Draft:Negative Atmosphere (video game)

Negative Atmosphere is an upcoming indie survival horror video game developed by Sunscorched Studios.

Gameplay
Sunscorched Studios CEO Calvin Parsons described the gameplay as challenging, stating that "hardcore mode is the default mode." Supplies and ammunition are scarce and there are no shops to resupply, forcing the player to scavenge. The game does not feature a locating or waypoint system to navigate the map or complete objectives. Instead, the player must traverse the environment via corridor signs and complete objectives from their own investigation and judgment.

In-game, the player's take control of protagonist Samuel Edwards from a third-person view and fights against mutated monsters and rogue robots. Enemies have different weak points, behaviors, and can spawn at random times. Those that aren't killed will stalk the player and can manipulate the environment to make the player's journey difficult. Stealth gameplay can be used to sneak past enemies.

A morality system exists in which players will learn about the Samuel Edwards' moral values. Depending on the player's choice, making decisions that conform or go against Edward's values will influence the character's mental state and the effects in-game.

The players can also use Edward's medical knowledge to influence the gameplay, such as saving people or combating enemies.

Setting and Characters
Negative Atmosphere takes place in the 23rd century where humanity achieves interstellar travel and space colonization. Humanity is divided between two superpowers: the United Earth Space Nations (UESN) and the Freedom Pact, a federation or alliance of solar nations that oppose the Earth-centric government. The two superpowers are locked in a cold war.

The game's protagonist, Samuel Edwards, is a 49-year-old former UESN Canadian Royal Space Pioneers regimental combat medic who is a veteran of UESN campaign on a planet called Eden-213. There, he witnessed the UESN commit war crimes and genocide against the enemies, which left him traumatized. In the beginning of the game, Edwards is stationed aboard a large starship named the TRH Rusanov as the Chief Medical Officer.

Development
Development of Negative Atmosphere began sometime in late 2018. It was initially developed alone by Calvin Parsons, but later involved a small team. Bloody Disgusting noted that the team members were very young; the oldest being 25 while the youngest was 16. The team consists of at least 11 or more individuals, many who were enrolled in full time education during the game's development. According to Parsons, the team members were recruited through social media and most of them have never met each other in person. The group coordinated with each other through Discord and used Patreon to help fund the game's development.

During EGX Rezzed 2019, Sunscorched Studios showcased a demo gameplay of Negative Atmosphere. In an interview with Blast Away The Game Review, Calvin Parsons revealed that the game's exhibition stand was initially very small but later expanded after Epic Games and AMD took interest in the game and provided assistance. Prior to attending EGX, Parsons stated the game's community size was small at less than 1000 members. Parsons credits that after attending EGX and receiving coverage from a popular Youtuber named "Roanoke Gaming" the community grew considerably, which in turn encouraged the team to upgrade and refine the graphics and designs.

When asked about the game's possible release date and of having early access, Parsons answered in the negative for the latter and emphasized the need for the game to be "fully completed and feature-completed" and not be an "incomplete half-baked product" upon release, using the development problem of the video game Anthem as an example to avoid. Likewise, Parsons stated that loot boxes, microtransactions, and paid cosmetics will be absent from the game, with the only exception being Patreon cosmetic rewards given out before the game's release. Negative Atmosphere was chosen to be released on PC via Steam, with the potential of being released on console.

On 2 September 2019, Sunscorched Studios released a gameplay teaser trailer. While the trailer was generally well received, due to the more updated and polished appearance since the demo gameplay as well as the monster design, the voice acting for the main character was not because of the character's excessive swearing. Sunscorched Studios responded that the character's swearing will be toned down.

On 20 September 2020, a third gameplay trailer was released.

On 23 December 2022, a trailer for a free standalone game dubbed Negative Atmosphere: Emergency Room was released. The game serves as a prequel in anticipation for the main game's release. The game was later released on Steam on 27 January 2023.

Design
During the demo release at EGX Rezzed 2019, the character design for Samuel Edwards and the HUD concept displaying the character's health on the back looked similar to Dead Space protagonist Isaac Clarke in his engineering suit. After the EGX event Edward's armored suit was redesigned and the HUD display was removed.

Parsons listed a number of inspirations that helped shaped the lore and gameplay, including but not limited to: Aliens, Avatar, Star Trek, Ace Combat, the Cold War, XCOM, Xenonauts, Dead Space, Resident Evil, Alien: Isolation, SOMA, System Shock, Bioshock, Fallout, and The Last Of Us.

To capture the horror elements, Parsons stated that Negative Atmosphere relies on building tensions through audio-visual, environmental storytelling, and gameplay events. Jump scares are utilized "sparingly". The difficult gameplay is also meant to influence the horror experience. According to Parsons, by removing the locating system and limiting tutorials the players are meant to feel lost and frustrated and thus feel a sense of tenseness and unease when traversing throughout the game. Additionally, the enemies are designed to be persistent and intelligent in using their environment to their advantage in order to make them feel "alive". For example, one monster called the "Stilt Walker" can trap players by locking and unlocking doors and can cut off power to submerge the area in darkness. Furthermore, the monsters can randomly spawn, which prevents the players from memorizing or plan accordingly in what to expect when they enter an area.

The game's semi-open world environment allows the players to explore different routes when reaching an objective and experience different random encounters between playthroughs. For instance, when traversing a route the player might encounter NPCs, but in another playthrough when traveling the same route the NPCs could already be dead.

Negative Atmosphere is designed with Unreal Engine 4.

Reception
Upon the game's reveal and subsequent development, Negative Atmosphere received positive reception from gaming news outlets and fans due to its similarities and comparisons to the popular survival horror game Dead Space in terms of gameplay, settings, and atmosphere, though some expressed cautious optimism for the same reasons.

Calvin Parsons admitted that Dead Space was highly influential in Negative Atmosphere's development due to every employee at Sunscorched Studios being a huge fan of the game and that the initial direction of was to essentially emulate it. The studio later shifted to create their own universe for Negative Atmosphere while still using influences from other media works. While appreciative of being compared, Parsons stated that he and his team felt "somewhat intimated" at the high expectation of their game being seen as a replacement for the Dead Space series, wanting to stress that their game has its own identity separate from Dead Space. Likewise, Parsons emphasized the differences between the two games with respect to the story, settings, and main protagonist.