First of all, as the person who almost single-handedly created one of the best adventure games of recent years, care to introduce yourself to the IndieGames.com audience?
My name is Christopher Bischoff. I'm a 3D architectural artist from sunny South Africa, but I've been a passionate storyteller and hobbyist game developer for as long as I can remember! I'm the creator of STASIS. I've done the artwork, programming, sound and writing the game, while Nic, my brother, was the producer - keeping me in check and working on story and puzzle design with me.
And when did you start working on STASIS?
That's a hard question to answer because in a big way STASIS is a game that was decades in the making. I've always loved adventure games and, like many adventure gamers, have always wanted to make my own game. The official work on STASIS started in the later part of 2010, where I posted work about it online in October 2010. That very same December I started to move from the realm of 'this is a cool hobby for my spare time' to something more focused.
How much did the game evolve from early prototype/idea to the sleek horror point-and-clicker you recently released?
The basic ideas for STASIS have been around from the early days. Before I did any engine development I created a few animated mock-ups of what I wanted the game to feel like. Back then I had the idea of how I wanted the inventory to work and how the interface would interact with the game world, by just mousing over objects for descriptions. The story was still just a loose skeleton to hang these visual ideas on, but the idea of exploring a dead space ship was always there.
In 2012, I decided to scrap all of the graphics and story up to that point - and start over - with a more focused story. Simply put, I'd bitten off more than I could chew! John was rewritten as a father looking for his family (instead of a deep space salvager), and the story of the Groomlake and its experiments fell to the side, instead letting me focus on John, his journey, and the other inhabitants of the disaster struck ghost ship.
Was your Kickstarter success instrumental in releasing the game. Think you would be able to do it otherwise? Would you even be able to get the small but talented team that helped bring STASIS to life join you?
The Kickstater was an incredible boost for STASIS, not only financially, but it showed us that there was interest in the game. I would've certainly finished STASIS without the Kickstarter campaign (I'm a stubborn artist) but it would have taken much longer. The Kickstarter funding allowing me to work on the game full time for almost 2 years was invaluable!
We had many offers from people (artists, programmers, etc.) willing to contribute to the game before the campaign, but I just had no money to pay them for their services! I'm a believer that artists should always be paid for their work, so I never felt comfortable bringing on additional parties with a promise of future work or pay. Having a budget allowed us to pay the contributors to the project and expand on STASIS to make it a better experience.
Working within a budget was also important for scope and 'feature creep'; we had to edit down to around 55 000 words for the final game, which kept the amount of reading to a much more manageable amount.
Now, I'd describe the game as a sci-fi horror point-and-click adventure. Am I right?
You left out the isometric part! But yes, STASIS is a point-and-click game in the same mold as the classics that many people grew up with. I wanted to create a game that brought back those memories of how I felt when I got lost in Cocytus from The Dig or took command of the garbage scowl in Space Quest 5.
And you managed to craft an impressively seamless adventure with subtle UI refinements, puzzles that feel organic and sensible and a rather unique brand of horror. Which were your key design decisions? How did you come up with puzzles that make sense in a sci-fi world?
The interface took a lot of work to get right - and it's something I'd still love to improve on. Keeping it as simple as possible allows the player to focus on the world and the atmosphere, which is something that was done incredibly well in the Dead Space series. By never breaking out of the game world, all of the threats seem more vivid, more real. Some players have even commented on how taking a break to read the scattered PDAs leaves you feeling vulnerable - like something could jump out and end your life while you are engrossed in the smaller crew stories.
For the puzzle designs, we tried to keep everything grounded in reality. John isn't an engineer or a scientist. He can't necessarily rewire an electronic lock, but he sure can pry open a jammed door with a metal pole! The puzzles came from Nic and I talking through them and rationalizing if we were in the same situation, how would we get out of it?
The puzzles always had to advance the story and make sense within the confines of our world. The ship itself has a low-tech feeling with dials and buttons, tube TVs flickering with static... while we do have holograms and nanites, we also have staple guns and crowbars. It was important to us to avoid suddenly adding in magic 'science fiction' elements - things that couldn't be explained simply by graphics and sound.
Oh, and care to share your inspirations and influences?
The world and story are influenced by science fiction, horror films of the 70s and 80s, Alien, The Thing, Star Trek and more recent films like Event Horizon and Sunshine. It's a love letter to all the things Nic and I find cool!
There are many game influences in STASIS too. Dead Space sound design and atmosphere is a model for any space horror game, I feel.
How did you achieve the dark and claustrophobic atmosphere of STASIS? Weren't you afraid that those odd touches of humour might throw players off?
A lot of the atmosphere in STASIS comes from the sounds because sound is an incredible tool to add in detail where there isn't any. Adding in a scratching noise to the other side of a door paints an entire world on the other side of that metal bulkhead.
Light, shadow and color were also very important to the game. Each new section of the game has a specific color palette, making them as distinct as possible from previous sections. Having the strong color palette was also to allow the player to feel that the journey was moving forward and that they were progressing in a very deliberate way. But also allowed us to heighten the sense of doom and foreboding when we needed to.
The labs in the game are purposefully gray-scaled (eliciting a feeling of WWII photographs). The slightly sick greens in Hydroponics are there to give a sense of moisture and damp claustrophobia.
The humor was added to break up the tension in an organic way. If you constantly have an oppressive atmosphere it can start to get stale so adding in smaller touches of humor in the writing and narrative makes those tense moments even more heightened. You can go from feeling safe to feeling scared quickly, and that has more power than constantly having a feeling of foreboding.
Are you happy with having been responsible for one of the most praised adventure games in years?
I think I'm still trying to process it! It's difficult to separate myself from STASIS at the moment. When you've been working on a project of this size for so long it becomes all-encompassing, especially when you're responsible for both creative and technical aspects of it.
I'm glad that people have responded to the passion that we poured into the game. Every action, animation and sound was created with the singular vision of telling this story.
What does the future hold?
We have started to discuss our next project, but for now we're focusing on creating an additional DLC story in the STASIS universe. We have a lot of stories to tell!
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