Only two days to go until EGX Rezzed, and one of the games we're looking forward to seeing most is Team Junkfish's first-person horror title, Monstrum. Ahead of packing plenty of spare underwear and heading to the show, we caught up with the dev team for a little chat...
Could you give us the brief elevator pitch for Monstrum?
Monstrum is a procedurally generated horror game set on an abandoned cargo ship from the 70's. You're trapped on the big empty wreck and all your escape routes have been damaged. You need to scour the ship for parts to fix them, but you're not the only one on there...
How does Monstrum riff on the traditional survival-horror formula?
We do a few different things. The most obvious is the level generation, so the room layout, traps and item placements are different every time.
Next up are the monsters themselves. They're AI driven, so don't follow any preset paths or events and will react to things you do on the ship.
Another could be the ship itself. As far as settings go you have the typical abandoned asylums and hospitals, but a few folk on the team always carried the notion that they were a broken window away from being a pretty useless labyrinth. A ship out at sea on the other hand isn't quite as easy to escape from.
Can you tell us a bit about the unique monsters at the heart of the game?
They'll kill you. A lot. Here's a scientific recreation of it:
There are lots of games emerging with an emphasis on procedural generation. Why is it important, and what does it bring to this particular game?
For us it's all about recreating that feeling of the unknown, making sure that you don't know what could be around any corner.
Familiarity and repetition lessens the impact of any event, or in a more specific example: horror games. We wanted to make a horror game that you could replay over and over and never have the same experience twice, so you would always be wondering what's around the next corner.
For others, I think they may have similar ideas in terms of replayability and getting the most out of what they have. Although procedural generation doesn't mean you discard any and all level design!
Monstrum's in early access currently, how has that assisted the dev process, and what's the feedback from the community been like?
It's been pretty good! Lots of people have been pointing out bugs and issues that we've not caught due to things like different hardware, so we're really grateful for that. And the general reaction has been great too!
What can Rezzed attendees expect from Monstrum at the show?
Lots of screams. We'll have an Oculus DK2 with us too should anyone be willing to step up to the plate.
What's your favourite, most awesome, badass, excellent thing about Monstrum?
Seeing so many people share all their scares online. It means that we've managed to do what we set out to do, and we're not even finished yet!
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Huge thanks to Team Junkfish for taking the time to chat with us. As stated above, you'll be able to scream yourself silly with Monstrum on the show floor at EGX Rezzed, with an Oculus DK2 set up for those of you with nerves of steel.
Remember that every EGX Rezzed ticket holder will be eligible for a trio of free games from Size Five Games. You can find out more regarding our EGX Rezzed Free Games Giveaway here.
Monstrum is currently in Early Access, and will be coming soon to GMG.
Fuzzy_Pixels