Prey is the latest game from Arkane Studios, the developer behind the acclaimed saga Dishonored. Unlike Dishonored Steampunk aesthetics, the design of Prey takes borrowed elements of the classic Sci-Fi to hold its atmosphere of suspense. Its Creative Director, Raphael Colantonio, reveals some of the surprising influences of the play, which opens on may 5 in PS4, Xbox One and PC.
TranStar Corporation and Talos I technology
The TranStar Corporation [who heads the space station where Morgan Yu is caught] is influenced by any of the big companies of high technology that you can imagine in Silicon Valley.
In terms of the technology itself, we wanted something that was little more crude – something similar to what creates the film director Terry Gilliam (twelve monkeys, Brazil…). But Terry Gilliam is very dark, so that changes in our game, (since our aliens are dark), wanted something contrasting with that. So our goal was to make a kind of colorful and happy version of Terry Gilliam.
There is also much influenced by the Danish electronics company Bang & Olufsen. They had a super polished aspect between the 1970s and 1980s we wanted to imitate.
The protagonists: Morgan Yu and his brother Alex Yu
Some people say that Alex Yu (Morgan’s brother) seems a bit to Gabe Newell (President of Valve), but it is just a coincidence. Anyway love Gabe Newell, in our past, we have worked with Valve.
“Mimicking” enemies
Those aliens, call them Mimicos because they were a little inspired by the Mimico of Dungeons and Dragons. But we made the next version of that, the next level of mimicry – something that can be turned into something else.
GLOO Canyon
GLOO Canyon is a trigger gun of a substance similar to tail that hardens immediately on contact with the air allowing us to create barriers, or access to high places, or even paralyze momentarily our enemies ‘GLOO cannon could be that a weapon is very Miro. You can create an entire game around this with some puzzles. And in our case is a bit like a disruptor, because once you have it in your power, you can attack in many new ways.
Dead scientists
In the game, you will notice that there are some scientists and other people killed close to you, and they have a really tortured expression on their faces. That inspiration was taken from the movie The Ring.
Space lighting
How to work the light to make feel to the player who is in space? The Sun is more extreme. It is not filtered in the same way in the space that is in the Earth. Therefore, we are inspired by the work of some films such as Solaris, Sunshine or Moon lighting.
Through the looking glass
Since we’re talking about references, the further reference to this game is probably System Shock, which in turn is part of the heritage in general of any game from Arkane Studios. In addition, it sounds weird, but there are some “Lost” television series here also the atmosphere of the 60s when they found those hatches.
Total challenge
But also Total challenge is a good inspiration. In the game, we have a situation in which you need to escape from this place and don’t know what is happening. It is dangerous and you’re trying to survive, making it the best possible.
But somehow you’re guided by a character who wants to see a video of yourself. Here is when Morgan was for and think, ‘wait a minute, what I am doing here exactly? Who am I?” And that is the at this point that the player is not really sure of what is happening here. This is what Total challenge managed to capture as well, and this is precisely what we are trying to do.
