Lovecraftian horror continues to expand fright lovers libraries with new games coming out that are based on various terrors! Adding a few other inspirational horror tales and leaving players practically defenseless against creatures from another world is Movie Games with their upcoming title, Lust for Darkness!
Planning to launch in Q4 of 2017 on Steam, this psychological horror will be about seeking satisfaction on the border of two intertwining worlds. The plot will have erotic and occult themes guide the protagonist through the Yelvertones' Victorian mansion and a perverse land that is inspired with Lovecraft's works and paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński.
Intrigued by the trailer, featured at the bottom, I wanted to know more about this game and so reached out to speak with Michał Ciastoń, the producer and game/level designer.
Interview with Ciastoń
What inspired you to create this game?
"Lust for Darkness is a game that we, as players, would like to play ourselves. Simple as that. You enter a mansion filled with cultists, some mysterious ceremony starts, you wander about trying to understand all that. And then you notice something you should never watch, but it is so fascinating, that you can’t stop looking. Something that seems terrifying, but at the same time it holds some truth about you. This is the sensation we continuously seek in various media. Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”, Nic Pizzolatto’s “True Detective”, or the works of Lovecraft and Beksiński can be called, to an extent, our influences, and have been sifted through the sieve of our sensitivity."
How long has it been in development?
"The game has been in development for 1,5 year. The summarized development time is definitely enough to go all the way and unleash everything that lurks in our heads, and rework it into a game."
What makes your game differ from those in the same genre?
"First of all, we strongly touch upon erotic themes, which, until now, have been given the cold shoulder by the community. We have made it into our main theme and worked it into horror canons. Thanks to that, our main goal is not frightening the player witch jump scares or gore elements (although this does happen to an extent). We show the player a different, monstrous world full of ecstasy. And ask the question: is this kind of being not the essence of Everything? Our world revolves around the topic of sex. Maybe experiencing continuous, never ending pleasure really is the answer to the search of happiness? This all may seem abstract, but… is it really?
This hitting the psychological notes is the core of our game. And when it comes to gameplay, the player will be able to freely use portals to transport himself to the alternate world. Item interactions are also conducted, in our opinion, in a satisfactory way."
Will there be any two player modes?
"There will not. In the journey through the mansion and the world of Lusst’ghaa we are alone."
Would you say it will be game play or story focused?
"We mostly focus on story and atmosphere. Nevertheless, gameplay is very important - it has to support the story line and not knock the player out of the mystery search rhythm.
The answer then, is not unequivocal, but we definitely lean more towards the story."
What kind of enemies can players expect to face?
"At a certain point, the player will encounter the creatures of Lusst’ghaa, but the Victorian mansion from Willard Yelverton may also not be entirely safe. I don’t want to disclose any details, let’s leave that to the players."
What kind of weapons will be available?
"We follow the lovecraftian rule - the hero is almost defenseless against creatures from another dimension. And we stick to that - no weapons. And even if there were any, they wouldn’t be of much use. Also, “fighting’ of various kinds is a small part of our game. Exploration and atmosphere - first and foremost."
Who is your target audience?
"We will surely catch the interest of fans of exploration-based and horror games. The horror genre itself has recently been stuck in kind of a stasis, and games which try to take different directions are certainly worthy of attention. I’m not saying that we considerably escape the genre, at least not gameplay wise, we just try to direct the story and atmosphere to unusual tracks."
Which part of development has been your favorite?
"That is most certainly the beginning stage, when out of nothing we create new concepts and first effects come to life very quickly. Those are very dynamic, creative moments filled with inventive passion. The second favourite stage is facing the public, when we show our creations to the world.
Great reception at Steam Greenlight was an amazing motivation and an assurance that we are heading in the right direction."
How long will the campaign take to complete, roughly?
"At the moment we project three hours of gameplay. However in exploration games a lot depends on the extent to which the player wants to delve into a given story, so the duration may increase or decrease based on exploration style. We are a small team and go for quality, not quantity. We are not interested in making fillers and pretending that we are able to create a dozen, several dozen hours’ experience with just a few team members. We want to tell a story, and that’s what we do."
Check out the Teaser Trailer:
I am really looking forward to this game, especially knowing it will be in my favorite style of horror; defenseless! I look forward to trying to survive my way through a mysterious game and finding my satisfaction of the two intertwined worlds!
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