{"id":174252,"date":"2025-12-04T15:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/crafting-a-relatable-sci-fi-horror-world-in-routine-out-today-on-xbox-xbox-wire\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:10:13","slug":"crafting-a-relatable-sci-fi-horror-world-in-routine-out-today-on-xbox-xbox-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/crafting-a-relatable-sci-fi-horror-world-in-routine-out-today-on-xbox-xbox-wire\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafting a Relatable Sci-Fi Horror World in Routine, Out Today on Xbox – Xbox Wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Out today on Xbox, Routine<\/a><\/em> is a sci-fi horror game built around a 1980s vision of the future that takes place on our moon. Routine<\/em> was made with a particular kind of game experience in mind for players, so we\u2019d love to take this opportunity to talk about a few key elements that form the foundation of its art and design.
When we started making Routine<\/em>, we realised that creating a sci-fi world can sometimes conflict with immersion and horror. That is mainly because it is surprisingly easy to fall into the trap of building fantastical environments that end up losing a sense of relatability.
We didn\u2019t let that stop us from exploring more creative ideas, but it did force us to think carefully about what actually needed to be redesigned, and what didn\u2019t.
A chair is still a chair; it doesn\u2019t need to look \u201csci-fi\u201d if its purpose is straightforward. And unless it\u2019s specifically meant to be visually appealing, it should be cost-effective to produce and probably durable before anything else.
Because of that approach, you will often see familiar, relatable objects throughout our more sci-fi spaces. These touches help ground the environment in a believable way \u2014 one we hope players will get completely lost in.
As a child of the \u201880s and \u201890s, I grew up tinkering with all kinds of analogue equipment: cameras, VCRs, CRTs, and more. Their tactility, weight, smell, and even the way dirt collects in the recesses of their chunky designs all carry a sense of character and time.
Modern technology is sleek, lightweight, clean, and unobtrusive. It\u2019s convenient and pleasant to use, but as an artist, it can start to feel like it lacks character and soul. However, it usually doesn\u2019t tell much of a story to me and I really miss that aspect.
That\u2019s one reason why we wanted to build a world inspired by that era. Another came from our desire to imagine how people from the 1980s might envision a believable moon base.
And naturally, it would include a holiday resort, with a mall, of course.
There are many aspects of Routine<\/em>\u2019s design that we could talk about, but I want to highlight one that doesn\u2019t get as much attention as the others, which is our deliberate lack of UI and waypoint markers that guide the player.
We wanted Routine<\/em> to feel genuinely immersive, and part of that meant stripping away UI elements that distract you from the environment you\u2019re standing in.
This was a challenging design choice, because many players have grown comfortable with strong guidance in modern games. And while that approach works well for many titles, with Routine<\/em> we wanted players to find their own way forward.
There is still plenty of environmental storytelling and subtle design guidance, but we often encourage players to take their time, not rush, and pay attention to the world around them. By doing so, you will usually find that the path ahead is actually more straightforward than initially thought.
You\u2019ll also have access to a PDA (Personal Data Assistant) when you encounter Wireless Access Points throughout the world. The PDA stores various types of information, including Tasks, which help keep you on track with your current goals.
On paper, this direction might seem like a small part of the overall design, but in practice it fundamentally changes how you navigate each area, something we had to refine through many, many playtests.
Routine<\/em> doesn\u2019t rely on jump scares. Instead, we focus on gradually building tension and subverting expectations to keep players on edge.
While the robotic threat from our previous trailers is ever present, there is something darker and creepier, something that we\u2019ve only hinted at before. If you watch our new launch trailer you will see a small glimpse of what you will encounter, if you persevere long enough.
From grounding our world in a familiar, tactile design, to imagining an \u201880s vision of our future on the moon, while also stripping away common UI elements to make exploration really immersive \u2014 every art and design pillar of Routine<\/em> was formed by our desire to create a believable and atmospheric horror experience.\u00a0 And from today you can experience it for yourselves on Xbox, including Xbox Game Pass. We can\u2019t wait for you to explore the halls of Routine<\/a><\/em>\u2019s moon base and lose yourself in the immersive world we\u2019ve crafted.
Raw Fury<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out today on Xbox, Routine is a sci-fi horror game built around a 1980s vision of the future that takes place on our moon. Routine was made with a particular kind of game experience in mind for players, so we\u2019d love to take this opportunity to talk about a few key elements that form the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-174252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}