Lovecraft Maps?

[The Rock Worm]

What I like the most about Lovecraft, is that it pits mankind against the whole universe, and does it so well that the smallness of humanity is the terrifying bit. In Doctor Who, when the spider people is revealed to have created Earth just as a place to nest in, that was a Lovecraft moment for me. That's what I loved about Tennant too: He brought Lovecraft into Doctor Who.

I've never watched Doctor Who and I don't really want to but presumably that's a major spoiler. Maybe you want to wrap some spoiler tags around that?

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Well, not that I want to SPOIL anything for anyone that hasnt read it but, the Dunwich Horror features a monster that is totally invisible. Being totally invisible, it is a little easier to model than, say, Cthulu itself.

Rockworm... "Even though I haven't read any lovecraft stories, I could base on a Lovecraft area"
lol, as I said, there is nothing about the places themselves that Lovecraft writes about that is interesting, it is what happens there (i.e. the story that Lovecraft writes) that makes them interesting.

The real problem with all this 'Making a Lovecraft CS' business is that, the best part about Lovecrafts stories based on the so-called Cthulu Mythos, is how utterly incomprehensible the situation is. The principle of the inter-dimensional alien god horrors is meant to be something that your mind finds difficult to deal with, like the story about the asteroid hitting earth with the 'new colour' in it. This incomprehensible horror theme lends itself extremely well in literature, where Lovecraft is relying on your imagination's constant involvement in building the picture in your mind, but in a Game? I'm not so sure it could be pulled off, certainly not well, and almost certainly not by a bunch of amateurs like us Then again, be fun to try!

The sky really is the limit in this case. It depends on the amount of imagination the developers have how well it can be pulled off. Yes, when you create a game you have to arbitrarily design environments and characters to be experienced in exactly one way (well, you have different interpretations of course, but the appearance never changes), whereas literature spends much of the time giving a general description. Reading a story that explains the environment in such tedious detail that you know where everything is including how the drain pipes on houses are designed or stupid stuff like rocks would just be unbearable. In a game however this is mandatory. You cannot cut any corners with the environment or the game world is not going to feel real.

So, just because all the unspeakable horrors and unearthly objects will be totally arbitrary in their appearance doesn't mean the idea itself is necessarily lost IMO. Call of Cthulhu: DCotE proved that Lovecraftian games can work. It nails the atmosphere and sense of helplessness which is the most distinctive part of Lovecraft's stories for me. It will always be best in literary form of course, but I think saying it cannot or is necessarily difficult to do is incorrect. It will be changed and some things will be lost but the core will always remain and the rest of the stuff is up to the developer to fill in. If you can't do it it's just because you don't know how, not because it can't be done. IMO at least.

I've heard of Call of Cthulhu: DCotE and was sad to hear that because Headfirst went bankrupt we don't have sequels of that game. I haven't played it yet, but looks to be the same style game graphics. This led me to think that, if Headfirst could do it, either Frictional Games or one of us could do it too. (Who knows, maybe the Frictional Games folks are reading this discussion and getting ideas for a new game after Amnesia 2 right now ).


"It nails the atmosphere and sense of helplessness which is the most distinctive part of Lovecraft's stories for me" Yes I too have heard this of Lovecraft stories (or inspired tales of Lovecraft's works). I have a neat story idea that I believe fits this atmosphere, be a fun custom story, and be not too difficult to make.

PS: If you want, I can PM you me story idea and get your feed back on it.