The upcoming What Remains of Edith Finch from developer Giant Sparrow, previously of the storybook fantasy adventure The Unfinished Swan, is known for weaving in literary references and storytelling into their games, with the studio's next project taking on a slightly darker tone by emphasizing a series of interactive "short stories."

Speaking in an interview, we had the chance to talk with Giant Sparrow's creative director Ian Dallas for more on their upcoming title What Remains of Edith Finch, with Dallas offering a few more insights on the inspirations and influences that guided the project.

Specifically, Dallas explained that SCUBA diving provided a fairly unconventional reference for the game, but explained that it inspired the game's initial idea of "the sublime horror of nature." Dallas added more on the game's original concept, and how it has evolved over the course of its development:

"This game has grown in very unexpected ways over the last like four and a half years of development. But, the initial idea was “the sublime horror of nature” –  like seeing something, when you’re SCUBA diving, looking at the bottom sloping away forever and the feeling of something being simultaneously beautiful but also horrifying.

What that’s kind of coalesced to is the feeling of being overwhelmed – like each of these stories is about someone else getting themselves into a situation in which they are overwhelmed.

And you know, the game has sort of evolved in unexpected ways to be something that is kind of instead of being about the horror of nature, it’s now more about the way that stories are told and the way that families kind of create stories, and people remember things not necessarily in the way that they happened, but the way that they want to remember them or the way that things get sort of transformed over time."

What Remains of Edith Finch will release for PS4 and PC on April 25th, 2017 - for a closer look inside the game, you can check out our full hands-on preview of the title, and stay tuned for our upcoming full interview with creative director Ian Dallas.