Every time before, I've sat down with a single idea and began drawing graphics, sampling sound effects and ploughed into coding the game. And this time has been no exception.
For SG7 I'm taking visual cues from many sources, mostly sci-fi movies and old 8-bit space-based games. Although it's unlikely my finished result will be particularly atmospheric in comparison to some of the stills below, it's helpful to have a direction to go in with visual design.
The set design in Solaris (2002) is pretty close to the atmosphere I'm trying to recreate. Lots of grey panels, blue-tinted lights and screens illuminated with blue displays. It gives a sterile, claustrophobic feel that works well in the movie but may not translate to a low-res two-dimensional scene so well. Nonetheless, it provides useful inspiration for level layout and specific scenery elements.
The set design for the USCSS Prometheus has similar elements to that in Solaris, but with more displays and lights. Even with that, the atmosphere is gloomy and foreboding - something that I may want to incorporate to a degree in SG7. However, the game needs to be accessible. Players will be pulling out there phones to play on the train, on a break, down the pub.. anywhere, so it needs to work in the short as well as long term.
