Imprinted is an upcoming horror game by Cobalt Lane where players enter the mind of Vince, an audio engineer sitting down for a day’s work, when things start to take a hauntingly creepy turn.
The game presents like an OS simulator, and players learn about Vince, his profession, his personal entanglements and his struggles by interacting with his computer, but as him. Soon, a chilling tale begins to emerge, one that touches on identity, obsession, music – and the unquiet dead.
Soundsphere interviewed the game’s creator, Filippo Beck Peccoz, to learn what inspired him to tell this story and present it in such a unique way.
Imprinted puts players in the shoes as Vince as the horror slowly builds. Image credit: Cobalt Lane
Soundsphere: How would you describe the game Imprinted?
Filippo: Yeah, there are two approaches. So the internal approach would be, I just say it’s a ghost story about creativity, which says a lot and says nothing, so to speak. It’s a bit mysterious and ambiguous, and to an extent, this is also what the game is about. It’s about fitting the shoes of a protagonist, but at the same time not identifying with them completely. So fitting the shoes of a spectator of sorts, and finding out about somebody’s life, and ultimately also about their obsessions and their secrets. This is a huge part of the game.
On a simpler and easier to digest level, I would say it’s a mystery interface drama or fake OS game about the sound engineer unravelling and restoring old tapes by a serious musician from the 1970s. And that will lead you very quickly into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and very weird-sounding tapes. And a lot of loss of control is involved in that as well.
Soundsphere: The game blends psychological horror with music as a really important aspect. Why was music such an important factor in this experience?
Filippo: Yeah, I think that partly that’s because that’s the game I want to make, and also because of my background. I think I always think of music first. When I play games, I always listen to the soundtracks first, I would say.
The idea of Imprinted also has a lot to do with self-expression and creativity. And this protagonist that we’re writing has a sort of frustration, because he’s a great technician. He fixes other people’s art or music, but he thinks of himself as not being an artist, just somebody who fixes other people’s stuff.
So music becomes both his longing and his obsession, because he feels like he’s blocked. He doesn’t really want to share his music with the world. He’s got this problem with himself. So a thought experiment of the game is: what would it be if creativity could reach a point where it gets dark, or it turns into obsession?
And so we play with this dancing on the blade between “creativity is a good thing, it’s always a good thing”, but also this thought: well, what if it actually turns into an unhealthy obsession?
Soundsphere: What was your inspiration to create this game this way?
Filippo: Right. So that’s quite peculiar, since I really didn’t have any desire to create a game for the longest time. I always maybe played a bit with the thought, but never really concretely.
And to tell you the truth, I had a dream about this game. You might know Joseph Fares; he’s the creative director of Hazelight, known for a lot of co-op games. Split Fiction is their latest one. Well, I never met him personally at all. But in any case, I dreamt of this guy. He came to me, and he said, “Well, you should make a game.” And then he told me about Imprinted, the way I’m telling you about it now. It was very clear.
So I woke up, and I remember he said at the end, “Well, just don’t stress it, but you should start right away.” This was maybe about two years ago, and I thought to myself, I should really write this down and see what comes out of it. So I got the name and the general idea right away from there.
And then we started working on it with my good friend and colleague, Alex, who pushed me a lot. He said, “Well, let’s just do a prototype. Let’s just try this and do it.” And yeah, here we are. I have to say, I’m sure it has to do a lot with personal experience and having been a freelancer for music and games for a long time. So it mirrors a bit my experience with the protagonist as well. But the trigger was this dream.
Players can learn about Vince’s life and struggles through his emails, chat logs and other files on his computer. Image credit: Cobalt Lane
Soundsphere: I noticed mental health was a recurring factor with Vince. Why did you choose to zero in on that for this character?
Filippo: Yeah, that’s a hard question for me. I wish I could give you a clear-cut answer to why Vince behaves the way he does. I’m wary of saying it’s very autobiographical, that would be pretty concerning.
Probably, I just thought of this archetype of a person who is very connected through his work. Lots of people write to him, and he has this connection, but it’s a virtual connection, and he rarely gets out of the house. So there’s a sort of loner kind of person that, to a degree, I think we can all a bit identify with, just the way we’re used to communicating for many hours of our day.
It’s great to have this technology. At the same time, it would be great to sit in a pub and talk face to face, you know. So I think this bit of alienation, it’s not necessarily loneliness, but alienation of sorts, is something that I really wanted to infuse this character with. It just felt right to me.
Soundsphere: Was the aim to make the player connect with events, but hide the horror of what’s going on in the normality of everyday tasks?
Filippo: Yeah, that’s a great way of putting it, and I’m very glad that you feel both the connection and the disconnect. I’m trying to make you feel like you’re the ghost in the machine – the voyeur – because you look into somebody’s personal life, but you’re not Vince. But at the same time, you are Vince.
The game even tells you at the beginning who you are. It asks, “Who are you?” and then answers: you are Vincent Brand. Right away, I want to make sure that players feel like they can’t fully trust what the game tells them, and that they have to find out what is going on.
I just like this tension created by not giving players an avatar they can disappear into completely. There’s always this disconnect. I think it’s tremendously exciting to write for and to play games like this.
Soundsphere: What would you like players to take away from the experience?
Filippo: Yeah, first of all, on a more gamey side, I would love to give players the sense that they’re able to create and restore music the way Vince does it with ease. We are simplifying the mechanics, of course, but I love it when people say it really felt like they were Vince and could fix the sound easily.
That’s a nice bit of instant gratification and a good balance in a narrative-heavy game. On a higher level, it’s hard for me to say exactly what I want people to take away.
I guess I want to take players on a thought experiment: what if something we consider familiar and positive, like creativity, could lead to obsession? And what if there’s a lineage of certain people throughout history who are more prone to falling into these rabbit holes, and they connect in mysterious ways? That’s the journey I want to take them on.
Vince will need to make music and clean audio files, but all is not as it seems. Image credit: Cobalt Lane
Soundsphere: Did you have to balance making those mechanics feel authentic while keeping them approachable?
Filippo: Yeah, it’s definitely still in progress. We don’t want to oversimplify, but we also never want players to get stuck on a puzzle and be blocked from the main story. It’s a balancing act.
Some people with audio software experience want more complexity, while others who have never opened such software say it was just the right amount. My guideline is still that the narrative is more important than the puzzles, and it always will be. It’s definitely a narrative game and not a puzzle game.
Soundsphere: Vince’s connection to his dog Hector was a nice immersive touch, with the dog sniffing around in the background. Without giving too much away, is there anything you’d like us to know about the main characters?
Filippo: Yeah, I like that you mentioned Hector, Vince’s dog, who is actually quite important. At some point, we decided to play with the fact that Vince is sitting in his room and there’s stuff going on around him that you don’t necessarily see, but you can hear.
We even tried removing control from the player as Vince stands up to check on his dog, which is whining and barking. We’re making some improvements so you’ll be able to see reflections in the screen — a shadow of what’s happening in the room.
Hector acts almost like a gauge for Vincent’s degrading mental health. As the story progresses, he’ll be a key character in giving players a sense of where Vince stands in his own struggles.
Soundsphere: What other games, movies, books, or stories have inspired you and shaped you artistically?
Filippo: Definitely David Lynch’s whole body of work, especially Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. I always loved Killer7, the game by Goichi Suda. It wasn’t even well-received when it came out, but I loved it instantly — it was exactly the kind of experimental, edgy game with great music that I wanted.
Recently, I’ve been re-listening to a lot of Siouxsie and the Banshees — I got back into a bit of a goth phase. For this game specifically, we’re also bringing in a lot of classical music. We’re working with a series of YouTubers who agreed to appear in the game with their real names and videos.
We’re mimicking a forum, so there’s a bit of fourth-wall breaking there. It goes from classical pianists to hurdy-gurdy players to modern guitarists and bands from Munich. It’s very varied, and I wanted to give them a spotlight and make the game feel more alive.
Imprinted’s music was scored by Charlotte Oleena and can be added to your Steam Wishlist ahead of release later this year.