INTRO
Working in a creative field it is almost impossible not
to be influenced by the works done before. We all have our favourite games,
movies, books, TV series, you name it. On top of that we all feel more or less
nostalgic for something we enjoyed countless hours as youngsters. Those things
often play as a blueprint for what we’re trying to create, some more and some
less than others, but they’re still there, lurking in the subconscious mind.
Game development particularly, is a media where influences
are very clearly there as the inspiration. In some games it might be just some little
thing from the dev’s favourite game, not even that clear to most players. In
some the source of inspiration might be way more obvious and some games could
even be considered as remixes or sequels which were never made (“a spiritual
successor”) of/for some older game. Many devs try to create their version of
their favourite thing or things, or something they saw the potential falling
short, molding it as something they always wanted it to be or thought it should
have evolved into.
Like in any entertainment media, games are also
mashing up different “genre specific” things. And what not a better way to add
something old and something new into the mix, than mashing up different
features, which usually are considered being just in some particular genre. And
by this way create something that can well stand as its own entity.
Enter the Dead
Cells, a game me and my few friends have been playing a LOT lately. Dead Cells is one of those games which clearly has got a quite an
amount of inspiration from not only one, but few games. And by saying this, I am
by NO means criticizing the dev, Motion Twin, no. This is a song of
praise, for a dev who really did understand
what they took and what to mix it with in order to create something special.
Like a Michelin star rated restaurant chef, who knows what some spices add into
the dish, how they work together and what it needs as a main ingredient to be
the masterpiece dish.
In this article I’ll be analyzing (as well as speculating) the things I see as Dead Cells’ main sources of inspiration
– Rogue Legacy, Roguelikes and Castlevania/Metroid-combo. I’ll be deconstructing how Motion
Twin used those inspirations in order to create something of their own, a
true masterpiece of gamedesign, as well as pushing the current buzzword , “roguevania”,
forward, as something we might need to actually start thinking as a legit
sub-genre (note: many people already think that).
