Concept & Process
characters
Wendy
Getting a free hand at turning the script into a game, I figured turning Wendy into the playable character would give an interesting angle into the story. Navigating through a hotel slowly turned into a circus madhouse and trying to escape the clutches of her off-the-rails husband.
While the task called to ignore the film completely — I thought Shelley Duval's performance and look were an absolute staple in the character, and so I used some of her features to give off the same frightened housewife feel.
Enemies
The process for the enemies was an interesting challenge. While the thought that they'll be the hotel's guests (or at least, some kind of ghosts) was obvious, the challenge was blending that into the circus theme.
Since the idea was to make the hotel feel possessed, I wanted to maintain the feeling that the guests of the hotel were normal people that had the hotel seep into them, slowly twisting them into circus creatures. One of the things that felt interesting to play around with was conveying possession — some designs showed the person completely leaning into the evil side, while some designs convey the person being in pain and discomfort.
During research, came up the Pueblo Clowns of the Native Americans Pueblo religion — A Jester being characterized by black and white horizontal stripes across its body. Using that as a starting point for the design already established an off-kilter feel for the character. The black and white design worked well with the formal fashion, and allowed for a blend that felt natural.
Lorraine massey / bathtub lady
One of the most iconic scenes featured Lorraine Massey, a ghost that seduced Jack with the form of a beautiful young woman, only to reveal itself as a rotting corpse of an old lady.
This was a fun creature to design, though it took many iterations to get to something that feels right. Initial ideas featured a creature literally bursting out of the body of a young woman, essentially being some sort of trap-creature that lures the player in. While being a fun idea — it proved hard to convey in a still image, so I opted for showing the creature alone.
Pick-ups & UI
Weapons
Creating pick-ups and weapons was a fun part in the project.
The most iconic weapons in the script featured the axe Jack chases Wendy with, and the kitchen knife she defends herself with. Using those as inspiration, I looked up ways to incorporate the circus theme into both without looking "tacked in".
The most iconic weapons in the script featured the axe Jack chases Wendy with, and the kitchen knife she defends herself with. Using those as inspiration, I looked up ways to incorporate the circus theme into both without looking "tacked in".
Eventually, the knives took inspiration from circus throwing knives, and the axe took inspiration from the designs of the enemies and the decorative lettering used in circus posters of the time. A fun part of the design was finding ways to incorporate the orange smile that is present everywhere in the game, pushing the possession into ordinary items that the player uses as well.
