Resident Evil (video Game) - Development

Development

Resident Evil was created by a team of staff members who would later become part of Capcom Production Studio 4. The inspiration for Resident Evil was the earlier Capcom horror game Sweet Home. Shinji Mikami was initially commissioned to make a game set in a haunted mansion like Sweet Home, which Resident Evil was originally intended to be a remake of. Several of the mansion's pre-rendered backdrops were inspired by The Overlook Hotel, the setting for 1980 horror film, The Shining. The game was initially conceived as a first-person shooter, but soon the gameplay system inspired by Alone in the Dark was adopted instead. According to Mikami, "technically it wasn’t good enough."

Several locations, concepts, items and enemies cut from the early versions of the game were later re-introduced in the 2002 remake. A 1995 development version featured the characters Dewey and Gelzer, which were later replaced by Rebecca and Barry, respectively (a redesigned Dewey also appeared in Resident Evil Outbreak).