Look Outside

Look Outside
Developer(s)	Francis Coulombe
Publisher(s)	Devolver Digital
Composer(s)	Eric Shumaker
Engine	RPG Maker
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	March 21, 2025
Genre(s)	Survival horror, role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Look Outside is a 2025 survival horror role-playing video game developed by Francis Coulombe and published by Devolver Digital. The game takes place in an apartment building as a strange phenomenon outside begins transforming those who observe it into grotesque monsters. The player controls a solitary man named Sam as he navigates the structure, exploring different areas, fighting enemies, interacting with other characters, and managing Sam's well-being.

Look Outside began as a game jam submission created in one month. After its initial release, the game received significant attention online, leading its developer Francis Coulombe to begin working with others to turn the game into a full commercial product. Five months after the conclusion of the game jam, the full version of the game was simultaneously announced and released by video game publisher Devolver Digital. After release, the game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its monsters, atmosphere, and environments. The gameplay of Look Outside was received well by reviewers, but its difficulty received mixed opinions, being described as both hard and easy by different publications.

Gameplay

Look Outside is a survival horror role-playing game (RPG) set inside an apartment building as a phenomenon outside begins transforming those who observe it into grotesque monsters. The event is scheduled to pass in fifteen in-game days. In this time, the player takes the role of an uneasy-looking, solitary man named Sam, exploring the structure's halls, interacting with other characters, fighting enemies, scavenging for supplies, and managing Sam's well-being as the worldwide event plays out.

While inside his apartment, Sam can sleep, cook, shower, craft, and engage in various other activities that pass the time; certain actions will help to manage stats such as hunger and hygiene, which may cause negative effects if neglected, though items like cookable food and hygiene products are limited in supply. Sam may also receive random knocks at their door, which he may choose whether or not to answer, leading to numerous outcomes. Outside his apartment, Sam can explore other areas of the residential building, allowing him to find weapons, supplies, and an assortment of different items. During this time, he may encounter hostile and friendly transformed beings. Friendly creatures, as well as other normal humans, can be interacted with, and some may request help; hostile creatures commonly must be either fought or avoided. Certain actions such as killing enemies and stealing items may cause Sam to experience guilt. While outside the apartment, time only passes when exploring new areas, with time passage accompanied by a rising danger level that makes the building more perilous but rewards the player with more experience points upon returning home at high levels. Multiple locations outside of Sam's apartment exhibit impossible, non-Euclidean architecture.

A battle featuring Sam and three enemies; the lower boxed area doubles as a dialogue screen.

General gameplay features a top-down perspective, but for combat, Look Outside uses turn-based RPG mechanics similar to EarthBound, also including a weapon durability system, wherein as a character uses a weapon to attack, they have a chance to damage or break it; weapons have an increased chance of being damaged when performing more powerful special attacks. There are a multitude of different weapons, with each one having its own array of usable special attacks. Look Outside features an enemy distance mechanic, where opponents in a battle may start far away and somewhat obscured, revealing the true extent of their form as they get close, which may act as a potential jump scare to the player. The game has an easy mode and a normal mode, with easy mode making resources more abundant and allowing the player to save anywhere; normal mode only allows the player to save inside their apartment.

Plot

A solitary man named Sam wakes up with a strange urge to look outside. He is distracted by his peeping next-door neighbor Sybil, who soon warns him not to look, explaining that looking outside had uncertain effects on her body. After leaving his apartment, Sam soon finds that neighbors who looked outside took on horrific new forms, being driven to varying degrees of insanity, with many of them also exhibiting erratic, violent behavior. Eventually, he meets a robed man named Aster, who explains that they are part of a group of four astronomers trying to study the phenomenon outside. They explain that the event is caused by an extraterrestrial object passing through Earth's solar system, inexplicably causing grave changes to any living thing that observes it, directly or indirectly. They inform Sam that their group is trying to study the object by gathering any physical records made on it, and that Sam should bring anything he finds on it to the group’s leader, Jasper. When meeting Jasper, they explain that they want to commune with the entity outside, dubbed the Visitor, by using four physical records of its form. The different records Sam may potentially find or create include: a photograph, a VHS recording, a painting, and a written description of the Visitor; however, viewing any accurate depiction of the Visitor's appearance will cause Sam to be transformed.

For two of the game's endings, Sam must first correctly gather and select four offerings to give to Jasper, leading the astronomers to successfully perform a ritual on the building's rooftop, at which time the Visitor is revealed to have the appearance of a giant multicolored eye. However, during the ritual, the four astronomers merge into a powerful creature that fights Sam. They later turn temporarily lucid, during which time the astronomers urge Sam to ask them questions to understand the event but then run before they lose control and attack him. If Sam chooses to stay and successfully defeat them, he ascends into the sky, and the Visitor begins to speak to him. After questioning Sam on the nature of different things, the Visitor explains that it does not want to hurt life, but it had never seen anything like it before and wanted to observe it, its worldwide effects being unintentional. The Visitor decides it would be best for humanity if it left Earth, lastly informing Sam that the eye he sees is not its true form, offering to show him what it really looks like. If Sam accepts its offer, the true extent of its appearance is revealed, but Sam’s mind is utterly destroyed, his body becoming a rapidly growing monster that proceeds to spread across Earth and eradicate humanity. If Sam declines its offer, the Visitor leaves, and Sam finds himself to have transformed into a powerful, monstrous creature. Despite this, Sam retains his sanity, gaining the ability to control all of his new form at once, and using his now considerable power to bring supplies and aid to survivors across the Earth. With Sam spearheading the reconstruction of all cities, society is soon fully rebuilt, and Sam becomes a godlike entity that continually aids humanity.

Development

Look Outside began as a game jam submission for the Hawktober Horrors 2024 competition on itch.io; the game was developed in one month by Francis Coulombe, a Canadian game developer, artist, and animator, using the RPG Maker game engine, its music being made by Eric Shumaker. After submission, it received significant attention online. Francis had been in contact with Devolver Digital at the time due to two other projects, and after showing Look Outside to them, they agreed it had potential, and Francis began working with indie developer friends to turn Look Outside into a full commercial product. Also seeing the original surge of popularity as an opportunity, Francis hoped to finish the game within two months before attention died down; he planned to use the game's traction to introduce his development style to the public, additionally giving support and funding to a larger, more ambitious project titled Malison: The Cursed City, a game he had begun working on ten years before Look Outside's development period. Despite this planned release window, the game took five months to complete. After being finished, the game was released to Steam on March 21, 2025, being officially announced and released on the same day.

When creating Look Outside, Francis took inspiration from the 1989 role-playing game (RPG) Sweet Home, leading to the game's particular mix of survival horror and turn-based RPG mechanics. He also chose to add the apartment's personal upkeep systems to set up the game's resource management mechanics and to make a place where the player felt safe, contrasted with locations outside the player's apartment, where they would feel wary and unsafe. The apartment originally had chores such as cleaning up and washing dishes, but most of this was cut to remove tedium. Francis additionally stated that his use of grotesque pixel art came from his time developing Malison: The Cursed City, which features many similarly grotesque designs.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	83/100
OpenCritic	91% recommend

Review scores

Publication	Score
Shacknews	9/10
CGMagazine	9/10
Siliconera	8/10
Digitally Downloaded	4.5/5

Look Outside received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 91% of critics recommended the game.

Critics praised the game's particular use of horror, as well as its general atmosphere. Jordan Biordi of CGMagazine praised Look Outside for its ability to create genuine horror from its nightmarish monsters and disturbing atmosphere, but still made them feel compelled to move forward, with Lucas White of Shacknews similarly describing the game as being "about that character in a horror movie who foolishly opens the door the audience just knows the killer is standing behind", saying that curiosity is a motivating force and that the game's twisted creativity with its environments and scenarios contributed towards it. Cass Marshall of Polygon and Lucas White of Shacknews both recounted the game's monster designs as being particularly unnerving, expressing that some were hauntingly memorable. Stephanie Liu of Siliconera noted that those uncomfortable with body horror may want to avoid Look Outside, but praised the game's atmosphere as immaculate, further stating that it contributed to the scare factor of most scenarios.

Reviewers responded positively to Look Outside's gameplay, though its difficulty received more mixed opinions. Lucas White of Shacknews described the game as being extremely hard, saying that combat interactions are highly imbalanced against the player, but that the game's easier option was a reasonable compromise for difficulty. Dwayne Jenkins of VICE similarly described the game as challenging, commenting on how the game's normal difficulty will require the player to spend their resources carefully, though also noting that they never gained any party members due to their distrust of other characters. In contrast, Matt Sainsbury of Digitally Downloaded described Look Outside's difficulty as being too easy, saying that after developing a good team, the unknown became more of a hurdle than a menace, further stating that the easy difficulty was the one unfortunate aspect of the game.

External Links

• Official Website