School’s out

While I was at EGX Rezzed a few weeks ago, I saw some amazing indie titles, but few stood out to me more than Negative Atmosphere.

The lead developer on the game, and CEO of the studio, Calvin Parsons, described it as a sci-fi third-person horror game in the spirit of Dead Space, mixed with Alien Isolation, and loads of other horror games, like Resident Evil. He wasn’t wrong. Dead Space is a big part of Negative Atmosphere’s DNA, from the space horror aesthetic, to an over-the-shoulder point of view and a minimalistic HUD that projects out of the main characters back.

It was a very impressive demo. Even in the bustling “Unreal Showcase” room at EGX, the game managed to immerse me into its terrifying spaceship. Pools of blood and still-twitching corpses litter the floor, fire bursts through pipes as your spacesuit adorned character walks down a tight metal corridor towards a lone limb on the floor. Under the dismembered arm, is your first weapon.

You walk further and suddenly sirens begin to blare, the spaceship enters lockdown. Doors begin to shut, a voiceover urging extreme caution plays. As you run to an exit, a door stutters open, and out pops your first sighting of the enemy. A humanoid, sprinting towards you, grunting eerie speech-like words as it goes. After downing the creature, green lights usher you towards the next area as bright orange warning lights shine frenetically. As you travel, a roar comes from behind you, suddenly a swathe of monsters descend upon you.

Of course, I am basically as good as an esports star and defeated them all. I ran towards another door. Again, it opens, but this time a me-killing robot pops out. “I’ve been expecting you” it triumphantly says as it stamps on my face.

You can watch the version of the game I played here.

The demo was short at only 5 minutes long, but I was entirely convinced of the concept and so wanted to talk to the people who had worked on it. I took off my headset and looked around. A couple of guys were already chatting to some fellow players, but alone stood a man in a leather jacket. Thinking that he was just another player, I thought I’d talk to him while I waited. He was sucking on a long gummy sweet at the time.

Meet Calvin

“Hey, how did you like it?”

Then the penny dropped. This guy worked on the game! Frankly, I was a fool and underestimated him entirely. “Pah, he’s far too young to be working on a horror game” my 21 year old self incorrectly assumed.