Game Concept

Working Title

Outpost Zero

Concept Statement

You’re a soldier sent on a mission gone wrong to investigate a secret moon research base, all the scientists are already dead when you arrive, and there’s a mysterious blue substance everywhere. With your mission compromised, you’ll need to fight, jump, and blast your way across the desolate base and moon to discover what happened, gathering evidence for your employer, and attempting to reach your ship and escape.. if you can.

Genre

• 2D Platforming Action/Adventure

A 2D Platformer-style genre was chosen as I believe this genre best represents the concept of this game, providing verticality to show off and explore intended game mechanics, and a more simplified play style. A Top-Down style will not be as readily able to demonstrate the same freedom of movement that the side-scrolling platformer genre affords.

Concept Creation Process

My concept for this project was inspired by long-standing personal interest in space and sci-fi, a favourite show/book series (The Expanse by James S.A Corey), and some of my favourite childhood games – the original Ratchet and Clank games on PlayStation. The core idea of escaping from a secret moon base is loosely inspired by a storyline in The Expanse, where the protagonists investigate a secret project on a distant and hostile moon only to find the base abandoned with a monster on the loose - prompting a quick and perilous escape. My concept aims to adapt or modify this storyline to suit a game format, introducing evolving objectives, upgrades, and potential collectibles to create a more dynamic, engaging - and hopefully fun - player experience.

Audience

The audience is your sci-fi oriented teenage to adult casual players, regardless of their familiarity with 2D platformers. My goal is to create a game that’s accessible and enjoyable without being overly difficult, and playable at a slower pace. 

While I would like to include optional challenges and mechanics for more experienced players given enough dev time, the primary focus will be on delivering a fun and approachable experience first with tight/fluid movement and simple but fun gameplay mechanics.  Doing so will enable the players to feel like they can make progress and have fun – progressing and exploring through the game world without needing to learn complex platforming concepts.

Competitive Analysis

This game will draw on some thematic inspiration from horror sci-fi titles such as Dead Space and Metroid, with some gameplay cues and mechanics taken from popular platformers such as Hollow Knight and Celeste (the latter having excellent movement mechanics); but simplified for a more accessible difficulty curve, and to better meet my inexperience and time constraints. 

Celeste, Maddy Makes Games Inc, https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/

Axiom Verge is another platformer that has similarities to this concept, while it excels in delivering tight controls and intricate level design, it also leans heavily into challenging combat and complex progression systems. In contrast, this concept aims to capture some of Axiom Verge's sci-fi atmosphere and creative mechanics, while dialling back the intensity for a less frantic experience.

 Axiom Verge, Thomas Happ Games LLC, https://store.steampowered.com/app/332200/Axiom_Verge/

Overall, Outpost Zero strikes to find a balance between the classic horror style of dark, gritty and intense, and a lighter, more vibrant and simple aesthetic style and gameplay. A focus on simple approachable mechanics and gameplay will set it apart from the aforementioned more complex or punishing counterparts which seem less aimed at casual players.

Game Treatment and Concept Images

Backstory:

You control a solo mercenary soldier, undertaking what should have been a simple and straight-forward mission to a non-hostile secret research base.. but as you explore, you discover that the mission is not what you expected. Find your way back to your ship, fighting for survival through the hazards of the remote and hazardous landscape, and mysterious figures that don’t seem to need a vacuum-rated suit to survive.

Key Features:

• Gradual introduction to core movement and mechanics: The opening area eases players in with simple platforming challenges, steadily introducing new obstacles and increasing traversal complexity as they progress.
• Smooth and Tight movement: Fluidly navigate the tight corridors and open spaces of the base and moon.
  • Slow to medium primary movement speed
  • Would like to implement some extra features such as:
    • Coyote time
    • Dynamic jump height with key hold
    • Wall sliding/jumping
      
    • Ability to slightly alter direction when character is falling
• Challenging Environmental Obstacles: You’re on an inhospitable moon in the middle of nowhere, with no breathable atmosphere, and a hazardous landscape. Survival won’t be easy, you’ll need to find oxygen refills and avoid deadly hazards
  • Sulphur pools
  • Limited Oxygen (refill outposts?)
    
  • Limited lighting - Dark areas that require a light
• Gear Upgrades: Explore the game world to find upgrades and gadgets to complement your abilities, enabling you to run, fly, climb, shoot and grapple your way back to the ship.
  • Compressed gas EVA manoeuvring thrusters - low power in atmosphere, used to double jump or dash
  • Grapple Line (maybe?)
  • Extra oxygen tank
• Collect Evidence: A compromised mission doesn’t mean a failed mission! As you fight your way across the landscape, collect evidence from creatures you’ve killed and scientists you find.. maybe if you collect enough it will help explain what happened?
  • Scanner - collect samples from different enemy types
  • Collect datapads from scientists

Concept Art:

Outpost Zero will consist of a mixture of minimal pixel art combined with some lighting, particle, and possibly shader effects to enhance the look and feel of the game (figure 8 further down this section demonstrates particles, lighting and shaders used in combination with pixel art in the game Sheepy, but to a larger degree than planned in this concept).

My goal is to create my own art assets where possible, but I am also aware I need to be realistic about the time involved in doing so, and my lack of actual experience drawing pixel art. Initially the game may use free assets (tile sheets, characters, backgrounds, etc) made available by other artists, potentially modifying them to better suit the game theme and attempt to keep the art style consistent. As the game is developed, there may be opportunity to introduce my own art.

Figure 1 below illustrates a similar style to what the game should aim for aesthetically, albeit this shows a mystical forest setting instead of the dusty surface of a moon.

 Figure 1: Green Forest (1), Kingkersharks, https://www.deviantart.com/kingkersharks/art/Green-Forest-1-671250580

 Colour Palette:

The game will use a muted colour palette of blues, purples, greys, and browns to reflect the moon outdoor environment, and a more clinical selection of whites and greys to represent the internal area of the research base starting zone. A quick palette was mocked up, however is subject to change.

Figure 2: Example colour palette, Isaak Cole, Adobe Photoshop

Further Example Images and Concepts:

The below examples help loosely convey a general idea of the direction the game should take.

 The first part of the level shall start in an abandoned research base, taking on a clinical, minimal and cold design with monochromatic colour palette. From there, the player moves out onto the surface of the moon where purple, blue and grey hues convey the cold and hostile environment. Figures 3 and 4 below help convey the general feeling that this game should adopt, in addition to Figure 9 further below.

Figure 3, Generative AI concept, prompt: "Can you generate a pixel art level inside a secret research base, in the style of a 16x16 pixel art platformer game, using white, grey, black colours, representing a level made from a tileset?"
Figure 4, Generative AI concept, prompt: “Generate a concept art image for a soldier in a black and grey exosuit facing a mutated humanoid with glowing blue eyes, on a desolate moon (such as Ganymede), with integrated background, some platforms, a dark night sky, glowing blue, with blue purple and grey themes, in 16x16 pixel art platformer style for a game?”, ChatGPT 4o, Generated 10/04/2025

The primary player/protagonist is a soldier wearing a vacuum-rated combat exosuit, dark in colour, with a large visor. ChatGPT was able to generate a reasonable approximation of what I envision this player character to look like, shown in Figure 5, and also a version of the semi-humanoid mutation as shown in Figure 6 below.

Figure 5, Generative AI concept sprites for player, prompt: “Generate a spritesheet for an exosuit soldier character with dark armor, with different states for standing, running, jumping, jetpack, shooting, and dead”, ChatGPT 4o, Generated 10/04/2025

Figure 6, Generative AI concept sprites for player, prompt: “Could you generate a sprite sheet concept for a vaguely humanoid protomolecule monster, with blue eyes and dark tendrils?”, ChatGPT 4o, Generated 10/04/2025

Whilst looking for art packages that may suit this style of game, I came across Space Pixel Art Pack which includes the following demonstration GIF (Figure 7), which visually illustrates a gameplay type and movement style similar to what this game should implement.

Figure 7: GIF concept demonstration for Space Pixel Art Pack, harald-thorsson, https://harald-thorsson.itch.io/space-pixel-art-pack

Figure 8: Screenshot of game Sheepy by mrsuicidesheep, https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/15947-download-sheepy-a-short-adventure-pc-game-steam/

Figure 9: Pixel art night sky background, Vecteezy, https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/9877699-pixel-art-night-sky-background-with-clouds-and-stars-for-game-8-bit

References:

The Expanse Novel Series, James S.A. Corey, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(novel_series)

The Expanse TV Series, James S.A. Corey, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series)

Dead Space, Motive, https://store.steampowered.com/app/1693980/Dead_Space/

Hollow Knight, Team Cherry, https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/

Celeste, Maddy Makes Games Inc, https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/

Axiom Verge, Thomas Happ Games LLC, https://store.steampowered.com/app/332200/Axiom_Verge/

Sheepy, mrsuicidesheep, https://mrsuicidesheep.itch.io/sheepy

ChatGPT 4o Image Generation, OpenAI, https://chatgpt.com/

Acknowledgement of external assistance:

ChatGPT 4o was used to generate concept images - as credited in inline references - and also in a limited capacity as a tool to proof-read my writing (in addition to family and friends). The model was asked to only provide suggestions, and not provide re-written content.