Let's see. How to say this so that other people won't understand it. One of the most terrible scenarios for me is to have something deadly presented as a game - two separate people who I've talked about other projects of mine with have mentioned the Saw films, and when it's possible to see something as a really twisted and harmful variation on something you enjoy, that's a... horrible thing to think about. At the same time, a lot of my own game-making comes from a love of making up... traps, or things to challenge people in a devious way. Everything is inter-related...

Harlan Ellison's short story also really got to me - perhaps not so much for the actual scenario as the way that it was written, taking such delight in the gruesomeness of his detail... but that's not a good thought, the idea of a godlike entity that can do anything, keeping his victims alive and hasn't run out of ideas over one hundred years. I should say there are very obvious ways of telling which works of fiction have influenced me the most :)