{"id":4121,"date":"2025-11-21T18:46:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2026-01-10T23:10:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:10:01","slug":"media-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/2025\/11\/21\/media-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each game idea I had had different branches of research, so I decided to narrow it down to just research for my first game idea<\/a>. This post includes reviews of games, films, and artists, as well as some honourable mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Games<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fran Bow<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Fran Bow<\/em> is a staple in point-and-click adventure games, developed by Killmonday Games and released on PC in 2015. It is a psychological horror game that follows Fran, a young girl who is coping with the gruesome murder of her parents and a horrifying alternate reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overwhelmingly positive<\/strong> reviews on Steam are attributed to the game’s blend of dark fantasy\/horror and cute art style, as well as its approach to themes of mental health and trauma. Although my game won’t include horror elements to that extent, or at all, the narrative and writing are something many players seem to enjoy. From the art style to the soundtrack, the game conveys that underlying tone of creepiness with the whimsical visuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each realm has its own colour palette, but even the brighter ones are unsettling. The colour palette in the kitchen should evoke a feeling of playfulness, but possibly because of its too <\/em>bright colours, it doesn’t seem all that innocent. The other images show darker, less saturated colour palettes, which achieve that sickly and anxious atmosphere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Little Misfortune<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Also developed by Killmonday Games, Little Misfortune<\/em> is an interactive adventure game released in 2019 on multiple platforms. Rather than the traditional “point-and-click” game, the creators described it as an interactive story as they removed the mechanic of an inventory to help the story flow better. Although players felt they would have preferred more traditional adventure-style gameplay, the reception of Little Misfortune<\/em> is overall very positive<\/strong> on Steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking place in the same universe as Fran Bow<\/em>, it also has darker themes presented in a sweet and childlike art style. The inspiration for the art style is similar to what I had in my moodboards: paper dolls, bright colours, and whimsical visuals. I took a lot of inspiration from the environments in this game as they are rich in detail and have harmonious colour palettes. The colour palette in the far right image inspired an environment for my game: a garden with dark blue, purple, and green. Since the inspirations for my game were similar to those of Little Misfortune<\/em>, I decided that leaning into a more monochromatic colour palette for each environment would help my game feel less like a pastiche\/imitation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The main target audience for both Fran Bow<\/em> and Little Misfortune<\/em> is older teens to adults due to the dark themes and humour. Since my game is a little more lighthearted, I believe the target audience could be broader; younger audiences up to adults will be able to play the game (12+). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Machinarium<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Machinarium <\/em>is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game, developed by Amanita Design and released in 2009. You play as Josef, a small robot who must navigate a decaying mechanical city to save his girlfriend, Berta, from a gang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To progress within the game, players can manipulate Josef’s body to explore and interact with the environment, gathering items in their inventory and combining them. There are also stand-alone problems, such as manipulating switches and machinery. Difficulty ranges from quite logical to more difficult and obscure. The game features no dialogue, using animated thought bubbles instead. My game will include dialogue and use the same mechanic of gathering items in your inventory and combining them to progress (also used in Fran Bow<\/em>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Apart from winning multiple awards in several different categories, Machinarium<\/em> has been applauded for its soundtrack, which captures both futurism and nostalgia. The genres include ambient, new-age, downtempo, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Films<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Alice in Wonderland (1951)<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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After chasing a white rabbit and falling into a rabbit hole, Alice enters a nonsensical fantasy world. The film teaches lessons about embracing imagination, accepting change and personal growth, and finding your identity amidst chaos. Alice in Wonderland <\/em>is seemingly the blueprint\/template for the portal fantasy genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The possible lessons from this film coincided with the themes of tarot (e.g. accepting change and personal growth, as well as identity), and since I was doing a game that also fit into the portal fantasy genre, Alice in Wonderland served as a very influential and inspiring piece of media. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Artists<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Evans<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Lisa Evans is a children’s illustrator based in the UK and founded Wabisabi Play in 2018, a company dedicated to making wholesome sci-fi games such as Growbot<\/em>. She creates ethereal and dreamy environments, but is also able to evoke an unsettling feeling in her work. Her characters, usually children or fantasy animals, are characterised by their big, round eyes and hazy outlines. I wanted the design of my protagonist to be cute yet a little eerie, so I used elements of her character designs, such as the big eyes and blurred black outline, in my own art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amy Earles<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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I discovered Amy Earles’ artwork while looking for pins to add to my Pinterest moodboard, and felt heavily inspired by her paper dolls. She is an artist based in Indiana, with her work being a mixture of vintage, gothic, and fairytale elements. Her and, previously mentioned, Lisa Evans’ characters shared big eyes and round faces, which I took a lot of inspiration from for my character designs. The shape of the silhouette was also visually interesting as the poofy skirt\/coat breaks up the delicateness of the limbs. In my review of Little Misfortune<\/em>, I mentioned that they were also inspired by paper dolls for the movement and look of the characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Honourable Mentions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Divination<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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When researching tarot-based games, one of the games that caught my eye immediately from an aesthetic perspective was Divination<\/em>, developed by Mojiken and released in 2019. It is a short visual novel in which you play as a fortune teller in a dystopian, futuristic world. You listen to people’s stories, foresee their future using runes, and the result will impact the fate of both humans and robots. It had very positive<\/strong> reviews on Steam, with people praising the visuals and soundtrack, but seemingly falling short in fully understanding the mechanics of the runes and their outcomes, as well as some of the writing. Nonetheless, it was a rather unique interpretation of tarot and was used as inspiration for my second game idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Persona 4 & 5<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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The popular Japanese franchise, Persona 4 & 5<\/em> include references to tarot cards in their games. I was recommended these games by a classmate, as each character has a tarot card from the Major Arcana that represents their persona or social link\/confidant. It also mirrors the Fool’s Journey in the tarot deck itself, with the protagonists in Persona <\/em>usually being assigned the Fool card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each game idea I had had different branches of research, so I decided to narrow it down to just research for my first game idea. This post includes reviews of games, films, and artists, as well as some honourable mentions. Games Fran Bow Fran Bow is a staple in point-and-click adventure games, developed by Killmonday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4803,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions\/4803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/rp11g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}