From Halo to Bloodborne, Foregone devs share their favorite gaming moments and inspirations

Foregone is a 2D action-platformer brimming with loot: from daggers to shotguns, bows to falchions, you’ll quickly find an arsenal of weapons to suit your play style. That’s in addition to the game’s branching skill tree and armor offerings, which provide an even deeper level of customization. Playing as a powerful Arbiter, you’ll unravel a compelling story of regret and conspiracy as you slice your way through hordes of enemies to save the city of Calagan.

Foregone was inspired by a variety of gaming classics: from the rewarding loot drops of Diablo and challenging combat of Dark Souls to the imaginative worlds of Halo: Combat Evolved and breath-taking environments of Ori and the Blind Forest. Below, the dev team shares some of their most memorable gaming moments and how they impacted the creation of Foregone. This is a sponsored post.

Quake (Todd B – Artist)

For me, a big influence is Quake. When we first started envisioning the project, I took the time to dive back into some of my fondest memories in gaming. I wanted to see why they had such an impact on me and if I could recapture that in our game.

Quake had a huge impact on me in terms of visuals and level design. I can remember stumbling into areas in Quake, and I felt like I was the only one to find them. It was not long before I had a hard drive filled with screenshots. My hope is that when you play through Foregone you have those moments and find interesting areas and snap some screenshots along the way.

Diablo (Dino D – Game Designer)

There’s nothing quite like obtaining a powerful drop in Diablo that completely changes your approach to combat. Sometimes these items can be so powerful that entire builds need to be adjusted, but the effort is always more than worth it.

Foregone‘s Skill Tree and Legendary effects are designed with powerful synergies in mind. I hope we can reach a point where the players have enough options to surprise us with their creativity.

Ori and the Blind Forest (Naiha R – Artist)

I think the most memorable moment for me was playing Ori and the Blind Forest and getting blown away by the amazing art and the brilliant use of color.

I see a lot of people who compare Foregone to Dead Cells. But in my mind, especially when it comes to color and small details, most of the work I’ve done has been inspired by Ori. I wanted to add the same attention to detail seen in that game into Foregone.

Darksiders II (Ahmad K – Animator)

Early in Darksiders II, I was introduced to the looting system. I thought, “I’ll probably find a weapon I like and stick to it.” To my pleasant surprise, weapon drops kept getting better. As weapon traits traded one feature for another, I rarely stayed with the same thing for longer than 20 minutes. This kept the gameplay fresh and lively throughout the game, and I’m glad to see it in Foregone. It’s good to feel my choices matter and shape my experience.

Bloodborne (Michael H – Marketing)

I’ll never forget my first “Souls” game and when it finally clicked for me. Technically, it was Bloodborne, but you get the point. For the first 30 – 45 minutes, I had a grueling and frustrating experience trying to make my way through the dreary and oppressive streets of Central Yharnam. And then I had “the run”. After banging my head against a wall for what seemed like hours, I suddenly found myself having made it through the first street completely unscathed. I didn’t feel like I had been improving. And yet here I was, dodging and parrying to my heart’s content. Slowly but surely, through failure after failure, I had been growing better all along.

It was at this point I realized the charm of ‘Souls’ games. I love that, with Foregone, we’ve been able to strike that same balance of difficulty and growth that a player gains through experience and experience alone.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Jayden W – Artist)

The game that had the biggest impact in my life was Halo: Combat Evolved. As an artist, I try to channel the creativity found in the Halo franchise (and other great games I have played) into the art of Foregone with the hopes that it will leave players with the same excitement, awe, and inspiration that games like Halo instilled in me.

Foregone is now available on the Epic Games Store. Come back and let us know if you think the dev team put all of their epic inspiration to good use!