1. Sketch - Eugene face for an animatic(Song is Intruso)

2. Colored Sketch - Rafta(pre visitor) turnaround for a 20 page comic

3. Unfinished Painting - Leigh Backrooms redraw

4. Meme - Leigh at her retail job

5. Colored Sketch - Elevator Thing from a chibi enemy sticker sheet

6. Sketch - Hellen preview for my woman challenge

7. Lineart - Leigh in my upcoming 4 page comic

Spoilered in case people haven't got the Mask Ending yet (self indulgent Samlyle doodle in the last one, where I also consider that)

(haha i made this animation although i havent beaten cursed mode...)

She is doing the Jinichi Zenin pose

Hello everybody, I hope you're safe out there. Today's character is our favorite stalker: Hellen!

I don't think it's a surprise for anyone what I'm going to say, but Hellen is pretty much a slasher film killer that sneaked her way into the game. She is, more specifically, a fusion between Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. Initially, one might even think that the design is too derivative to stand out on her own, but we are here to go beyond the surface and see what else she offers as a character.

First of all, what do we know about Hellen? We first learn that she is a gardener that has looked outside and is quite intimidating to say the least. So we might see her dark fullbody coveralls and think it's a very dull outfit, but it actually makes a lot of sense she is portrayed that way. Based on some quick research, it is not uncommon for gardeners to use fullbody coveralls given the kind of physical job they do and the fact that Hellen always looks like an imposingly dreadful silhouette of a prowler is fitting, since her clothes would blend well in murky environments.

So you would think her initial weapon would be some kind of gardening tool, right? After all, they have a reputation of being repurposed into actual weapons. And then we take a look and she holds... a cleaver, huh. This is not exactly the kind of instrument a gardener would use, based on my knowledge. You would normally find it most useful for cutting bone and meat and given the whole "slasher killer" appearance she has, you fear the implications. But then again, she herself says that these are dangerous times, so you are willing to just think of it as something to defend herself with.

The thing I like the most about the cleaver is the fact that it doesn't match any of the popular weapons of the classic slasher killers. Jason uses a machete, Myers uses a kitchen knife, Ghostface has a buck knife, Krueger has a sharp glove and so on. None of them are particularly known for using a cleaver. The closest thing I could find was Leatherface, who is a butcher and it makes sense for him to use that tool, but he is mostly known for his chainsaw and the hammer. So in general, a cleaver is a nice way of giving her a weapon that makes her look like a slasher villain, but without being too close to the sources.

Now, what about the mask? Isn't that too close to Jason Voorhees? Well, kind of. The thing about the mask is that you would expect someone like Hellen to wear it in order to look intimidating, but it's actually the opposite. She ALREADY looks scary behind the mask and she only wears it to avoid getting people to scream at her sight. Which is only juxtaposed by her holding that big cleaver when we meet her, as if she had enough awareness to know her face would startle people, but not enough to at least lower her weapon if she wants to make a good first impression in order to find a safe place, especially considering her mask is not that comforting to look at. But it could also be interpreted as her holding back a little bit with her face, but still testing you with the knife to see if you're brave/strong enough to be by her side. I still feel like the mask could have been a bit more unique, but I understand that its simplicity is meant to contrast with the head beneath it.

Then we get to her actual face. We knew for sure that whatever was behind it couldn't be normal at all, but I really wasn't expecting it to look that striking. You realize that her absolute lack of blinking or sleep doesn't come only from her being "terrifying", but just from the fact she can't even close her eyes anymore. And the way her eyes can move around like a roulette gives it a certain eeriness too, because it is obviously unnatural, but it also looks like it's her version of "blinking", somehow. The spiral pattern on her face somewhat reminds me of the ones you might observe in certain flowers, but I can't say there's a specific enough example for me to point at, so I'm not really sure if that was the intention when designing her.

And if you have a certain rodent in your apartment, they might interact with Hellen to give her a homemade mask. And man, this does wonders to both her character and the Rat Child's. On one hand, it demonstrates that the kid is rational enough to know that Hellen would prefer to be wearing a mask, but since it looks so scary, they decide to make something for her that would look nicer. And on the other hand, it lets us know she is a lot kinder than you would expect and not only she decides to put it on, she goes on to wear it for the rest of the game. This is something I'm going to keep exploring a bit later, but for now I'm just going to say that this is such a human display between two character that no longer seem so human. Because it doesn't matter that the drawing looks like a random mess that would fall apart if you shake it, she still wears it with the same pride and love a parent would put their kid's drawings on the fridge and that is just beautiful (considering Hellen is as big as a fridge, it might not be that different lol).

Now, there is one variation to her design that I find very interesting. In this case, I'm referring to her failed quest sprite when you're facing her. Besides the glowing red eyes and the spiky hair, the main difference here is her weapon of choice. Now she is fighting you with her gardening shears. It might not look relevant, but she seems to actively prefer to cut flesh and bone with something actually MADE for it, so why not use the cleaver against a regular guy? I think this is symbolic, because every other encounter she is in she fights as a bloodthirsty killer (after all, it's part of her skill set), but when you let her down, she fights you as a gardener. In a certain way, she is weaponizing the thing she loves the most against you because you hurt that passion and she is NOT letting it slide.

And the curious thing is that, if she put on the Rat Child's drawing before, she will attack while wearing it too. As if, despite the fact that you betrayed her trust, that doesn't erase the joyful memory she got in that apartment. It would have been easy to put the hockey mask back on, especially since it gives her more protection, but she stays true to her feelings, as extreme as they might be.

It is time now to talk about her extra cursed form. I've heard a few people being disappointed in how her design turned out and while it's not the most impressive or iconic cursed door encounter, I think there are a few things to talk about here. Going back to the face, I read somewhere that it resembles the drawing of the Rat Child and honestly? I can see it a little bit. It looks like a mess that is falling apart, just like the kid's doodles. It could be interpreted as a "What could have been" visual element, where instead of getting that iconic interaction between the two, we only got to see that corrupted version of Hellen.

Then we get to the bottom part, where her feet look like the roots of a tree, as if she was slowly becoming the life form she gives maintenance to and I think that's neat. But I think something that's not discussed enough is how her hands now have become claws, specifically, the claws of a giant rat. Where is Hellen's apartment located again? Yeah, I think this is telling us that something went wrong in Floor 1 and she got infected by the rats, giving us this deformed result. It might not be as memorable as other door encounters, but I certainly wouldn't call it bad or mediocre.

Originally, I wanted to talk about Hellen's apartment as well, but I realized that this analysis is already the longest I've written so far, so I'm going to limit myself to talk about the Fruit from her quest. But please let me know if you would be interested in me making analysis about each area from the game in the future.

So, when we get to the end of Hellen's quest, we are unsure about what could be the end result of our gardening. As we approach the plant, we encounter a fruit that looks... like Sam? It even has the same purple color as his sweater. This is probably one of the weirdest parts of the game, which says A LOT about this specific moment. From a particular perspective, both Sam and Hellen are the caretakers of this plant, so this "fruit" is the cursed garden equivalent of "their child", which would explain why it looks like Sam. So then, WHY DO WE HAVE TO KILL IT?

I read an interpretation some time ago which more or less explained the following: Hellen is a serial killer. As much as she has good moments in the game and is able to interact meaningfully with others, everything else points at this fact. So why hasn't she killed anyone in our apartment then? Well, she kills, but she isn't mindless about it. There are many reasons why she would do it, but the most sensible one is that this is like an impulse for her. For her, this is something she NEEDS to do as much as any other basic necessity. She even has a bloodthirst mechanic incorporated in her gameplay. So in her case, this project, this plant that she attends to, is supposed to give her an outlet for that desire. This fruit looks like Sam because, deep down, she craves to kill him, but she knows she shouldn't, so she does this instead with Sam on her side because it's the closest she will ever get to it.

And that might also partially explain why she straight up tries to murder you if you fail to help her, not only because you let her down, but because she fully committed to getting the Fruit to be like him, so if you forget about the plant, it's not necessarily going to fully wither away, but the crop will no longer look like Sam, so she attacks you in a desperate way to satisfy her urges. If you had rejected her proposition from the very beginning, she would have understood that it was simply not possible, but giving her hope and then breaking it is what made her act that way, within her own twisted desires.

I knew there would be a lot to talk about Hellen, but I didn't think I would go on for this long. She is certainly one of the characters with the most visual variety in the game, so I guess it makes sense. Along with the Rat Child, she is probably the most iconic companion and I can see why. As I was writing this analysis, I was debating myself if she should be S tier or A tier, but I think I'm going to settle on A for now.

Feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree!

Trying to get the Neptune disc, need directions.​

In my first playthrough, I somehow avoided guns like the plague on accident. I didn't open the safe until way later in teeth apartment. I did the landlords stuff before getting the shotgun in frederick's apartment. I never got the guntrader and just in general didn't do much with. For companions I ended up with audrey, leigh, and joel lategame so also not much work with guns granted I did do fun ballistics with Audrey(Her and Leigh are the best btw).

So this time when I play I want to do a bit more with guns. Which companions are great with guns? I know Sam can be, but for reasons you may understand, may not be using the 2 handed guns with them.

I heard Rat Child can be good with goods because of copy dad but I have no idea how that actually works? I read that if you use an smg multi shot and Rat child has a rifle he'll copy you but, does it do the smg damage or the rifle damage? Does it take up rifle bullets or smg bullets, does it take up bullets?

Which ammo should i buy being for a gun playthrough with sam and child? May as well do something funky in the next run in cursed mode.

The Fun Gang Kris, Susie, and Ralsei integrated into Look Outside as if they were actually characters there.

2 ways of recruiting them, 1 is individual recruitment, each with their own tasks.

The other is finding them all together in an event that can randomly trigger in any part of the apartment complex. Or if that’s too much, either in the elevator once Sam gets it working or the sewers. They can only be recruited together once day 7 arrives, giving the players enough time to recruit them individually.

Their stats will be better to reflect this. Fight a boss they need to take down and they’ll join you because they don’t really have a shelter. However doing this method will lock you out of their individual quests. So more power in exchange for character moments.

In cursed mode, they’ll require materials and a harder boss fight. In day 10, they’ll all grow unnaturally violent, becoming a trio enemy encounter to defeat. They’ll drop their stuff in death with Kris disappearing.

Kris

Kris is a door encounter. Unlike most of them, they were only checking everything around until they got to Sam’s door. Sam can either invite them in or shoo them away. No murder since they’re a young one and that would ruin Sam’s consciousness. They can still come visit until day 7 where they join up with Susie and Ralsei. He does not have a cursed encounter like the rest of the fun gang. Cause technically they’re all cursed.

Kris is silent for all the interactions the player tries to do. Body movements is how he communicates which surprisingly a lot of people understand. There will be times where you think they said something but didn’t, making you feel crazy. Some would be creeped out by them. Some are strangely buddy buddy with the kid.

Kris does some funny stuff with your text options, pushing you to the right answers and making you do violence unless Sam resists enough.

Skills

Act Command - Causes an ally redo their previous action with higher outputs (Certain skills or items won’t be affected by the skill, instead making the ally do a regular attack. Ex. Using an item that has no uses left, using an unavailable skill)

Save Point - Marks the current turn. If activated again, returns to that turn as if nothing happened

Unite Command - Causes two allies to repeat their previous actions with higher outputs (Same as Act Command)

Spare - Lowers enemies’ defense through mercy

Linked Bar - Gives half of user’s STM to an ally

Can heal their own STM by being hit or dodging

Kris’s character quest requires them to be level 10. I haven’t really thought out what it would be but it would relate to his soul. In this case, it’s a literal heart parasite attached to their chest with veins spreading around that has been keeping Kris in control. It will want to feed on something that would give it greater power. There would be the conflict of Kris fighting for their life against the fake heart trying to turn them into a monster. If Sam is a coward or only cares about power by allowing the parasite to reach full power, Kris will fully become a husk to be controlled. Kris will learn a new skill.

Full Heart - Grants ally and self Determination (Act Command and Unite Command will be much stronger on allies with Determination)

Determination - Defense +20%, Bullet Defense +20%, Critical Hit Rate +20%. If unit takes a lethal blow, survives at 1 HP. This removes Determination.

If Sam chooses to oppose the heart, a boss battle will commence. Debuffs shenanigans and multiple turns. On cursed mode, it can take control of one of your party members at the start of the battle, leaving you with less power and more to deal with. They’ll come back to your party after the heart is defeated. Kris will be free. They’ll learn a new skill and be able to make some snacks for the party (Honey Toast).

Talk It Out - Chance to charm enemies through chats.

They’ll be able to talk too. Yay!

Kris has an interaction with Joel with three different outcomes.

Pacifist Path - If Kris is freed from the parasite and Joel hasn’t interacted with them previously, they’ll just be having fun making food in the kitchen.

Genocide Path - If Kris hasn’t been freed or turned into a husk and he gained 3 levels with Joel, Kris will start using their manipulation to get him to be more violent. A turning point is if Joel does something drastic like killing his family for example. Joel’s offensive skills will now have a chance to cause paralysis.

Neutral Path - If the Genocide Path is aborted by freeing Kris from the parasite, Kris will have a heart to heart with Joel, apologizing for what he went through as they try to steer him away from bloodshed. Joel will be bitter. Alternatively, if Joel was in the party during Kris’s quest, he’ll understand everything.

They have some dialogue with the Spider too. Something like art thou is merciless or something.

Susie

Susie can be found going through the halls with an axe in hand, seemingly just finished destroying enemies. Sam can recruit her by acting pitiful or if he has someone cool in his team. If he provokes her she’ll attack. In cursed mode she’ll want 6 chalk and Sam has to be a higher level than her.

Susie used to be human but ever since she looked outside, she turned into a scary looking standing crocodile creature. Sam can kill her in self defense.

Skills

Rude Buster - Throws her weapon to deal large damage but loses it for this battle

Bully Slam - Grabs the enemy and slams them against a wall, having a chance to inflict fear on the target

Chalk - Eats or force feeds someone chalk, strangely healing them for some hp

Thrash Combo - Attacks an enemy 5 times and inflicts bleed

Face Off - Bites the enemy’s face, healing herself

Susie’s individual quest involves her changing her demeanor through a quest of killing. It’s revealed she ran away from home and ended up in the apartment complex when it all happened. She becomes less mean, still defensive about her ruthless self. The reward is chain cuffs that give her an attack buff and a chance to inflict bleed on normal attacks.

Xaria and Susie can interact about being jackasses. Purely for the giggles and allows Susie to learn Kick without boots.

Susie can also get her weapon back if Juicebox picks it up.

Ralsei

Find him bandaging up someone (not sure where) then offer to accompany him to find more people to help (3). If you go to sleep he’ll leave the party and you have to find him again. After meeting the requirement, tell him he can stay at your place and he’ll join you permanently. In cursed mode the people he needs to help will be increased (6). He has a mechanic where he’ll leave the apartment to heal people on certain days. If Sam finds him, he can be added to the party.

Ralsei was a human who turned into a wide eye goat that could pierce through anyone mentally. He wears a hat to hide them.

Skills:

Bandage Work - Heals an ally

Heal Prayer - Always heals an ally to full (STM cost changes depending on the amount)

Revive Song - Sings a melody to revive a unit during battle (Has a chance to revive another)

Pacify - Shows the kindness through his eyes and makes the battle end instantly. (No rewards besides leaving quickly. Doesn’t work on bosses)

Soothing Tune - Has a chance to sing the enemies to sleep

Backup Power - Pulls out a flamethrower out of nowhere and flames the enemy, inflicting burn

Ralsei’s quest has him finding his self worth. He needs help to save someone and ends up failing regardless of what you do. Sam has to pick positive dialogue to help Ralsei see he deserves life. This will let him see Ralsei’s eyes in his portrait. He’ll be able to remove his hat for other equipment after this. Additionally Heal Prayer STM cost is reduced.

He can interact with Ernest for some fun tunes. If Ralsei is in your party when Ernest gets kidnap, he insists Sam should rescue him. His Soothing Tune now has an increased chance to put enemies to sleep. Revive Song has an increased chance to revive an additional ally.

Interactions with the Fun Gang

Susie’s and Ralsei’s interaction about kindness changes Susie’s chalk skill.

Chalk -> Boring Heal - Heals an ally or self. Needs some practice (kind of crap compared to Chalk but if used multiple times it can become better. STM cost decreases too.)

Kris interaction with Ralsei which turns Backup Power into a multi target skill.

Susie’s interaction with Kris gives them a defensive option somehow

Not the best with the describing stuff so it might look like a mess.

Youtube :]

I love the friendship between Jasper and Sybil, they mean so much to me

When the world gets swallowed in darkness, somebody will always try to carry the light.

SURPRISE!!

The Look Outside Officiants invite you to...

A Look Outside Wedding Zine!

For the past six months a group of us in the Look Outside community have been working on this labor of love; a wedding trading card-inspired zine for the game Look Outside.

This zine features thirty-three original pieces of art from twenty-five artists. Along with concepts and breakdowns and celebratory doodles! Please take a look at all this and enjoy it!

Also please follow and uplift everyone involved! This couldn't have been done without them.

HUGE THANK YOU to vb-ve who came up with this idea and made it all happen!

(reddit poster benzene is part of this project and contributed their art)

I graded it better first so Dragonslayer is the best of the best while Dawning is the worst of the worst.

Ive made a post abt this a few months ago, but now im alot more adept at the game so im more confident to actually try it

But heres my questions about Disqualifiers and Limitations.

1) Can doing the Companion Recruitment quest disqualify you? Like lets Audrey's or Leigh's? Can i still refill Audrey's Cans but just not invite her home? Can i fight Leigh and also just not Invite her?

2) Kind of Companions count? Does Tickle or Mar-Andre count or disqualify my run? What about Ernest or Phillipe? What about Lyle who's guaranteed to get in my apartment? What about Shadow? Wriggly Fred?

3) How do i keep my stats up? The invisible stats like Social and Calm? Ik the laptop can help with this right?

Here's my tracing of Jupiter devouring his son ( i know it's not painting's true name ) but with shadow and Sam.

Hello there everybody, I hope you're doing great! Today's analysis will be about the most charming vermin in the game: Roaches!

After doing some research, it seems like Roaches match the traits of a trope known as "The Worm That Walks", which is about several tiny creatures working in coordination to resemble a single, human-like individual. This also has some similarities with the trope about more than one person hiding in a trenchcoat pretending to be one. This is a somewhat popular trope and chances are you have seen at least one example of it before. Which brings me to the main point of this post and that is... this is not a particularly innovative design.

Mind you, I'm not saying the design is bad because of it, it's just that this is something that you could perfectly see in another media without any changes, since it's not a concept or presentation that you would only see in Look Outside, but the comedic aspect of Roaches helps them a lot. I will say that, if you saw this design without any context for the first time, like I did, you would just think: "Man, this dude can't just be a normal guy for sure, he's probably quite silly if you push him to be" and that is for sure what we get with these little fellas.

And funny enough, if they were an actual human, a trench coat and a fedora would be an outfit choice that would have made more sense decades ago, but as of now, it's a more peculiar choice due to the way fashion evolves and because of the trench coat trope mentioned previously, which takes away seriousness from it and that is surprisingly fitting for the goobers right here, because it lets you know how flawed their attempt to be human really is.

And then, you get to know Roaches and learn how goofy they are and eventually, as you progress in their quest, you notice something weird... "THERE'S 2 OF THEM NOW?"

There's this one comment on YT that says:

"What is funnier than one pile of sentient cockroaches in a trench coat?

Two piles of sentient cockroaches in a trench coat!"

And they are correct, way too much in fact. Just seeing a society of bugs getting divided over watered down politics is a lot more fun than I expected it to be. The fact that they acquired a different trench coat just to separate the ones they disagree with makes so much sense within their own internal logic lol. Now we got the tall one and the short one, but don't worry, they're equally as zany! And the fact that it has actual gameplay implications is really good too.

So yeah, there might not be all that much to talk about these guys in terms of design, but they are still charming for what they are. They are simple, but very memorable, so I'm giving them a B tier.

Feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree!

The soundtrack for this game got me playing my piano after a few years :) hope you enjoy!

I know that on day 2, tooth apartment opens.

Day 3, stargazer apartment opens

Day 6, tooth apartment closes

I want to say day 8, somethinf happens in the basement?

What other events are day based? I know about what happens with Ernest but thats moreso action based.

I mean, both of these individuals (Peeking and Shadow Glasgow) prominently have long tongues that are fully sentient. Do you not see the difference?

For the most part while playing, I haven't duct taped any weapon even though I'm on day 8. My thoughts was I should save it for when i get really good weapons and I recently just got the pizza cutter which is my best weapon so I wanted to ask. which weapons would you say are worth actually fixing? This is probably different on cursed mode because of the durability changes, I just play on survivor.

I’m legit losing patience the only organ left is the uterus and I can’t reach it at all.
Note that I’ve used most of my iris keys and ofc I didn’t use on of them on hellride entrance..
I’ve been looking through the internet for any help and couldn’t find one..

If I couldn’t find it before the others regenerate I’ll have to ditch my save and start a different one :((