MERCH!
Giant Bomb - a website about video games and the people that make them

Games That Inspire Me

by cabbagesensei

Each of these games have elements in gameplay, aesthetic, and emotion which I would love to somehow replicate in my (hopefully) future game designs.

Showing 1-5 of 5 items

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The atmosphere of doom and sadness that exists throughout the game world; how interacting/playing a role in the lives of non-playable characters actually makes you care for them; the payoff you get from seeing what happens to those NPCs at the end of the game.

Shadow of the Colossus

2. Shadow of the Colossus

The feeling of intense isolation; the companionship you feel for Agro; the epic-ness of the battles; the puzzle aspect in finding how to defeat each Colossi; the subtle plot which leaves interpretation to the player.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Its clever story-telling, weaving many different characters into the plot; playing mind tricks with the player; its incredibly intuitive magic system; the paranoid feeling of never knowing if what you are seeing is real.

Braid

4. Braid

The ending; its music and art; the challenging (but fair) puzzles; making obvious references to games which served as inspiration; its progression from happy aesthetics to darker ones; the ending.

Portal

5. Portal

Its dark comedy; the creepy vibe achieved by the omnipresence of GLaDOS; the final battle, which combines the creepy and comedic aspects so well; how it's a non-violent first-person perspective game; its puzzles which required a lot of lateral thinking. - how it makes you care about an inanimate box - the end-credit song