Feb 20, 2024
My three works for inspiration towards my game titled "Flowers and Gunpowder" are Claude Monet's work with flowers, an unreleased horror game called "Zoochosis", and a FPS speed running game called "Ultrakill".
The Artist’s Garden at Giverny c.1900 Claude Monet has inspired the floral aspect of my game. There is something very special about flowers in video games. Flowers are probably one of the most beautiful things and yet I can’t find enough of them in video games. Other than minecraft, there aren’t many games where flowers are abundant in the game. Monet’s painting of flowers was the first thing to come to mind when thinking about this game and its aesthetic. I can’t find the original painting that inspired me but through a quick Google search, The Artist’s Garden at Giverny is what I would like the game to feel like when you look at it. I’d imagine this impressionist effect could be pulled off through post processing.
Zoochosis is another inspiration. The game has yet to come out, but the trailer was super intriguing and very unique. It is a horror game about a zoo keeper who runs into deformed versions of zoo animals. It is what I imagine skinwalkers are without truly knowing the purest definition of a skinwalker. Animals transform into the most horrific and nightmarish creatures. I would like my game to have that sort of fear when you see the mobs.
Ultrakill is another game but this time in the shooter genre. The game is meant for speed running and I was told the most noob friendly game in that style. I tried to get into the Doom franchise, but the aesthetic of the game was not for me. I found that Ultrakill has a very simplistic style, reminiscent of games from the early 2010s.
I believe this game style of highly mobile characters with interesting movement technology along with the horror elements of Zoochosis and beauty of Monet's landscape and still life's of flowers would create a very interesting and unique game.
Technical aspects for my game would be very doable in the sense of making the game. The game itself should be playable on a standard pc, but I anticipate that I will be running it on a Computer Cluster around week 20 of this project cycle. The game is a speed running game at heart, with aspects of horror through its monsters and lighting but carry the beauty of Monet’s flowers.
Finding the inspiration: In all honesty I find most of my inspiration through my doom scrolling sessions. I accidentally stumbled upon games through my Instagram feed. I had went to a Monet exhibit. I forget the full name of it but it was a room that had a projection on every wall.
I believe my project is different from the examples because of the way I am mashing up such different aspects together. I’d like to think of my game as unique as those memes that start off as “You are the first person to see…” and proceeds with the most ridiculous combination of things words like “...a pickle being submerged in a mixture of gasoline, urine, ketchup, and tapioca while attached to a lego plane.” The way I have introduced my game to my game dev friends is the same. “You will be the first to ever see a game about gardener ninjas who kill skinwalkers that takes place in a beautiful garden with the objective to make it from point A to B in the quickest amount of time.”
So cool! 😲