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Scorn: First person Giger-esque horror (Part 1 coming 2017, PC)

A

Akahige

Member
I remember this from the thread where everyone thought it was a Sony game, looks really cool, may throw down some cash.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Looks like a tech demo more than a game. Also, I don't care for imitation Gigeresque visuals defining an entire world when they are more effective targeting an alien or otherworldly character or element that stands apart from a more mundane reality as his work did in Alien and Dark Seed. The KS video just looks ugly, limited in terms of showing off any substantial gameplay. The whole 'episode one' shit sucks and this seems dead in the water, especially with a funding goal that high, too.
 
M

Mdk7

Member
As promised, here is my interview with Ljubomir Peklar, the Game Director of Scorn.
Hope you guys enjoy it (Italian transcription is here).

First of all, a question regarding the name. Why did you choose "Scorn" as a title? I mean, that's a pretty bizarre choice of word, scorn is not really a theme that you usually see in games nowadays. What's the reason behind that, and who or what is the object of this despisal (if you can tell without giving too much away)?

It’s up to the players to decide and figure out why that title. I have one sentence that explains it perfectly but it would give away too much. We hope it will be clearer playing the game.

What will be the main themes touched by Scorn? I imagine scorn could be one obviously, isolation could be another, and i sense a strong body horror theme too (some concept arts reminded me a bit of eXistenZ). How would you like the player to feel while playing your game? Are you going to deal with deep moral issues and implications, or you plan to keep things on a lighter level (even if there's no light at all in the game, of course)?

Scorn is definitely one of the themes and isolation goes hand in hand with it. I am a big Cronenberg fan, well early Cronenberg at least, so his influence is certainly there. Body horror will be a big part of the game and there are quite a few surprises regarding that part of the game that we still haven’t revealed and those parts are best left secret for the first playthrough of the game. Scorn will deal with moral and philosophical themes throughout the game. We want to ask questions but not necessarily try to give the answers. We leave that to the players. 

Scorn originally surfaced last June, with some concept arts floating around on Neogaf (i frankly hoped it was material taken from Doom 4 at first, given the astonishing look of it!). Then other images surfaced, with even explicit references to Project Morpheus, the VR technology created by Sony. Was all this intentionally planned, and if yes why? I also read that you eventually got in touch with Sony and some other publishers, but no deals were closed unfortunately. Can you tell us a bit more? 

Yes, that was intentional. We wanted to show potential investors at the time that targeting niche part of the market could be quite profitable. We wanted to get unfiltered impressions of the game. Indie market is quite saturated and there’s a certain stigma surrounding horror indie games, so standard announcement wouldn’t have the same impact. We managed to get in contact with Sony, we sent them our pitch for the game and they haven’t answered since. We inquired about what is happening but never got any response. It’s not as interesting story as it sounds. We just didn’t get any answer what so ever, a simple “no” would be much fairer on their side.  

As you stated in your Kickstarter page, you are trying to tell some kind of story through experience rather than exposition, with no cutscenes, dialogues and so on. This sound really interesting and even pretty daring, can you please elaborate a bit more on the narrative aspect of Scorn? If there is no effective plot whatsoever, how do you plan to engage the player? Don't you think something so extreme could alienate a bit too much the user? Of course that could work in a way, especially given the eerie sci-fi setting, but it could also be a risk as far as the experience is concerned...

It’s not that there is no plot, we simply aren’t blatantly shoving everything down your throat through cutscenes. We want people to give their interpretation of what is going on. Some will get it, some will think something completely different or create their own versions of the events. Who’s to say they won’t be right. Unlike books or movies video games are something you can experience and experience should be at the forefront, not the story. And let’s be honest there aren’t that many good stories in video game industry anyways. Everything today is spoon fed to the audience. We have bigger respect to our potential audience than that. Will this approach be for everybody? Absolutely not. We are going for a certain audience that will appreciate it. Trying to please everyone is never a good idea.

The trailer you released works amazingly well in taking you straight to that kind of creepy dimension, with a peculiar and very disturbing atmosphere. It definitely got me hooked, and i surely wanna know more about that weird biomechanical universe (in particular that guy at the end really fascinates and scare me at the same time, he really struck me in concept art as well... maybe can you share something about him? He seems like he's suffering, like he's stuck within that contorted body of his, i don't know...). How did you came up with such a setting? Even when looking at the horror panorama, it's not something ordinary: you can clearly see influences from H.R. Giger, Zdzislaw Beksinski and David Cronenberg, yet Scorn seems to have a unique personality to it, with a focus on more bizarre and almost sad elements rather then violence and the usual scary approach...

Despite its mystery, the atmosphere of Scorn seems pretty clear. Not the same could be said about the gameplay: there's just a glimpse of that in the trailer, and i still haven't understood how exactly will Scorn play eventually. I read that there's some shooting, that there are puzzles to be solved, and that it will last around 10 hours with no fillers. Could you elaborate a bit more on this matter? Will it play similar to any other titles we know, say for example the shooting will not be the main focus kinda like in the Metroid
Prime series, or maybe it will have something in common with the upcoming The Talos Principle, with these open world-puzzles and so on? Tell us what we should expect, what we will do most of the time, how much emphasis there will be on shooting, if there will be a RPG elements...

I will answer these two questions together because they are connected.Influences are vast and the three you mentioned are quite obvious. Since you are Italian I can point out
that Dario Argento is a big influence on me. I am mentioning Argento because in his movies story takes a back seat to the atmosphere and that's what we are trying to do with Scorn. Some not so obvious influences come from the writings of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Thomas Ligotti and many others. I’m really glad you picked up on the elements that we are trying to convey. That means we did something right. We are trying to create an atmosphere that will evoke a wide range of emotions. We don’t care
about cheap thrills like jump scares. It’s easy to make people jump when you destroy their ear drums with unexpected loud noise. They are not scared of what’s happening on the screen, they are just instinctively reacting to the loud sound. They would've jumped if they were playing Super Mario at that moment. We are trying to make an atmosphere that will keep you in a state of dread and excitement the whole time you play and even after you step away from the game. Your mood will change during the playthrough. Horror for me is not about being scared, quite contrary it is a feeling of excitement that comes from dread and thinking of what will happen after the event that scared you passes.

The character in the trailer will be revealed through gameplay. Scorn is designed on world level and everything in the world has to make sense and have a history behind it. So does this character. I won’t reveal to much but that character is a part of the puzzle inside that particular structure that is part of an even bigger structure. We are trying to make it all one cohesive unit so you won’t think: “Ok, Now I’m playing the puzzle part, now comes the gunplay part”. 

Everything has to function as a whole. The puzzle in the structure you see in the trailer is happening on 2 levels and through many rooms and it makes sense story wise and it will make even more sense the further you explore the structure connected to it. If you break it down to basics it consists of puzzle elements and gunplay elements but we want to blur the line between the two, so you won’t know what is coming next. The gunplay will be quite defined and through exploring the world you will learn how and when to use your weapons. Inhabitants of the world will also behave differently depending on their nature and role in the world. Some will be hostile, some will become hostile if you provoke them, and some will try to avoid you. Items and ammo will be limited and you will have to choose the right moment to use them. We will try to make a perfect balance of all of these elements. It’s really hard to compare it to some other game but the way you have to conserve ammo is similar to original Resident Evil or the Gamecube Remake.

Something about the soundtrack and the audio in general: when creating horror games many developers really put a lot of attention in the art direction and in the graphics, with less emphasis on the sound effects. And i frankly thinks that audio is as important as ever in the horror genre, to make things really scary and enganging on a whole different level. How are you addressing this topic? Are you planning some kind of collaboration with anybody in particular, do you dream of bringing someone big on board (even if it's impossible, like i could totally see Tool being the perfect match for Scorn...)?

You are absolutely right. Sound is one of the most important things in creating the atmosphere. We carefully design every sound we put in the game and some parts of the gameplay are connected to the sound so paying attention to it will be crucial to surviving. As for the music my taste is very eclectic (Tool included), but for Scorn dark ambient will be the dominant genre. So more Lustmord than Tool. Music is composed by a local musician Djordje Miljenovic (also known as Sky Wikluh). He is very diverse in style and we collaborated rather well. He did the soundtrack for the exploitation horror movie Srpski film (A Serbian Film) so check out his work, I think you will like it.

One question has to be about your unique attitude towards Kickstarter and the backers: as you stated on the official website, you're not huge fans of Kickstarter and the popular crowdfunding platform was some sort of last resort for you. What really struck me is that you explicitly invited people to NOT bid if they were expecting to get some control over the development, to maybe get involved a bit in the production process in exchange for relevant amounts of money and so on: Scorn is yours and yours only, and you want to preserve your own personal vision of it. It's frankly the first time i see a point of view like that on Kickstarter, and while i immensely respect you for being so clear and inflexible (i am pretty much like that in my personal life, LOL), i feel that this way of thinking could be a risk for the success of the project. Aren't you afraid of that? Did you keep the same attitude also when you were in talks with possible publishers?

Yes, I like the no bullshit approach. We decided to make no compromise and develop Scorn the away we envisioned it. Compromise leads to much more frustration. I rather it failed than butcher it for whatever reason.

We both know this game is by no means something that could even remotely be mass marketed, and it won't be easy to reach that 200.000€ goal in the next month or so. I already did my part and i will probably try to increase my back (because i want to live in a world where Scorn gets made), yet i have to ask you this: what will happen if the Kickstarter fails? Have you some sort of "plan B" in mind, or will it be a total game over for the project if this "last resort" option doesn't pay?

Honestly we are not sure but it doesn’t look good. We can’t work on this project indefinitely. All people working on this project are very talented and can find other jobs and they will have to because they have to pay the bills. If the campaign fails will have a meeting and discuss it. I’m not sure what the decision might be.
Click to expand...

I seriously think this should get some coverage from the usual outlets, but apparently they are too busy talking about other stuff to give some exposition to a project like this... And frankly, this whole situation really saddens me, because without some kind of cover tons of people won't even know about the existence of such a game.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
I was watching some H R Giger art in motion video stuff, trying to imagine how the worlds in his paintings would work and this game seems to be along those lines.

Great questions, Mdk7.

Scorn is definitely one of the themes and isolation goes hand in hand with it. I am a big Cronenberg fan, well early Cronenberg at least, so his influence is certainly there. Body horror will be a big part of the game and there are quite a few surprises regarding that part of the game that we still haven’t revealed and those parts are best left secret for the first playthrough of the game. Scorn will deal with moral and philosophical themes throughout the game. We want to ask questions but not necessarily try to give the answers. We leave that to the players.
Click to expand...
So there could be more to playing the game after playing a first playthrough? Also, nice to hear Cronenberg body horror and Dario Argento atmosphere.

Getting some real Icepick Lodge/Dark Souls kind of design stuff from what they're saying about an environmental experience. I really hope this pulls through for them.
 
G

Gruso

Member
Yeah, very nice interview Mdk7. Questions that are not merely researched, but clearly come from a real passion for the genre. Links added to OP.

I love where the dev team is coming from. I despise ham-fisted plots, cutscenes, dialogue for the most part, all the things that attempt to create immersion in modern gaming but wind up awkwardly doing the opposite. This interview has only solidified my interest in the game, and my despair that the very thing they're trying to achieve is their biggest roadblock to funding.

I think some of the earlier posts saying the Kickstarter could be presented better have merit, and I really think the team could use a PR minded person to give it a once over. And while I don't want to call the death of the campaign yet, worst case scenario, I hope that this additional exposure will at least be another step on the road to funding - even if it's outside KS.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Many people who have run Kickstarters often say it's a full time job, and yeah maybe having a person manage all of that who's not as much working on the game would be better.
 
M

Mdk7

Member
As stated in the latest backers update, unfortunately the Kickstarter campaign has been closed. The project is basically dead now, completely killed by the lack of exposition in gaming outlets.
I could say something, but i prefer not to comment at this time.
HUGE respect for the guys at Ebb Software: they really deserved way more than this.

I will post the full update later, i'm writing from my smartphone now.
 
G

GuitarAtomik

Member
Besides exposure obviously, I think it would have helped if they had better explained the actual game mechanics. Watching the Kickstarter video, I did get an excellent sense of the atmosphere and reading info on the KS page gave me a good idea of the design philosophy, but never a clear idea of what you actually do. The entire KS trailer is comprised of environment fly throughs, one or two shots showing that you'll have body awareness in first person, and the only obvious player interaction was basically a key unlocking or activating something. No NPCs, no dialogue, and one instance of player interaction. I thought it was purely a Gone Home style adventure game until I read in an interview that it had shooting (which I never saw detailed but needs to be in this situation). I understand the want to keep things as mysterious as possible and letting the player discover with the least amount of influence but you still need to sell people on your game. A second half to the KS trailer with the devs explaining and expanding on what you do and concept art illustrating mechanics and how the shooting works (Is it twitch? Cover based? etc) would have gone a long way. In other words, they made a teaser trailer when they needed to make a Kickstarter video. Most people aren't going to dig further if the video doesn't sell them.
 
G

Guile

Banned
Fucking hell. :(

Was just gonna bump this in hopes of it getting more coverage but then saw it was cancelled. fml
 
A

Arsenic13

Member
Marketing isn't inherently a bad thing that means spoiling the game or its secrets. Games are products, artistic products but still things that need promotion. Sometimes people rag on publishers for ignoring the creators wishes, but it's probably for reasons like this. A little stubbornness could be seen as a fault for this games lack of exposure.

The KS was pretty bare, and when you're pitching a project (Kickstarters are pitches), you need more than that. It's a shame as I was hoping to get to play this game one day.
 
S

Seanspeed

Banned
As good as it looked, I'm just not interested in backing an 'episodic'-based Kickstarter. I don't want to support 1/3rd of a game only to find they don't have the funds to finish it.
 
F

Felsparrow

Neo Member
Also, I thought we'd graduated away from uniformly brown art in video games. All the work looked more muddy brown than Quake.
 
C

ComputerMKII

Banned
Mdk7 said:
As promised, here is my interview with Ljubomir Peklar, the Game Director of Scorn.
Hope you guys enjoy it (Italian transcription is here).



I seriously think this should get some coverage from the usual outlets, but apparently they are too busy talking about other stuff to give some exposition to a project like this... And frankly, this whole situation really saddens me, because without some kind of cover tons of people won't even know about the existence of such a game.
Click to expand...

The game and the story (of lack thereof) seem very frustrating. I don't like that darksoulsification of narration.

I realize that in the instant gratification world we are living in
Click to expand...
Oh, there's that strawman again. Yeah, the developers sound like dicks, too.
 
G

gabbo

Member
Seanspeed said:
As good as it looked, I'm just not interested in backing an 'episodic'-based Kickstarter. I don't want to support 1/3rd of a game only to find they don't have the funds to finish it.
Click to expand...

This was the main reason I didn't back it. I liked the devs approach, even if it wasn't th best one for KS
 
I

Indrid Cold

Unconfirmed Member
Shame this looked really interesting/unique though I have no interest in episodic games. Giger/bekinski style is way too une used. Hope they can revive it at some point.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Arsenic13 said:
I'd just say stubborn and idealistic.
Click to expand...

Completely un-fucking-realistic, too. I mean, why do a group of relative nobodies think they can pull down nearly $250K US for a first episode of a something barely described or shown to prospective backers? What an utterly ridiculous funding goal for their campaign approach and for their lack of pedigree.
 
J

Just_myles

Member
It being episodic is a no go for me. I want everything. Hopefully, they will find time in their days to work on this. Seems like a real shame and I am willing to wait the possible years for them to get this off of the ground.
 
N

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Yeah, this Kickstarter has about as many red flags as Areal did.

No real progress of some kind of game shown. Hell, nothing really we hadn't seen months earlier on NeoGAF.

Just because you have a cool idea (which is pretty much ALL they had.. and even then.. was it wasn't even a fleshed out idea) doesn't mean you can actually make a real game.

Not surprised this failed.. but you gotta show something more to win trust these days in KS. People aren't stupid.
 
R

robotrock

Banned
I didn't realize this game got formally announced! I saw the first thread when everyone thought this was a Sony Bend game. Kickstarter looked shady, but damn if pulled off it would have been cool.
 
M

Mdk7

Member
Eventually, Scorn will live.

This just showed up as a backer update:

We got some good news to share with you. We have managed to acquire funding for development of Scorn after all. Full production starts in February. Since you supported us when we needed it the most, we decide to give everyone who pledged their reward for free (even the physical items) once the game is released. It's all on us. So send us your email and info to info@scorn-game.com and we will contact you at the end of the production. Once again, thanks for the support. We will do our best to create a great game.
Ebb Software
Click to expand...

These guys are really special, i'm so glad to hear this. <3
 
I

Ionic

Member
I'm thrilled to hear this. After the initial reactions people had when stuff from this game was first shown, I thought it had the Kickstarter in the bag. Hearing an outside source seems to have come to their aid is excellent. I think as the game forms into something more concrete, people will get very excited again.
 
G

GalacticSushiman

Member
f522cb6d570df0a4a2c74fb18c6.jpg
Click to expand...

I am in only if Mick Harris does the score :D
 
A

Arsenic13

Member
I spoke to the team. It's still due for PC with a targeted Q4 2016 release. They're also debating whether or not to go with a two-part release or one because private funding was more than they had asked on KS.
 
G

gabbo

Member
Arsenic13 said:
I spoke to the team. It's still due for PC with a targeted Q4 2016 release. They're also debating whether or not to go with a two-part release or one because private funding was more than they had asked on KS.
Click to expand...

Are you able to post any of your conversation or point us towards it if it's online elsewhere?
 
M

Mdk7

Member
Messofanego said:
Great news! Wondering who stepped up for the funding. Maybe an angel investor or small publisher.
Click to expand...
An angel for sure as far as i'm concerned. :D
The game has LOTS of potential, trust me... They have AMAZING ideas, you will hopefully see next year. ;)
 
Meesh

Meesh

Member
Geez this games art looks crazy! Always been a fan of Giger so I'm naturally curious to see how it shapes up.
 
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