Core Decay

Lore & Background

Core Decay began as a personal side project by Ivar Hill while he worked as a professional game developer. Hill, citing his love for games like Descent and Deus Ex, aimed to create a game that borrowed elements of emergent gameplay from those AAA titles, though as a one-man team he could not achieve their full depth. He selected the Unity engine due to his familiarity with it and to allow strong multi-platform support, initially developing the game simultaneously for PC and mobile platforms, with only control schemes differing between versions. The game world uses low-resolution models and textures to serve both a retro shooter feel and the constraints of a small development team. Later, support for mobile platforms was abandoned, and development focused solely on PC. As the project progressed, additional personnel joined to assist with programming, music, and art. 3D Realms later partnered with Hill to publish and co-develop the game.

Reader's Guide

Core Decay represents a modern homage to the immersive sim and first-person shooter genres of the 1990s, specifically drawing from Deus Ex, Descent, and System Shock. Its development story highlights the challenges and adaptations of a solo developer scaling up with a publisher partnership. The game's emphasis on player choice—allowing combat to be optional, hacking systems, and exploring environments—aligns with the emergent gameplay styles that defined its inspirations. The detailed damage model, tracking injuries to specific body parts with debilitating effects, adds a layer of tactical depth. Although still upcoming, Core Decay has garnered attention for its philosophical sci-fi narrative set in a future of ecological collapse and corporate dominance, and for its deliberate use of low-resolution graphics to evoke a retro aesthetic. Its shift from multi-platform to PC-only development illustrates common indie project pivots. The game's significance lies in its attempt to revive and refine classic gameplay mechanics for a contemporary audience, while its legacy will depend on its eventual reception and influence on future indie immersive sims.

Did You Know?

• Core Decay was initially developed simultaneously for PC and mobile platforms, but mobile support was later abandoned.
• The game uses low-resolution models and textures to achieve a retro shooter feel and accommodate the small development team.
• Ivar Hill created Core Decay as a personal side project while working as a professional game developer.

Gameplay & Design Philosophy

Core Decay positions itself as an atmospheric immersive sim, placing the player inside a first-person world where exploration is the primary engine of progress rather than linear combat. The player navigates environments by talking with non-player characters, gathering scattered logs and messages, infiltrating computer systems through hacking, and—when the situation demands it—engaging enemies in direct firefights. While first-person shooting sits at the mechanical core, the design philosophy explicitly treats it as optional for advancing the story, encouraging multiple approaches to any given challenge. Character growth is driven by discovering cybernetic implants hidden throughout the world, each one unlocking tangible upgrades like increased damage resistance, heightened offensive power, or refined hacking capabilities. Perhaps most distinctive is the game's granular damage system, which tracks wounds to individual body parts rather than a single health bar. Sustaining injury to a specific limb or organ produces targeted debilitating effects, forcing the player to manage their physical condition with the same care a survival game demands. This layered approach rewards methodical play and deepens the sense of a fragile, vulnerable human body navigating hostile territory.

Plot & Narrative Setting

Set in a far-future world where ecological collapse has shattered the old order, Core Decay opens in a landscape where national governments have dissolved and been supplanted by vast corporate entities that now wield absolute power. Against this backdrop of civilizational decay, a shadowy coalition of conspirators has assembled with a singular, desperate mandate: preserve the survival of the human species by whatever means are necessary, no matter how morally ambiguous. The player-character's journey begins in disorientation—waking inside a cold storage pod with no memory or context for what has transpired. Strikingly, the character is now described as being as much machine as human, suggesting a profound transformation has already taken place before the narrative even starts. From this point of total uncertainty, the player must push through the dangerous, labyrinthine installations owned by this enigmatic organization, piecing together their true intentions and the full scope of their plan. The narrative structure thus mirrors the gameplay: discovery through exploration, with the truth of the world revealed gradually rather than handed to the player upfront.

Development Journey

Core Decay originated as a deeply personal side project for Ivar Hill, who was already working as a professional game developer when he began building the title in his spare time. As a solo creator, Hill acknowledged he could never replicate the sheer scope and depth of the AAA titles he admired, but he could distill and reimagine key elements—particularly the emergent, player-driven gameplay that defined those landmark experiences. Over time, the project grew beyond one person, with additional contributors joining to handle game programming, original music composition, and visual art. Hill chose the Unity engine for practical reasons: his existing familiarity with the platform and its robust multi-tool support. Initially, the game was built simultaneously for both PC and mobile devices, with the only distinction between versions being their respective control schemes. However, mobile support was eventually dropped, and the project narrowed its focus to PC exclusively. In a significant step, veteran publisher 3D Realms came on board to co-develop and publish the game, lending institutional backing to what had begun as a one-man passion project.

Inspirations & Aesthetic Identity

Core Decay is explicitly framed as a philosophical sci-fi adventure, and its creative DNA is rooted in the golden age of 1990s gaming. Hill has cited Deus Ex, Descent, and System Shock as the primary wellsprings of inspiration, and the game's design philosophy—emergent player agency, systemic interaction, and narrative depth—echoes those titles directly. Yet the visual presentation deliberately pushes in a retro direction: despite being built on the modern Unity engine, the game world is constructed using low-resolution models and textures. This is a conscious aesthetic choice that evokes the look and feel of classic first-person shooters from the late '90s, while also being a pragmatic accommodation for a small development team that cannot produce photorealistic assets. The result is a game that feels simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking, honoring the atmospheric, player-empowered design language of its inspirations while presenting it through a contemporary technical lens. The low-fi visual style reinforces the grim, industrial tone of the narrative, making the corporate installations feel cold, utilitarian, and deliberately unpolished.