Image: The Verge

Alien: Isolation (currently $40 on Steam) is one of my favorite games of all time, and one that’s often gone unnoticed by many. In short, it’s a survival-horror masterpiece full of brilliant design ideas and iconic aesthetic elements.

Because I can’t really play horror games, however, I haven’t been able to play through the game in its entirety myself (I’m also a huge fan of the Alien film series but yeah, I can’t watch it by myself.)

That doesn’t stop me from being a loyal fan to the game (and the team behind the game as well — many folks from Creative Assembly went onto found No Code and develop Observation later on).

This isn’t a review post, just a place for me to link some interesting videos and articles that dive deep into the design behind Alien: Isolation. These are fascinating for hardcore Alien fans and future game designers alike.

How Alien Isolation Survived its Difficult Development by NoClip

I have always loved NoClip’s documentaries, but what’s especially interesting about this one is that in this video, NoClip interviews a few people who were part of the AI dev team but have remained at Creative Assembly, including Alistair Hope (Creative Director since 2008) and Clive Gratton (Technical Director).

As such, you will get to have a rare opportunity to learn about how CA pitched the game to SEGA, which can be quite insightful for small game developers as to what big publish houses are looking for in a new game idea.

Creative Assembly Talks Game Engine Development for Alien: Isolation by AMD

AI is one of the few games from the mid-2010s that got sponsored by AMD (as most are by NVIDIA), and here in this video from AMD we have a look at the engine development process at Creative Assembly.

AI uses CA’s proprietary “CATHODE” engine and I think with the help of CATHODE, AI really, truly nailed two things: the graphics quality and Xenomorph’s AI behaviors.

AI remains one of the best-looking games from mid-2010s even now in 2022. Many of its peers simply can’t compare. On PC it is also incredibly well-optimized — able to run at 300fps at 1620p Ultra settings with a laptop RTX 2070 GPU, which is absolutely mind-blowing (and terrifying, motions this fluid make you question what reality is anymore).

I also would like to point out that AI rarely shows fullscreen loading screens. When the player approaches an unlocked door, the short delay before it opens actually serves as a loading screen.

The Xenomorph AI is also often praised for being highly intelligent. It learns your tactics over time and knows when things aren’t right, which means the player is challenged to change up their stealth methods once in a while.

ALIEN by Dave Addey @ Typeset in the Future Link

This article not only analyzes the many typefaces used in AI — not just the easily recognizable Helvetica but also the lesser known one — but also the glyph system and the unique non-QWERTY keyboard.

I’ve read this article many times and it’s one that I often come back for inspiration.

Tube TVs, VCRs and magnets give ‘Alien: Isolation’ its signature look by Tim Seppala @ Engadget Link

This article talks about how the dev team painstakingly tried to replicate the 70s feel (which was when the original Alien film came out) using VHS tapes and tube TV. I love how Creative Assembly talks about “Lo-fi didn’t necessarily mean crappy”.

Game Design Deep Dive: The save system of Alien: Isolation @ Game Developer Link

The save system.

Oh my dear god the save system. As a game designer I think it’s a remarkable and effective design.

For those of you who don’t know, AI doesn’t extensively employ auto-save. Instead, the player relies on this emergency telephone to save manually in-game. It plays a couple beep tones before the save actually happens.

And you’re not safe until then. The player can actually peek left or right during the countdown, and just imagine the adrenaline rush when you spot Xenomorph marching towards you from the distance…

You sure? Image: Geek’d Out

The system also tells you there’s “hostiles nearby”. What? You didn’t hear anything? Oh well…

It’s also emotionally important: the manual save system offers a momentary sense of relief and achievement after successfully evading the Xenomorph for a period of time, which in itself is a reward to the player’s patience and skill.

Alien: Isolation Digital Series @ IGN Link (YouTube)

If you don’t intend to play the game (you should), this digital series (with blessings from 20th Century Fox) can give you a chance to experience the horror and check out the intricate design details without playing the game. (It’s also now in third-person.)