Natalie Osborn

LIE

LIE is a concept art digital booklet containing information and art for the beginning story beats of an in-progress RPG maker horror game. The story is of a 17-year-old girl named Elsie who is brought along on a visit to her grandparent’s old manor in the Scottish Highlands in the 1990s. With nothing to do, she finds herself in a maze of the manor's dark secrets with only one goal: to get back home.

Artist/Thesis Statement

LIE is a project that I have been thinking about since I was 13.I thought about this project on and off for 12 years, never really going super in depth or making anything concrete out of it. All I could ever do was small doodles of the main character and villain. Now I'm 25 and I am finally writing everything down and designing all of the parts to make it a real world. I think I was scared to ever take that first step into making it because I felt too out of reach and way too personal of a story to think about. I surprised myself that I selected this project in the end due to my fear of touching it.

In its current form is a digital concept art booklet, the beginnings of a greater story I intend to complete. The more complete version will take longer than a year to complete, as it would be a RPG Horror Puzzle Survival game. For now though, I spent my time focusing on making this booklet so I could conceptualize the foundations of the work. The digital booklet contains images and descriptions of important characters you would encounter and play in the game.

LIE is a story about the complexities of a relationship in which the person you long for no longer exists. It’s about the fact that holding onto something– or someone– can destroy you and the people around you. In barebones, it’s a story about the horrors of change and stagnation at the same time. This is the main theme of the story and it hasn’t changed since I thought about it all those years ago. The booklet itself will only give a piece of the proverbial pie of the whole story.

I’ve dealt with a lot of loss and turbulent change in my own life, from my early years to the place I am now. The constant ebb and flow of change is always surrounding me–from the many trials I faced as a kid to now living across the country from most of my family– it’s always something I’ve dealt with. The only times I faltered and failed is when I stagnated during these times, so I know all too well how both these concepts could be horrific. Still, despite LIE being a horror game, I do want it to have glimmers of hope in its core as well.

"It is always darkest just before the day dawneth."
Thomas Fuller, Pisgah Sight (1650), Book II, ch. 2