of a shooter got us a more action-oriented experience and increased the game’s poten-
tial for immersion.
So our origins were truly in a combination of gameplay and horror, with both
dependent on the other. It was only through the combination of these two elements that
we were going to differentiate ourselves among the many games that were available for
the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Certainly, there were many shooters on the market, and
also plenty of horror games, but no game that combined both. Without considering both
setting and gameplay simultaneously from the very beginning, our game design would
not have evolved into a game that accomplished what we wanted.
ThoughThe Sufferingwas built on existing technology that Surreal had most
recently used forDrakan: The Ancients’ Gates, that engine was significantly stronger at
outdoor environments and thus was ill-suited to the dark and shadowy confined spaces
of a horror game. From the beginning of the game we knew we wanted to include out-
door environments as well in order to add much-needed variety to the game, but we
also knew we would have to rework our technology significantly to pull off our
action/horror ambitions. Thus our technology was significantly reworked to use portals
that allowed us to include complex and detailed indoor spaces in addition to outdoor
ones. Since our primary starting point for the project was gameplay and setting, our
technology was forced to change and adapt.
Embrace Your Limitations..........................
In many ways, developing a game is all about understanding your limitations and then
turning those limitations into advantages. In this chapter I have discussed how the
designer must understand where her game idea is coming from: gameplay, story, or
technology. With this understanding, the designer must recognize how this limits the
other attributes of the game — how a certain gameplay calls for a certain type of story
and technology, how one story requires a specific technology and gameplay, and how
52 Chapter 3: Brainstorming a Game Idea
The Sufferingoriginated
with the idea of
combining shooter
gameplay with a
distinctly disturbing
horror setting.