“Even when I’m working on something new,” Antti says, “it’s very easy to slide back to my old habits and preferences, something that I’m more comfortable with.” Too much familiarity, as Antti acknowledges, stifles art.
[...]
As for faith: according to Eero, one of their favorite tricks is “when a game plays with its UI elements to downplay its scope.” For instance, “you could have an inventory menu with four obvious slots for progress-related major items, but at some point, the game breaks that mold to put a 5th one in there, or a 6th one…” ZeroRanger and Void Stranger are both experiments in obfuscation. Not just traditional video game power fantasies, but gnostic fantasies about breaking through to the greater world beyond.
[...]
“What I’m saying is,” Eero says, “I like to be gaslit by video games.”
System Erasure's Antti and Eero Reveal the Origins of Their Games
I bought this shmup/bullet hell called Zeroranger a few weeks ago, so I decided to draw some fanart as I've been playing it a lot lately. I'm still probably pretty far from the end (Currently on stage 2-2) But it's been fun (and also very challenging) nonetheless!