Costume Quest is a rollicking Adventure/Role-Playing game that unfolds on Halloween night across seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhoods, a mysterious village carnival, and a monster-infested shopping mall. Created by Double Fine's lead animator, Tasha Harris, the game follows the adventure of a group of young friends who must rid their neighborhood of monsters using only their wits, their bravery, and their home-made costumes. Players go door-to-door collecting candy, points, cards, battle stamps and quest assignments as they prepare themselves for Combat Mode-where they transform into larger-than-life versions of their costumes. Each costume that comes-to-life provides its own unique set of superpowers that players will need to battle Halloween's worst monsters.

Inspirations Behind Costume Quest

Homemade costumes

One of the main influences of Costume Quest was my own love for Halloween growing up, and the fantastic costumes that my mom would make for my younger sister and I – magicians and devils for me, princesses and brides for my sister. A couple of the real-life costumes that ended up making it into the final game were the Unicorn and Space Warrior.

Labyrinth

This 1986 film starring David Bowie’s crotch was one of my favorites as a kid. The Goblins (designed by Brian Froud) were a great reference for the enemy designs in Costume Quest, and the goblin city in the film provided inspiration for the monsters’ home world of Repugia.

The films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

Ever since seeing “My Neighbor Totoro” while studying animation in college, I have been a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. His studio’s animation has a lot of beauty and subtlety to it – kids behave like real kids, rather than a caricature of children. When developing the look of Costume Quest, with its painterly backgrounds and cel-shaded characters, we often used Studio Ghibli’s films as reference.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

I hate to admit that I’ve never completely finished Wind Waker – hey, blame the long sailing sections – but this is one of the coolest looking games I’ve ever seen. Its cartoony style has helped it hold up very well despite being made over 7 years ago. Even with their simple designs and lack of voice-over, the game’s characters are remarkably appealing and expressive.

EarthBound

Throughout the years there have been a few select games that keep me going back for replays. EarthBound, a Japanese developed, turn-based RPG released for the SNES in 1995, is one of those games. When planning Costume Quest’s neighborhood layouts, we studied maps of Onett (EarthBound’s opening village) and how they positioned their buildings and roadways for the locked isometric camera angle.

The unique, modern settings and quirky humor are what set EarthBound apart from other RPGs (enemies you face in the game are “Ramblin’ Evil Mushroom” and “Extra Cranky Lady”). Whenever I go back and replay EarthBound, I get a warm, nostalgic feeling, and I hope gamers will end up feeling the same way about Costume Quest.

Tasha Harris // Project Lead, Double Fine Productions