ROUTINE is an indie horror game ten years in the making – Developer Interview – IGN First
Blog Andrew Joseph 19 Nov , 2025 0
In the summer of 2012, “ROUTINE” was unveiled at Gamescom, the world's largest video game conference, but more than ten years later, it has not yet entered the hands of players. That's all going to change over the next few weeks, and when I sat down with two of the game's three developers – Aaron Foster, head of art and design and project lead, and Jemma Hughes, artist and designer – everyone was smiling.
“We’re going to be gold in a few days,” Aaron told me, laughing.
Their story is a classic indie story, where a handful of developers start working on a project they're passionate about and learn every difficult lesson along the way.
“Routine started out as a very simple, atmospheric, slightly scary game. I started making it myself and was actually originally inspired by the simplicity of Dear Esther,” Aaron said. “I wasn't a programmer at the time. I was actually an environment artist and wanted to use my experience to make a game.
“I grew up watching VHS in the '80s, and it made such an impression on me. Now that I'm an environment artist, I've never stopped loving that aesthetic. I love the weathering and the buzz of the fluorescent lights and little details like that. When making Routine, I thought, 'If I were making this game in the '80s, what would I imagine it would look like?' So, kind of embraced that and went with it.”
“When Jemma and our programmer Pete came along, it really opened a lot of doors for us. We started showing some screenshots and ended up getting help with audio, so by then we were ready to show the trailer.”
Aaron and Jemma's environmental artwork was enough to grab the attention of the masses, and when they released the trailer in 2012, their self-published little work made a lasting impression. But then work on the project came to an abrupt halt and did not restart until 2020.
“In fact, there was a considerable delay due to personal reasons. We were almost bankrupt personally and had to pause and work on other projects to make ends meet,” Aaron said, the difficulty of those years evident in his voice.
Eventually, though, things improved for them and their small but mighty team remained enthusiastic to restart the project. However, doing so after a year-long hiatus was no easy task. The first obstacle is that the development environment has completely changed, and the most important thing for their team is the tools used to make them.
“When we started development again, we actually had to start from scratch because we developed the game in Unreal Engine 3 for 4 or 5 years and then went back to Unreal 5 in 2020, using completely different code – C++ instead of Unreal Script.”
So the team took the opportunity to make sweeping changes to Routine across gameplay, art, and more. Having learned a lot from the development of Unreal Engine 3, the team decided to refocus the gameplay on a less combat-centric design, overhaul the story, and change the way the AI works, expanding on ideas in some places and cutting back on others to make the project more in line with the team's new vision.
“When we didn't have pause, we were mostly removing stuff that wasn't working. CAT started out primarily as a weapon. It was later removed and turned into something that felt more like a real tool. You saw a lot of that in the demo you played. It even had a close button!”
CATs, also known as Astronaut Aids, are the primary way players interact with the world around them. A boxy, retro-looking multi-tool, you pick up this handy item early on and it continues to evolve over time as you find new mods for it. This was a major focus of the redo after restarting production of the game, and Aaron’s eyes lit up when he talked about it.
“We didn't want to make a bunch of modules, so we decided to make each module serve multiple purposes. For example, the ultraview module is a blacklight and a flashlight, so while the other one can help you protect yourself, it doesn't have a flashlight, so there's more than one reason to have one on hand at all times,” he told me.
“It also does some cool things like let you connect to a terminal, so it's kind of like your phone, your camera, your flashlight – a multi-purpose tool,” Jemma added.
“There's more to the module than meets the eye, though. There's another one later in the game. It may or may not help you protect yourself,” Aaron said with a laugh.
Beyond CAT, there are more changes, including a renewed focus on scenes taking place on the moon. The moon was an obsession for Aaron and the focus he wanted. Before development was put on hold, they were increasingly building indoor environments so that players would never forget they were on the moon – a state of affairs the team deemed unacceptable. Having played the demo recently, the moon is almost everywhere, especially early on, when they take every opportunity to shove its desolate landscape in your face.
“The narrative was a big change as well. We felt that our previous stuff took away from the moon setting, so we wanted to refocus on that,” Aaron explains. “I've always been fascinated by the moon. I think it looks very wild, mysterious and a little creepy.”
Speaking of creepy, as you explore the space station you're never far away from the game's main threat – the Type-5 robots, which attack you on sight and cannot be dealt with using force. These heavy metal monsters look like Terminators, are incredibly eye-catching, and make the most shocking sounds when they're nearby.
“The AI has also been reworked. In fact, you might not notice this, but Type-5 Droids can only be active one at a time. This was once changed for reasons related to the narrative.”
I admit, I didn't notice this, and I actually spent a few minutes dodging the robot, unaware that it had been deactivated and couldn't see me. Aaron and Gemma thought this was hilarious.
“Yeah, there's usually a moment in some playtesting where they'll notice the robot just standing there, looking out, and going 'Oh, he's powered off,' and then you can walk up to them and they don't notice you at all,” Aaron said. “Don't be there when they come back!”
When asked about the design behind these terrifying monsters, Aaron explained that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why someone built them to look like nightmares, and how they exist in the same universe as the tiny, boxy assist robots you'll find running around the same space station.
“Type 5s are actually riot robots from Earth, so they look scary and kind of scary. IC robots are meant to be helpful, so they look cute.”
When asked how Routine stands out in 2025 amid the wave of absolutely fantastic games we've enjoyed, Aaron talked about the idea of letting players learn on their own – something that's uncommon in an era where game characters explain puzzle solutions to you seconds after you encounter them.
“It's just a very different experience. We're not holding your hand and asking players to figure things out, and there's not a lot of that right now.”
As someone who spent about 20 minutes racking my brain on a puzzle during the demo, I can attest that this is indeed true.
Before I ended my call with the team, I stopped to ask them what advice they had for indie developers working on their first games years ago. Allen only thought for a second or two before giving the answer.
“One of the most important things is to focus on the things you care about, no matter how big or small. If you care about it, you can get it done. We knew we wanted to finish this game, and we did. It took a while, but we all care about it, and here we are.”