Everything is a remix…
The title of a popular documentary by Kirby Ferguson about music—but really, it applies to everything. Movies, books, games… nothing comes out of thin air. Everything we create is shaped by the stuff we’ve seen, played, read, or heard—whether we realize it or not.
Our game is no exception.
So today, we wanted to take a moment to talk about the media that influenced us—movies, games, and weird little corners of the internet that helped shape Deluded into what it is. Some of these influences might be obvious. Others? Not so much. Let’s dive in.
Mechanics
As you may have already heard, Deluded has been highly influenced by Skyrim mods. Back in the day, one of our lead devs was fiddling a lot with these mods, but he was always struggling to make them compatible and immersive. So creating a game that would fix those issues while taking all the best bits from the mod scene was only natural.
Here are some of those Skyrim mods:
S∗∗Lab Ar∗∗sed inspired our Ar∗∗sal mechanics. with its similar features like: passive ar∗∗sal buildup, nud∗ty checks, resetting the effect upon s∗∗/mas∗∗∗bation, etc.
Blush When Ar∗∗sed and Dripping When Ar∗∗sed
S∗∗Lab Guards—adding s∗∗ual interactions with law enforcers
S∗∗Lab Fill Her Up—support for bellies inflated with fluids
Apropos for attributes system covering: fluids on the body, dirt level, holes wear and tear level.
Various mods for survival, including Frostfall and Needs and Diseases.
Being Female—menstruation and pregnancy mechanics with their buffs and debuffs
Devious Devices—multiple BD∗M devices and gear and their functions like movement/inventory blocking.
What about games?
Most of the corruption mechanics were inspired by a Good Girl Gone Bad visual novel.
Don’t have anything specific to say in regards to Violated Heroine—it’s just a cool Japanese female protagonist game with super detailed systems.
But the game that probably influenced Deluded the most was Girl Life (originally Провинциалка), a pretty old yet classic QSP title. Check out this one and you’ll spot the resemblance right away: game style, life-sim elements, jobs, random events, corruption… Approximately 60% of what we have in Deluded comes from Girl Life.
Plot
The main storyline isn’t directly based on anything, but we kinda adopted the vibe of a creepy-isolated-village from the anime Shiki.
Visuals
Our character design leans heavily on Overwatch and Life is Strange. The UI/UX mixes Life is Strange’s feel and grungy mood of This War of Mine.
For environments, we aimed for a spooky pine forest, and Alan Wake was textbook inspiration.
Honorable mentions
Here I wanted to list a couple of pieces that did not necessarily influence our vision for Deluded—we just noticed the parallels later and thought they were neat.
Twin Peaks, much like Shiki—same rural creepiness, tense atmosphere and residents, who might not be what they seem—fits the Deluded narrative perfectly.
We also really enjoyed the social survival mechanics in Pathologic 2. The way your every action may influence the story, how citizens perceive you and which get to stay alive or not is insane.
That’s it for today’s rather short post! Have you played/watched any of these? Which one is your fave? Does Deluded itself remind you of anything? Let us know in the comments! 🐳
Best regards,
kufe7