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)?
Its 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 havent 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 theres a certain stigma surrounding horror indie games, so standard announcement wouldnt have the same impact. We managed to get in contact with Sony, we sent them our pitch for the game and they havent answered since. We inquired about what is happening but never got any response. Its not as interesting story as it sounds. We just didnt 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...
Its not that there is no plot, we simply arent 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. Whos to say they wont be right. Unlike books or movies video games are something you can experience and experience should be at the forefront, not the story. And lets be honest there arent 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. Im 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 dont care
about cheap thrills like jump scares. Its easy to make people jump when you destroy their ear drums with unexpected loud noise. They are not scared of whats 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 wont 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 wont think: Ok, Now Im 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 wont 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. Its 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 doesnt look good. We cant 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. Im not sure what the decision might be.