Inspirations Behind Artificial Nexus

A few days back, I was watching a video by the always excellent Dungeon Chill, and while scrolling through the comments afterwards, the following caught my eye:

I completely agree with this sentiment - aside from it being an engaging way to discover new media, it also lets you get into the creator's head a bit, or it can be interesting to discover, "Wait, that thing wasn't completely original, but was a reference to something else?"

It occurred to me upon reading this comment that while I've previously written up a post about the inspirations behind my first game, The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen, and I've also mentioned the major inspiration for my third game, One Last Chat, I never did a post about the inspirations behind my second game, Artificial Nexus. Well, there's no time like the present to remedy that. Sit back, put on your favourite sci-fi soundtrack, and let's go through a list of cool media together.

As an aside, while I'll try to avoid spoilers in this post, there will at the very least likely be some allusions to some plot twists or surprise characters, so if you see an entry in this list that you haven't consumed, or if you haven't played Artificial Nexus, consider yourself warned!

Snatcher

I've touched on how this game helped to inspire Artificial Nexus before, albeit more implicitly, so I'll try to keep things brief: essentially, Snatcher got me thinking about the different ways that visual novels can allow for more interactivity while still remaining story-focused. From its general design, I managed to work out the main gameplay loop of Artificial Nexus and how I wanted to present things.

That might sound a bit odd, but think about it: in both games, you're able to visit a limited number of destinations which gradually open up as you explore further. When arriving in a new location, you tend to talk to your companion and look at everything that's there, before moving on. Sometimes, robots appear, and you have to hit the right points that the game tells you to before they kill you. Eventually, you hit a point where you have no idea what the game wants to do, and once you find out the answer you wonder why it was obfuscated beneath so much clutter. Great gameplay, right?

Kidding aside, I genuinely did love the core gameplay loop of Snatcher, and how much freedom it gives you. One element in particular that I really wanted to replicate in Artificial Nexus is its computer JORDAN - it's essentially a police database, and it offers dozens of articles full of world and character information, along with some easter eggs if you search a few specific terms. There are only one or two moments in Snatcher in which you actually have to use JORDAN, but if you enjoy learning about the world and don't mind reading, you can spend around an hour getting through all of its articles. If you've played Artificial Nexus and gotten far enough to unlock the Knowledge Base, you can probably now see where it came from.

The story of Snatcher is by Hideo Kojima, so naturally that sparked a few ideas as well. Aside from the aforementioned robots, there's also a notable moment in both games in which you discover a dead body, and the realisation of whose body it is changes the context of what that character has been up to quite a bit. Can you blame me for deciding to use the idea in my own game? Discovering a body, regardless of story genre, is a great plot element to have.

Operator's Side (AKA Lifeline)

This is a little bit of an odd one, as while this game was an inspiration for Artificial Nexus, it's also one I've never played, and from all I've heard, it's not one I want to play. The general consensus seems to be that its voice controls are clunky at best and that you're less playing the game and more fighting with it, hoping that the phrase you say will be understood.

Story-wise, though? You play as somebody locked in a small room on a space station, who has access to the cameras and speaker system of said space station. Your goal is to guide a young woman around using the resources at your disposal to ensure that she doesn't get into danger. It flips the script on the usual sort of setup; instead of playing as the character who has to save the day, you're playing as the one who's responsible for them and does all of the tech and/or paperwork in the background. That's pretty cool, and it's not something that you usually see.

"But wait," I hear you say, "what does this have to do with Artificial Nexus? You don't play as a voice with an internet connection; you play as Susan, an amnesiac who's guided around the facility she wakes up in." And yeah, that's right; you do play as Susan, being guided by her ally Hank, and the setup is just as standard as I said above.

That wasn't the original intention, however - the initial concept for Artificial Nexus would have had you playing as Hank, and having to open doors and the like for Susan. (There's a reference to this abandoned concept in the full game, when Susan asks Hank whether he could activate some turrets to attack people within the facility; originally, this would have been an actual gameplay mechanic). As the story began getting fleshed out, however - most notably, the questions of who Susan was and why she was in the facility - it increasingly became apparent that playing as Hank wouldn't have made much sense in the context of the game, and that there would have been a hell of a lot of ridiculous answers needed to justify some very obvious problems with the concept. I decided that it would make more sense to play as Susan, and I have no regrets at all in going with that decision.

Still, though, Operator's Side is ultimately an inspiration for Artificial Nexus, and while very little of its DNA remains in the final product, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it. If Operator's Side didn't exist, and if I hadn't watched a random review of it, Artificial Nexus probably wouldn't have been made, and for that I owe Operator's Side a debt of gratitude.

Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid - both the game and the franchise, although I'll primarily be referring to the game here - is a work that's very near and dear to my heart, and you'll have to forgive me, dear reader, as I gush a little about it. Its gameplay is smooth and avoids so much of the clunk of its era. Its story is a complex tale of politics and character development while providing a positive message about not letting your genes define who you are. The areas are all well designed and well-paced, except the communications towers because jesus Kojima have you actually tried playing this section it's complete ass.

The point is, Metal Gear Solid is a work that I absolutely love and find very inspirational, so with that in mind you can see how elements of it made their way into the game. Hank's surname of Emmerich is a deliberate reference to Otacon, because Hank was heavily based on him - the two of them are both your mission support and will do whatever they can to help you succeed in your goal. (Hank's first name comes from Hank Pym, incidentally). Talking to Hank in the different rooms - and with the exact conversation updating as the story proceeds - was inspired by Metal Gear Solid's codec system; it's always a nice way to get a bit of extra information and to flesh out the characters a bit further.

Aside from the character of Hank, I also drew a lot on the story elements of Metal Gear Solid in working out where Artificial Nexus would go. Both games have - and we're really getting into spoiler territory now - the protagonist seemingly achieving their goal only to discover that what they've actually done is enabled the antagonist to achieve their goal, necessitating a last-minute solution and a race against the clock. In both games, a supporting character reveals that they've never been on the protagonist's side, and that they were using the protagonist all along. Plus, there's the dead body thing I mentioned above when talking about Snatcher.

I could go on - there's hidden information revealed after the credits for one final twist, there's a code revealed on the back of the box/in the manual, there's the unlockable eyepatch - but I think that I've made my point. Just know that if you haven't played Metal Gear Solid, you're missing out on an excellent game.

Miscellaneous

These ones are all small enough that it's not worth giving them a whole section to themselves, but nevertheless I hope that you find them entertaining!

• A large, large part of the theme of the game was taken from my general worries about making another game after The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen, which was further bolstered by repeated listenings of the song Live it Out, by Metric. I'll let everybody form their own opinions on how to live their lives, but I know that I'd rather try for something ambitious and fail than not try at all.
• The voice that a certain character sounds like in the late-game was inspired by Icarus from the original Deus Ex game. I hope you were as terrified by that character as I was by Icarus when I first played Deus Ex at the ripe young age of 17.
• The puzzle to find the right disc for the testing computer was inspired by the Jindosh Lock from Dishonored 2 (see the image above). It's a great logic puzzle which is entirely fair, but also requires some fairly copious note-taking to get through and is quite tough nevertheless.
• As with The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen, a lot of the banter and casual dialogue between the characters was inspired by Scott Pilgrim. If you don't like the way I write dialogue, then any of my future works probably won't be for you.

At the start of this post, I opened up with a comment from TannerOfTheNorth about how they hadn't heard of Solaris, but now wanted to watch it thanks to Planet Laika (and Dungeon Chill's coverage of the game). Whether the inspirations that I've listed here are things you love, things you hate, or things you've never heard of, I hope that in reading about them you've gotten a bit of a peek into my mind, and hopefully will be inspired to at least give some of these works a glance. Big, popular works are good and all, but older and obscure media is often just as well-made, and can just as inspirational, if not more.

Are there any elements in Artificial Nexus which you're curious about how they came about? Are there any older works which you've been inspired by, and want more people to know about? Do you want to swap tips about what easter eggs can be found in JORDAN? You can always chat about the above and more via our Discord, or contact me more directly using our contact page. Either way, I hope to hear from you!