GrayChild
Member
Steam :: ILL :: Dev Diary #1: The Art of Building Worlds
Welcome to the very first entry in our new Dev Diary series. From time to time, we’ll be appearing here to share behind-the-scenes insights, stories, and challenges from the development of ILL. For this first chapter, we want to take you deep inside one of our most ambitious locations and talk...
Welcome to the very first entry in our new Dev Diary series. From time to time, we'll be appearing here to share behind-the-scenes insights, stories, and challenges from the development of ILL.
For this first chapter, we want to take you deep inside one of our most ambitious locations and talk about how art and architecture came together to shape a space that feels alive, oppressive, and unforgettable.
The Beating Heart of the dark FORT
Our story takes place in a huge research FORT. It is isolated, industrial, and mysterious. And within it there's a certain location that serves as a central hub - the very "heart" of the hidden infrastructure. Here, players will witness the scale of the colossal structure, uncovering its vastness not only from the outside but also within. At its core lies a massive turbine installation that not only powers the FORT but also weaves into the gameplay: exploration, traversal mechanics, resource use, and puzzle-like interactions all find their place here. So, players will have to undertake serious work here to find a way to forge their path forward.
Creating such a space required more than imagination. Our team dived into real engineering research: studying turbine systems, logistics of offshore platforms, and experimental projects from the late '80s to ground our vision in plausible reality.
Architectural Roots
The backbone of this process was architectural expertise within the team. With ceilings towering over 40 meters and monumental metal structures holding everything together, proportions had to feel both believable and overwhelming.
The main visual inspirations came from brutalism and constructivism: exposed concrete, raw steel, and the imposing beauty of industrial design. These references helped us craft an environment that feels simultaneously monumental and suffocating.
Traditionally, horror thrives in tight corridors - but here we challenged ourselves to create dread inside a vast hall. Achieving that balance became one of the defining goals of the art process.
The Turbine That Breathes
A gas-turbine installation is an example of the large and really technically detailed structures that we're creating for the project. Unlike many purely fictional designs, this system was grounded in real engineering. The team studied how turbines operate: air intake, compression, combustion, and power output, along with the auxiliary systems that keep such machinery alive.
The design draws inspiration from industrial projects and experimental engineering of the 1980s. To reflect that legacy, the turbine was envisioned not just as a single machine, but as part of a larger logistics hub. Its scale, proportions, and placement inside the FORT were all carefully balanced to feel both monumental and believable.
But the turbine is not just scenery. At certain points, you will have to interact with it directly - bringing its systems online and dealing with the consequences of setting such a giant machine in motion.
Architecturally, the turbine reflects the same mixture that defines the FORT itself: brutalist concrete forms fused with intricate metal frameworks, where raw utility meets experimental ambition. The result is a structure that feels authentic, as though it could exist in reality - and at the same time unsettling, looming over the player as an industrial heart that never stops.
Between Light and Darkness
Lighting proved to be one of the toughest challenges. In a space of this scale, you cannot simply flood everything with sunlight. Players need to see the important points of focus, yet at the same time feel the immense weight of the surrounding void.
Our solution was contrast: the glow of lamps, the hum of machinery, the steady beeping of instruments - all against shadows stretching endlessly between towering columns. A flashlight will never pierce far enough. Wherever you turn, there are spaces without form, impossible to define.
And so you move forward with your back to the darkness, never certain of what might be there.
The aim is not shock, nor gore, but the quiet terror of standing in a space too vast, too silent, too indifferent to your presence. A place that reminds you that, in the end, your imagination is the most frightening monster of all. Or not. Because in ILL, horrific Aberrations generated by a mysterious entity can await you around any corner. And here something is dying to meet you as well…
This concludes our first Dev Diary. We'll be back with more glimpses behind the curtain. Thanks for joining us at the start.
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