of the UI - just to store stuff you'd need for a puzzle. Something simple. As for the fighting...it won't be too complex either. Just, I don't know, attack them and dodge their attack. I'm not very creative in terms of gameplay design. One thing I do want to do, however, is make the option of combat nuanced. Something akin to Undertale, where there are more ways than one to achieve victory in battle:

Image from "Undertale (PC) by Super Adventures in Gaming

Like, instead of choosing to slaughter everything in your path, the player can pick a more peaceful or alternative way to deal with enemies (sort of like the 'Mercy' option), but a little different. The reason for this is that it will make sense with the story -- which I will elaborate on in a whole separate story concept post (because this is already too long).

So this is the brainstorming so far: just me shoving everything into a medley of the things I like and setting unrealistic expectations of me actually pulling it off. But it sure is nice to dream.

The Scope

I shudder when I think of this.

So, my mind instantly starts making up big ideas and treating this like it's something huge and complete - which it won't be. I know I can't afford to make project too big - I only have roughly a month and a half to make this, before I'll be impossibly busy. I also really need to learn narrowing down the scope: because, due to my ambition and perfectionism, many of my big ideas for my previous studio projects had to have been scrapped last-minute. So for this thing, I've decided to just, you know, start with a demo.

Most likely a single level with a bit of puzzle, a small cutscene and a fight. Just to introduce basic things like inventory and battle mechanics. Just a li'l bita everything.

Anyhow...I didn't really mean for this to turn into a monster of a post, but this is basically the first stages of brainstorming plus inspiration - just to exemplify the stuff I want to include with games that have already done it. I was going to include other things in here (like actual work I've done), but oh well. I guess this concludes the basic stuff. TLDR: I'm brainstorming ideas for a point-and-click(-ish) game about a person landing in a world infested with insectoid creatures, with some inspo from games I like. That's pretty much it.