 While similar body @-@ swapping games already existed , such as Paradroid ( 1985 ) , they had little influence on the development of Space Station Silicon Valley . The team were instead influenced by other games in development at DMA , including Grand Theft Auto and Body Harvest ( 1998 ) . Unlike those games , Space Station Silicon Valley does not take place in an open world ; " they 're a bugger to make , " explained creative director Gary Penn . The objective of the team was to create a game where players were encouraged to try new things to see the outcome . The original concept for the game was that players would eat robots and become increasingly larger , retrospectively described by creative director lead artist Jamie Bryan as being similar to Cubivore : Survival of the Fittest ( 2002 ) . Another early idea was for the in @-@ game animals to consist of different parts , and destroying one animal would allow players to swap some features with their existing body ; this was quickly discarded , as the team realised it would require extensive testing . 
