Look Outside

Look Outside is a survival horror role-playing game (RPG) set inside an apartment building as a worldwide 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, and scavenging for supplies as they additionally manage Sam's well-being.

Sam can sleep, cook, shower, craft, and engage in various other activities in his apartment 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 receive random knocks at his door that he may choose 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 various items. He may encounter hostile and friendly transformed beings.

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 his neighbors who looked outside took on horrific new forms, being driven to varying degrees of insanity, many of them also exhibiting erratic, violent behavior. While exploring the apartment building, Sam eventually meets a robed man named Aster, who explains that he is part of a group of four astronomers trying to study the phenomenon outside.

He elaborates that the event is the result of an extraterrestrial object passing through Earth's solar system, inexplicably causing grave changes to any living thing that observes it, directly or indirectly. Aster additionally informs Sam that their group is trying to study the object by gathering any physical records made on it, and that Sam should bring any he finds to the group's leader, Jasper. When meeting Jasper, he explains that they want to commune with the object, which they dub 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 transform, resulting in an instant game over.

io. The game was developed by Francis Coulombe, a Canadian game developer, artist, and animator, using the RPG Maker game engine, and its music was composed by Eric Shumaker. Coulombe had previously worked for the indie studio Tales of Game's Studios, where he contributed sprite art for the games Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden and its cancelled sequel. Following its submission, the game garnered significant attention online.

Coulombe had been in contact with video game publisher Devolver Digital at the time due to two other projects. After presenting Look Outside to the publisher, they agreed it had potential, and Coulombe began working with indie developer friends to turn Look Outside into a full commercial product. Believing the surge of popularity to be an opportunity, Coulombe 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, while also providing support and funding for 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.

Look Outside received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 94% 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 monster designs and disturbing atmosphere while still making them feel compelled to move forward. Lucas White of Shacknews similarly described 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 described the game's monster designs as unnerving, with some being hauntingly memorable.