Surprising Inspirations

A few examples of unlikely source material for dialogue systems

House of Leaves

This bestselling novel shares traits with the perspective shifts used by William Faulkner in books like As I Lay Dying, becoming a touchstone for developers such as Jake Elliott experimenting with evocative text formatting.

Roguelikes

These are an increasingly regular inspiration for story-based titles, with their emergent systems and wide range of randomly generated possibilities finding their ways into games including Ambition:AMinuetinPower.

TombRaider

Some of inkle’s most prominent inspirations for HeavenlyVault are adventure games like TombRaider. Games that, though they step outside the bounds of the ’pure’ adventure, tell a characterful story in a 3D world.

T h e L a s t Ex press

This wildly ambitious adventure game is another inspiration for inkle’s Heavenly Vault. Set aboard the Orient Express, players are left to solve a mystery as events occur in real time—and so crucial moments can be missed.