Robots have many different forms In the media, and are presented in different ways through out. They’re different pathways that the ideas surrounding Robots can go, this could be showing the robots as an evil presence with evil intentions or as entices wanting to replace humans. However, Robots can be presented with good intentions, and even “Used” by humans as a lower class being. There are many references to pick from in this criteria, and many feature an artistic element.
Representation of the Future in media
The Future can be presented in many different ways in today’s society, with the rise of cybernetics becoming normal and having us soon live in the near cyberpunk dystonia future. With this, the future can be seen as quite a scary thought, with such things as robots taking over every day human jobs and even taking over our society and becoming self aware. Though these thoughts are all just ideas, they are all speculated by different sources that have come to light in the last few decades. With films and games, there is a lot of ideas that have been created from the few words “The Future”.
One example that predicts some futurist element is the video game UNDERTALE, where it features the character “Mettaton”. Mettaton is not the stereotypical robot, and is in fact it’s own sort of robot. The character has a lot of personality, which is un usual as robots are machines and should not have emotions, but this robot does, portraying a boastful, feminine and loud robot that acts as a presenter and a dancer. Mettaton has two forms, and one even has hair. This kind of robot mimics the appearance of a human, and could be hard to distinguish from an actual human. I believe this presents the robot as a murder machine, as the character tries to kill the player multiple times through out your interaction and through the level. All together, I believe this game presents this robot as a murderous machine and not human-friendly which is something that presents the future as a scary thought.
Undertale Wiki. n.d. Mettaton. [online] Available at: <https://undertale.fandom.com/wiki/Mettaton>
Another example that represents the future is a film where I had originally thought of the idea for this game, WALL-E.
The critically acclaimed Pixar film released in 2008, and was given a lot of praise for it’s portrayal of the distant future, and it’s use of art and world building to create an dystopian future where the earth is destroyed, filled with landfill and humans gone. There is no one but a single robot named “Wall-E”, who goes around the massive city he is in alone, with no life in sight. Many models of his counterparts are seen, as well as human life- though no actual humans are seen. It seems to be a run down modern day world, and that it’s self raises peoples questions. I believe this film supports a message for the future where it shows a world that could become a possibility, if humans don’t stop running the world down to the ground. Though at the end it ends with humans beginning to heal the world, I believe this film does show the future as a very real world that could be a possibility. This film shows the future as almost scary, as the world it’s self is shown all destroyed and without human life, but many de activated robots all over the wasteland.
In the concept art, it’s showing the character Wall-E in the wasteland world, and it’s shown how small the little robot is in the world and how alone the robot is. This future is depicted as quite sad, and lonely. I believe that this also presents as even robots having feelings, as it shows the character Wall-E created small dump cubes everywhere to create towers and buildings much like the once humanity filled time.
En.wikipedia.org. n.d. WALL-E. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E>
Main Character
For my main character, I began to research multiple ideas for the best design of the character. I imagined a main character who was an outcast, and also a robot. For that, I researched the character “CLAPTRAP” from Borderlands, and the mannerisms and emotions he portrays through out the franchise of the three games. Claptrap is a robot, a robot with both emotion and attitude. I would like that with the robots in my game, and especially my main character. Something with Claptrap which makes him a fan favourite among the community, is how the robot has emotions and the way he acts is quite remarkable and makes him a likable character, and that’s exactly what I want for my main character. The thought I have, is for the robot to be a silent robot but with comedic aspects, like a snarky / cocky attitude. I will
Space
Space is a endless, boundless void which is only now in present day being explored more and more, and it’s heavily used in future material. I believe that if I were to include space in my game, I would need to focus on the idea of space, and it’s design. Though I can only look up space and read the readings from space shuttles and pictures, I can do my own primary research by looking up.
These images are my own, and from my window. This black sky with nothing but small white dots in the sky shows how big and boundless space truly is, and the thought it’s self is really inspiring to include with in my game. I want my game to be set in space, and in a space ship traveling through it. Though it will be set in space, I will not include any planets as if to not let the player know if it is in our reality / galaxy.
In forms of media, that being games and film, space is explored greatly and is especially used as a playground of excitement. Take again the movie WALL-E, where space is shown as a beautiful landscape, yet it’s shown to be really empty and lifeless. This then contrasts with the spaceship in the film which travels through it, and how small the people on board are to the grand landscape of how big space really is.
With the spaceship I want to create for where the game takes place, I will have to research more into hotel establishments and how they work. The spaceship is basically a flying hotel, like a cruise ship in space. I believe that this idea Is very imaginative and could have outside viewers of the game be more interested. The spaceship will have three parts to it, much like a hotel. There will be the ground floor which will be the lobby and leisure activities, top being the dining area and rooms, and the bottom being where the level will set place. The ground floor will be like a generator room, and will act as the hotel / airships waste area and where people will send their rubbish / waste. This is where they’re will be many broken robots and other machinery, which I am hoping to include a lot of artwork of this. I believe that this bottom area will be a good place to have the level be set place in.
Hollingham, R., 2014. What The Inside Of A Spaceship Might Really Look Like. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140923-inside-spaceships-of-the-future>
Questionnaire
I created a questionnaire for the game I am planning to make, and I asked questions that related to the game and the planning I have done. There were only five questions, and I got four responses which isn’t as much as I would have liked, but enough for a reasonable amount of data and information. The five questions I based around some major points I would need in order to base some character designs and general world designs and lore around. I have a set idea for my game, and I wanted to know if people would be interested in some main mechanics.
Starting with the first question, I asked what art style did the reader like the most out of five games that I am aware of, that had a very stylised art style and was known for it. Though I added no images to remind the viewers, I was sure they were aware of it, though If I were to do this again I would have provided images alongside the game titles. The five games were:
- CUPHEAD: “DON’T DEAL WITH THE DEVIL”
- UNDERTALE
- Bendy and the Ink Machine
- Hollow Knight
- Baldi’s basics in Education and Learning
This is the first question that was answered, and this was the answers. The pie chart shows 50% chose Hollow Knight, 25% chose Bendy and the Ink Machine, and 25% chose Cuphead. I believe these answers to actually surprise me, as I believed that the indie title “UNDERTALE” Would have gotten more than one vote, as I personally find the art style to be the most captivating out of the five. I was also quite surprised that Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning was not chosen out of the four responses, and I had hoped that it was, as I find the art style to be very creative with it’s character models / appearances. The answers provided, that being a more cartoony and slick art style has been shown with these answers, as all three games have very black and white contrast between their colour scheme and characters.
This question was for helping with the character design, and creating more ideas onto which the player should availability to. The attachment question was made in order to find what people find more fun, and what they think would be more enjoyable to use. This question was a very descriptive answer one, and I wanted this to be a personal question. The four answers showed a similar sort of pattern, with two actually being the same thing, the power of flight. The Magical cloak answer, though not very descriptive, has a very unique idea on what attachment I could use in the game. I do believe it wouldn’t be very fitting for a robot character, and I the answer given is justified as I had not been too specific for what attachments this had to be in reality to. I do like the magical cloak idea, and I would like to have some fun attachment that could harness the energy of a magical element. The last answer provided was the most descriptive, but was not exactly the answer I was hoping for. The answer gave a unique idea, and I believe that it could be an interesting pathway to explore more with a later project, but I would think that the one character idea gives more personality and emotion to the story and characters. Overall, I take from this part of the questionnaire is the “Flying” answer, as I believe this seems to be a very interesting pathway to go. The robot character could have some form of flying ability, and I think I could explore that more when I plan the character out more.
With my game, I want my characters to have personality and backstory; I want my characters to be interesting and have good dynamics. I believe that I have become more aware with the characters I have made in the past projects, and the amount of time I put into the backstory and design in all the characters and I never leave any character without one. Upon realising this, I was not aware if people were too fond of my ideas as I have never had any feedback with my games about the characters themselves. I believe asking the public if they would be interested in characters having a full backstory would be more useful to me and my production schedule, and in making the characters. I wouldn’t want to create more time for myself, If I could be using my time for more useful things. However, this question was answered with a quite surprising answer, with all the replies saying the do find more developed characters to be fulfilling. I will use this in my game, and continue to develop more story with my characters whilst creating my game.
The next question was about the story aspect in games that people have played, and if the enjoyed their being mass amounts of it. I personally like great amount of story in a game, and I believe games like The Legend of Zelda and Borderlands have a great story and I take much inspiration from those games. However, I want my game to be enjoyed by all kinds of gamers, so I wanted to ask if the inclusion of a big story would be enjoyable to the public. The answers I got were not expected and I had thought that everyone was into a lot of story, although one person responded “No”. This puts me in a quite uncertain mindset, as the majority of responders stated the enjoyed more story, but just one person not enjoying the inclusion gives me a hard time deciding if to add it or not. I believe If I didn’t include it fully in the game, and included it in the game, much like Bioshock: Infinite where they are included but not forced, in the form of an almost in-game collectible. I believe that this question tested my problem solving skills, and really put me on edge with my response.
I asked this particular question because it is something I am very fond of putting in my game, and I believe that having the inclusion of humor in games is quite relaxing and a blissful time, and as I personally have a dark sense of humour, I believe including it in my game would be a good fit. An example of dark humour being included in a game and working well is Borderlands, where one of their most memorable features is it’s quite edgy humour that contrasts with the mad-max themed world. I believe having that in my own game would go well, and as I have a lot of knowledge in that form of comedy I could implant it well. The four answers I got were all in agreement that Dark humour is good and they seem to enjoy it, though I should have been more descriptive with my question and asked them to respond with what exactly is their limit and how bad they like it, as if not too be too offensive and go into edgier areas, as not everyone is into too drastic topics to joke about.
Overall, the questionnaire was a success and the questions I wanted answered, for the most part, was given full responses that will help me when I begin to create my game to it’s fullest. The answers I got back did make me re-think a few ideas that had formed into my head, however even more new ones were formed based around the reception I got back. I will take all the answers I got under consideration when I begin to draw more of more characters and plan out the story.
Reference Images
I have gathered some images that resonate to my own game and the sort of things that have helped inspire me and my work.
These Images are reference material I will use for my Robot characters, and their appearances and personalities. The Robots will be servants to the robots, and will serve the humans aboard the space hotel that find themselves in. There will be different work positions, much like a real life job in a hotel. However the robots will not be treated fairly, and not be payed or anything a human normally would. Though in my game there is no uprising or revolution, the robots are aware of their surroundings and their mistreatment- But they do not do anything to stop this.
The setting of the game will be in space, so I found these reference images to show the sort of atmosphere and space background I would like it to have. I want a colourful but empty surrounding, and I especially want the spaceship to be small to the size of the space background.Moving to the spaceship, as it’s acting as a cruise ship / spaceship / hotel, It will be mostly open and like the cruise ship model. The pictures above will be a heavy inspiration, and I would like the surroundings to have the a very stereotypical Hotel look- And have a very modern setting, but as this is in the future, It will resemble “The Past”. As in most cruise ships, there is an open area where people can lounge and look over the edge, as you can see from the first image. The human visitors will be able to go on the deck due to a force field / bubble around, which I will base on the Futurama episode “The Series has Landed” where the characters go to a theme park with a protective bubble on the moon in order for people to breathe.
I will use this idea to have it be used on the space ship so the humans will be able to breathe, and in order for the gravity to hold them down onto the surface and not drift into space.
Futurama Wiki. n.d. Luna Park. [online] Available at: <https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Luna_Park>
Recently, I had found the film “Mars needs Moms”, where a young boy goes to Mars to save his mother from an alien race who have kidnapped her. A particular part of the film is set place in under the planet, where there is a trash area where all discarded robots and general waste is stored in order to keep the facility and planet clean, as the alien race is a sophisticated and superior race to ours. This area is full of piles of waste, and seems quite dismal and depressing. Though I could not find images from the movie, there is production art from one of the concept artists, Eddie Del Rio. As stated in his personal blog, “I spent a lot of my time working on the underground section of mars in the movie.”
So I believe this images are valid.
These images are going to be a huge inspiration and I will use these for references in my own graphics. The way the orange and red hue light up the art and show an almost desert landscape, though it is all made up of trash and cybernetic infrastructure.
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