Medium Rare, a dungeon crawler RPG inspired by Resident Evil, stands out through an unconventional visual approach: its grotesque art style is built entirely from stock photographs. The game casts you as someone attempting to rescue your wife from a human meat factory in a world where global resources have collapsed and cannibalism has become industrialised. What draws immediate attention, however, is not the premise but the game's distinctive aesthetic, which combines dithered photography with pixel art sensibilities to create a uniquely unsettling atmosphere.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Medium Rare follows the grid-based dungeon exploration formula typical of the genre, but introduces a combat system with its own twist. Enemies are positioned on a three-by-three grid, with their distance from your position directly affecting the damage you deal. Dice rolls govern combat outcomes, and weapon selection becomes critical to survival chances. The game borrows several mechanics from the Resident Evil series, including tile-based inventory management, infected enemies that actively hunt the player, and rare safe spaces scattered throughout the dungeon where you can rest and recover.
Creating the Visual Style
The game's striking appearance comes from a process called photobashing, where real photographs are processed through Photoshop and heavily dithered to produce crunchy, sickly-looking assets that blur the line between photography and pixel art. Developer Giovanni Fim shared details of this technique in a development video, demonstrating how stock images are transformed into the game's visual elements. This approach represents a deliberate artistic choice in an indie landscape often dominated by conventional aesthetics.
Design Philosophy
Fim emphasised the importance of visual distinctiveness in a crowded marketplace, noting that standing out requires finding approaches that remain uncommon on digital storefronts. He stressed the value of iteration and focusing on specific visual concepts that define a game's identity, rather than following established trends. His philosophy centres on being bold enough to rise above what he calls the "slop" of derivative indie games, using extreme stylistic choices as a way to capture attention and create something memorable.
Medium Rare demonstrates how unconventional artistic techniques can serve as a primary draw for players. The photobashing method, often overlooked in modern game development and further marginalised by the rise of generative AI, proves effective when executed with intention and clarity. The game's ability to immediately signal its unique identity through visuals alone validates Fim's approach to design.
Prospective indie developers can access a demo of Medium Rare on Steam, where the game is also available to wishlist. The full release is scheduled for 2027.
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