A portion of a Nintendo Life interview with co-creator, Seth S. Scott...
NL: What are the aesthetic and mechanical influences for Membrane?
SSS: I definitely am extremely inspired by other indie game devs and teams. Playdead, Tomorrow Corp, Amanita Design, Jason Rohrer, Fullbright. I would say all of these devs, along with many others, influence all aspects of my work but more so in design aspects than aesthetically. For Membrane, the aesthetics were born out of functionality and scan-ability for the player.
I wanted levels to be clear and easy to parse for the player the second they saw them, so I came up with the idea for the hot & cold, Day-Glo colour palette. Things would easily be distinguishable from others and easily paired together if their colours matched. It then grew into this semi-psychedelic inner-body motif because we liked the idea of this organic and weird world setting. What can't you put inside a body eh!? Then I knew I wanted the world to feel detailed, tactile & tiny.
Jess and I love exploring small worlds in games and we really wanted the world of Membrane to feel aesthetically alive, but also worked to make sure it wasn't too cluttered with set dressing or distracting to the player. We wanted the aesthetics to be satisfying and satiating to the player but always lead their focus back to the gameplay and puzzles within each level.
from GoNintendo
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