Atrio: The Dark Wild stands out from other survival-automation games in-part due to its use of horror visuals. Horror games remain an incredibly popular genre in 2021, as games like Resident Evil Village prove. Moreover, the tension and pacing of these scary games often appear throughout survival and automation titles too. This tense gameplay loop often acts as a selling point for games like Don't Starve. What is rarer, however, is for automation games like Factorio or Satisfactory to lean fully into eerie aesthetics.
That is not true for Atrio: The Dark Wild. However, the game did not start with horror elements in mind. Isto Inc. designer Stephen Huang spoke with Game Rant about the game ahead of its August 10 Early Access release, and talked about how the game slowly evolved into a creepier experience than it was originally. According to Huang, despite meticulously planning on the market appeal and viability of the title, these spooky visual themes and story elements spontaneously emerged throughout the development process.
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It might surprise some to learn that a game with blood lakes, an encroaching darkness, exploding heads, a lonely android, blinking eyes in the night, and giant drooling punk skull robots originally featured a love story. While a lot has changed since that point, the giants that litter the game's lonely environment were always part of the experience. They served to make the landscape a lot more diverse. Unfortunately for Atrio, the game's original story might not have ranked as one of the best romances in gaming, according to Huang.
"I can tell you, that is definitely not in the game. It was meant to be a love story involving those giants, and obviously they looked different back then. It was driven by a visual aesthetic. I wanted the huge monolithic structures the world to break up the flat monotony of an isometric plane."
While there are many difficulties with romance in games, it is easy to see how a love story might have played out in Atrio. There is already an element of awe that surrounds these monoliths, but the general suspense and creeping tension of the game's horror aesthetics make them fairly sinister. In a love story, that might have had a more wistful, peaceful, sad quality, but that was not meant to be.
So, the love story angle was not working for the game. However, even as the more romantic elements of the story began to disappear, its giants did not. According to Huang, the shift away from the original romance plot happened as the game development progressed and Isto Inc. brought on more people to consult on the game. "Slowly, over time, I hired an editor (as the love story was pretty bad)." He also noted that, "After experimenting with all these visual ideas, the giants started appearing in-game." As such, the giants morphed along with the game's new thematic and narrative direction.
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While the game's story was uncertain at various points, what Huang and the Isto team always had strong plans for its mechanics. Nailing the mechanical pitch for the game was key, Huang said. The developer really liked Don't Starve, but thought the endgame lacked an automation component after such a hard-fought campaign, and so wanted to find a sweet spot between it and Factorio.
"It’s definitely a survival/automation game. That’s the fundamental descriptor. For us, it was both a monetary and passion decision.’"
Unlike some horror games with weak combat, the horror of Atrio: The Dark Wild came from this mechanical basis. Despite a lot of the game's development process being really "planned out," the horror side "just kind of came together."
Huang gave an example with the watching eyes that blink and flicker during the game's nights. Apparently the team "wanted it to be in the dark" so they could "manage power." Of course, pitch blackness isn't massively interesting, so Isto added those creepy eyes. It took a while for Huang to realize, "Oh, we've made a scary game.'
This was ironic for Huang, as he freely admitted that, "I hate horror games. I can't play horror to save my life." Many horror games are too scary for some, but it seems like Huang's aversion to horror was a nice balancing presence during Atrio's development. The horror aesthetics make the game stand out against other survival and automation titles, and look like they will evolve even further during the game's Early Access.
Atrio: The Dark Wild is currently in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
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