If I could award a game 10/10 for sheer art and confidence in a style, Necrophosis: Full Consciousness would be that game. Made by artist and founder of Dragonis Games, Ares Dragonis, this eerie, atmospheric horror game is heavily influenced by Zdzisław Beksiński and H.R. Giger, as well as the Cthulhu mythos, but has all manner of original ideas of its own to unnerve you with.
These inspirations aren’t new to games; Blades of Fire and Lords of the Fallen 2 pick up the Beksiński influence, and Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, as the name suggests, is all in on Cosmic horror. But Necrophosis is weirder and more poetic than all of those. "My goal was to create something inspired by Beksiński's work rather than copying it," says Dragonis. "The one piece that did help me was the painting from 1972 featuring the large hooded stone figures standing beside a massive pathway."
What you get with Necrophosis are these drifting, decaying environments where gods are relics, architecture feels grown rather than built and lost souls are found embedded in walls, tombs and temples – still managing to give teasing puzzles even if it means pulling stuff from their chests. At the heart of it all is artist Dragonis, working almost entirely from instinct, pulling in traces of Beksiński’s haunted landscapes and a bit of Giger’s biomechanical creature design, but never really settling into either, instead letting it all blur into something more personal.
In the interview below, Dragonis talks through how that world took shape. You can read my review of Necrophosis: Full Consciousness for a deeper dive, but below, discover how it all came together.
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CB: How did you translate Lovecraftian cosmic horror into visuals without leaning on the usual tentacles-and-eyes shorthand?
Ares Dragonis: As an artist, it comes to me naturally. My goal was to create a mysterious and cryptic world, a world that does not obey the universe’s rules. To achieve that, I had to establish in-game that this world exists billions of years after the destruction of the universe. Instantly, that cosmic vibe exists in the subconscious mind of the viewer.
This world feels like a museum for gods, which suggests that something terrible happened long before. All the powerful gods are now mere monuments and trophies, and that immediately gives the viewer a sense of cosmic scale. Through narration, story, and visuals, I point out to the player that everything is insignificant compared to something even more mysterious – our protagonist. That sets the mind into a state where it starts imagining the unthinkable, scratching that Lovecraftian cosmic horror feeling without making it feel forced.
CB: What does “cosmic horror” actually mean to your art team when you’re building environments day to day?
Ares Dragonis: All visuals are solo work by me, from the tiniest item to the colossal buildings and gods. For me, it’s like an art piece slowly emerging from my subconscious. I imagine things piece by piece, and eventually they all become one fitting puzzle. Honestly, sometimes it feels supernatural.
Cosmic horror is not something standard in my mind, and it doesn’t hold a specific stereotype for me. I think of cosmic horror as something grand, and instantly my mind starts generating ideas that even surprise me. Then I bring them to life through my 3D character modelling skills.
There are days where I spend 15 nonstop hours in front of my PC, designing entire levels within a few days. I can’t really explain it – it’s like I can sense the vibe behind it without needing to define it, and it comes out naturally. It feels like there’s a world living somewhere in my head, and when I find the right inspiration, it spills out like a grenade.
CB: How directly did Beksiński’s work shape your world’s look and mood?
Ares Dragonis: It helped me create the foundation of how my world would feel and look: decayed, horrific, but at the same time beautiful. There’s also this strange feeling that something greater and eerie exists behind it all. Beksiński’s art helped me choose the right colour palette for the atmosphere and understand how colours can strongly affect the subconscious mind.
CB: HR Giger’s influence feels strong here, too. How did you avoid slipping into homage or imitation?
Ares Dragonis: Only around 20% of the inspiration came from Giger – most of it came from Beksiński. I like how Giger emphasizes bone-like surfaces within textures and environments, and I adapted that into my own style in a way that would still fit alongside Beksiński’s influence.
CB: Where’s the line between influence and originality when working with such iconic visual languages?
Ares Dragonis: The goal for every artist chasing uniqueness is to stay within the borders of inspiration while transforming it into something personal. Every artist has an identity that comes out subconsciously. Once an artist recognises that, the only thing left is to trust themselves and allow self-expression through the creative process, without constantly thinking “I must stick to this exact art style or texture.” That’s how artistic identity is born.
CB: How did you approach “surreal decay” so that it feels systemic rather than just decorative?
Ares Dragonis: I first establish the theme in my mind, then I avoid following a strict stereotype or formula for how I approach the next model. Instead, I follow the feeling the artwork needs to express to the viewer while still maintaining the thematic appeal.
It would be easy to rely on the same 20 brushes or repeat the same painting techniques for every model, but I try to make each model unique while still preserving a cohesive visual style.
CB: What’s the trick to making spaces feel both organic and architectural at the same time?
Ares Dragonis: For example, in Necrophosis I use formations of bones stretching across surfaces. That makes the environment feel infected and decayed while still maintaining an architectural structure underneath.
CB: How important is negative space and visual ambiguity in building tension?
Ares Dragonis: Negative space and visual ambiguity are extremely important because they allow the player’s imagination to complete what is missing. When everything is fully explained visually, the mystery disappears very quickly. I prefer to leave spaces that feel empty, massive, and uncertain, because the human mind naturally tries to understand what could exist there.
Visual ambiguity also creates tension because the player is never fully sure what they are looking at — whether something is alive, dead, organic, architectural, or even understandable. That uncertainty creates discomfort in a subconscious way. Sometimes what you don’t show is far more powerful than what you do show.
In Necrophosis, I use scale, darkness, silhouettes, fog, and distant structures to make the player feel small and lost inside something ancient and incomprehensible. The emptiness itself becomes part of the horror.
CB: Beyond Lovecraft, Beksiński and Giger, what unexpected influences helped balance the visual design?
Ares Dragonis: To be honest, it’s not something standard. As an artist, my mind stores images and themes I don’t even consciously remember, and they come out naturally in my work. Sometimes I even surprise myself and realize later where an idea came from. Other times, I won’t even recognize the inspiration until I see a similar image online afterward.
That happens because I trust myself as a creative artist and allow my skills and imagination to flow freely.
