The director of The Callisto Protocol also cited the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon series as an inspiration for the upcoming game.

Surprisingly, cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants greatly influenced the making of the new horror game. Of course, inspiration can also be found in the most unlikely places. Even if the inspiration is a children’s cartoon, like SpongeBob SquarePants. And the result is a bloody horror game like The Callisto Protocol.

The Callisto Protocol is about to knock, and it’s already been announced that the Dead Space-inspired game will come with a new season pass featuring death animations.

Glauco Longhi, the game’s director, best known for his work on horror movie sets and games like Uncharted 4 and God of War: Ragnarok, spoke to The Sun about The Callisto Protocol. In the interview, he described how gore is the game’s greatest strength. He explained that he drew some inspiration for the animations and enemies from cartoons. He then mentioned SpongeBob as an example. SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most iconic Nickelodeon characters, but that alone would not explain how he could inspire a bloody horror story.

“Even some cartoons, like SpongeBob. We look at cartoons on stylization and movement because, although it’s super real and immersive, we stylized a lot of things to make them more appealing.”

“So some of the movements, and in the case of the gore, the blood, and how we remove the limbs, there’s a push of style to emphasize some of these actions. Cartoons do that very well. Disney, Pixar, or whatever – they give you the message right away. If there’s a fast character, you get it right away [from the] strong silhouettes.”

Glauco Longhi says cartoons are an excellent inspiration for emphasizing style. Because they are designed to convey a message and emotion immediately displayed to the viewer. So although SpongeBob SquarePants was intended to convey a different message, the same technique can be applied to a completely different entertainment medium, such as the horror and violence depicted in The Callisto Protocol. Read more in the interview about the body horror of The Callisto Protocol and its inspirations. Also, about the realism of the gameplay.

It’s definitely interesting to see how a completely different end of the entertainment spectrum has been used to create this highly anticipated horror game.

Perhaps fans of both genres, light animation and horror, will enjoy the game in the making. The trophy trailer for The Callisto Protocol is now online, and sadly there’s nothing SpongeBob SquarePants related to it. But it’s still interesting to get a first-hand look at the creative process for a game of this size.

Source: The Sun