How Sci-Fi novels influenced our game

[h3]How Armor and The Forever War Shaped Alter Evo[/h3][p]About six months into the development of Alter Evo, we pivoted from a traditional horror game into a sci-fi horror game.[/p][p][/p][p]What pulled us in was the worldbuilding side of sci-fi — especially projects like Neon Genesis Evangelion, where elaborate technical designs of monsters, cities, and organizations exist alongside the psychological journeys of emotional characters. That mix of the technical and the emotional really appealed to us, so we dove in.[/p][p][/p][p]After reading some more “standard” sci-fi like Roadside Picnic and sci-fi manga like Gantz, we eventually stumbled into a subgenre that clicked immediately: military sci-fi. This made sense for us, since we were adding combat to the game.[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][p]Military sci-fi tends to focus heavily on combat, weapons, and military organization. Everyone knows Starship Troopers, but we were looking for darker material — and we found it in two particular books:[/p]

• [p]Armor by John Steakley[/p]
• [p]The Forever War by Joe Haldeman[/p]

[p]Both books balance emotional and psychological depth with heavy attention to science, engineering, and the details of imagined enemies and technology.[/p][p]Below is a side-by-side look at the aspects of each novel that influenced us most.[/p][hr][/hr][h2]Enemies[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]Scramblers are amorphous, multi-limbed creatures capable of rapidly adapting their physical forms.[/p]
• [p]They lack any clear central nervous system or organs, making their biology difficult to understand.[/p]
• [p]Scramblers communicate and perceive the world in ways incomprehensible to humans. Their communication may not even be language-based.[/p]
• [p]They use electromagnetic fields and other non-verbal signals, which makes interaction or understanding extremely difficult.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]The enemies resemble ants: numerous and individually weak.[/p]
• [p]They are bipedal despite having six appendages.[/p]
  • [p]Top two appendages function like long punching arms[/p]
  • [p]Middle two are similar to human hands[/p]
  • [p]Bottom two are legs[/p]
• [p]They are capable of wielding human weapons, which adds to their unsettling nature.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]Power Suits & Technology[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]Power suits use internal energy systems to allow soldiers to run fast and jump high.[/p]
• [p]They connect directly to the human mind, recording the pilot’s first-person experience.[/p]
• [p]Suits can refuel using the energy of dead soldiers.[/p]
• [p]Large, clunky design — similar to a StarCraft marine.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]Power suits are extremely powerful, comparable to those in Armor.[/p]
• [p]They have a steep learning curve due to a logarithmic force multiplier.[/p]
• [p]Heat exhaust vents are part of the suit’s ventilation system, which can cause lethal accidents when combined with certain environmental gases.[/p]
• [p]Travel suits used for high-speed space travel compress the human body inside fluid tanks to withstand massive G-forces.[/p]
• [p]Minor fitting errors can result in horrific injuries, such as a character having her abdomen sliced open during travel.[/p]
• [p]This reinforces the theme of imperfect, untested equipment and the disregard for soldier safety by the bureaucratic war institution (UNEF).[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]Combat[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]Grenades, lasers, and heavy melee combat.[/p]
• [p]Melee is used frequently — often more than lasers — to punch enemies directly.[/p]
• [p]Power suits can be detonated to cause a small nuclear blast with a quarter-mile radius.[/p]
• [p]An injured soldier is sacrificed inside an enemy hive to accomplish this.[/p]
• [p]Strong focus on terrain, landscape, and structures, which define battles and pace encounters.[/p]
• [p]Extremely high death rates — both humans and aliens are treated as cannon fodder.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]High-powered lasers that malfunction at high temperatures.[/p]
• [p]Massive force fields that are impenetrable from the outside, forcing enemies to cross slowly through the border and sometimes resort to primitive weapons.[/p]
• [p]A pistol-shotgun hybrid used on dystopian Earth to fend off criminals and thugs.[/p]
• [p]Tachyon weapons function as advanced nuclear arms, capable of inflicting massive damage.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p] [/p][h2]Tone & Psychological Focus[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]Soldier-commander relationships are deeply negative: distrust, paranoia, fear, anger.[/p]
• [p]High likelihood of death creates widespread discontent and desertion.[/p]
• [p]Heavy focus on the inner psychology of the soldier.[/p]
• [p]Protagonist Felix hates battle, but trauma forces him to survive when pushed past his limits.[/p]
• [p]He expresses a desire to die and experiences moments of suicidal ideation.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]Time dilation caused by collapsar travel alienates soldiers from their past.[/p]
• [p]William Mandella returns home after his first tour to find his mother dying and the world drastically changed.[/p]
• [p]Civilian life becomes dystopian and unsatisfying; war feels like the only remaining “home.”[/p]
• [p]Each section of the book reveals a humanity increasingly distorted by time.[/p]
• [p]The novel spans over a millennium, creating an epic and existentially dismal tone.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2] Character Relationships & Sexuality[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]No deep relationships among main characters, reinforcing isolation.[/p]
• [p]Romance is limited to Jack Crow and Forest, whose turbulent, lust-driven encounters stem from shared trauma.[/p]
• [p]Nathan Kent is an “idol” soldier treated like a demigod, but ultimately sacrifices himself to save Felix.[/p]
• [p]Felix remains emotionally detached, struggling with survivor’s guilt and constant fear. Bonds exist, but are superficial due to the brutality of war.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]Soldiers engage in recreational sex in the barracks (“sacking”) to stay sane; this behavior is institutionally supported.[/p]
• [p]Mandella develops repressed jealousy when his preferred partner, Marygay, sleeps with others.[/p]
• [p]Eventually, Mandella and Marygay become monogamous and live happily together.[/p]
• [p]Mandella fails as a leader — his subordinates distrust him and eventually mutiny.[/p]
• [p]He wins his final battle anyway through force-field strategy and tachyon bombs.[/p]
• [p]Mandella loves his mother deeply, but her death leaves him with no family.[/p]

[p]Quote: “And as far as being a leader, you do have a certain potential… you would have to lead from empathy, compassion… Which means, you're right, you'll make one hell of a bad officer unless you shape up.”[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]Character Incentive[/h2][h3]Armor[/h3]

• [p]Felix has no real choice — he is drafted or forced into the war.[/p]
• [p]He is driven more by fear than ambition and exists largely as a victim of circumstance.[/p]

[h3]The Forever War[/h3]

• [p]William Mandella joins due to compulsion, societal pressure, and the promise of prestige.[/p]
• [p]His enlistment is not ideological or patriotic, but shaped by external forces in a dystopian future.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]Closing Thoughts[/h2][p]Both Armor and The Forever War show how military sci-fi can balance large-scale combat and technology with human psychological trauma. That balance — the mechanical alongside the emotional — became a core influence on Alter Evo, teaching us that world building can help tie logic driven concepts like combat and technology into the emotional inner lives of characters without making them seem "robotic".

In other news - we recently pushed an update to our demo fixing lag spikes during combat on lower end devices and adding in red UI hit reactions when shooting enemies because that is was Killing Antidote does and it helps with knowing when you did damage.

Download our demo here:
[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Our recent optimization efforts were in response to some feedback from the YouTuber LevelUpWithSarah, you can see their playthrough (and some performance issues) here. We are very grateful for the video because it helped us discover a bug we did not know existed.
[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
Happy Holidays - we will have more updates in early January.

Best,

Technical Fiction[/p]