Inspiration can come from anywhere. In any creative medium, it isn’t uncommon for people be inspired by the work of others. The same applies to game development, as some developer can be inspired by the visuals or mechanics of another title and incorporate some unique version of them into their own title.Void Bastardsis no different as it has taken inspiration from several different titles, though Jonathan Chey revealed to DualShockers that one visual comparison to Ubisoft’sXIIIsurprised developer Blue Manchu.
When it comes to gameplay influences, Blue Manchu’s Jonathan Chey referenced quite a few titles includingXCOMandTotal WarforVoid Bastard’sstrategy game elements andRogue Legacyfor the quirky character traits. While the visual design is said to be “Art Director Ben Lee’s unique vision” the game is going for a comic book inspired look and even took some visual cues from games likeReturn of the Obra DinnandOutlaws.
Following the game’s announcement though, several people compared the game’s art style toXIII,a stylized FPS that was released by Ubisoft Paris PC, PS2, Xbox, and GameCube all the way back in 2003. That being said, Jonathan said the team at Blue Manchu actually didn’t have that game in mind at all during the design phase, which made the frequent comparisons somewhat surprising to the team:
“TheXCOMseries for its standout blending of a strategic overgame with tactical action. TheTotal Wargames on that front too.Rogue Legacyhas obviously been influential to a lot of games for the way each new character has interestingly different traits.Return of the Obra Dinnwas a key inspiration for the art as were old sprite shooters likeOutlaws. Although we’ve seen lots of comments since the release of our trailer along the lines of “looks likeXIII”, weirdly, we kind of forgot about that game during development!”
DualShockers full interview with Blue Manchu’s Jonathan Chey will be going live tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, you may learn about thelessons from the developmentofSystem Shock 2andBioShockthat carried over intoVoid Bastardsand why Blue Manchu doesn’t want tocall the game a roguelike.Void Bastardswill launch for PC and Xbox One in Early 2019.
