Grounded developers reveal secret inspirations behind its incredible art

Small but mighty

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and other ‘90s movies are a clear inspiration, but there’s more going on than just nostalgia. For the release of 1.0, some of Grounded’s developers shared a closer look at its art with Inverse.

Starting with those ‘90s inspirations, the dense foliage and massive trees of Grounded made the cover art from Secret of Mana a natural inspiration, as associate world builder Kiel Evins points out.

Perfecting Grounded’s sense of scale was a challenge, Lewis says. Instead of a tiny player character, the team built a humungous world and doubled the game’s gravity so miniscule objects didn’t behave like they’re the size of skyscrapers.

“We didn't want our crafted equipment to be sticks and stones like almost all survival games start with,” character artist Ian Randall tells Inverse. “Eventually, [senior artist] John Lewis did a concept for a new axe involving a sprig, and we just went from there.”

Fish also explained the “yeet” symbol seen on packaging in Grounded, which excludes “reduce and reuse” from the recycling logo.

Dunny also highlighted the MIX.R machines, which reward players with mutations if they can defend the structure from rampaging bugs.

Building dens for Grounded’s notoriously creepy spiders was a high point for art director Kazunori Aruga.