Altered States Part 2 - Initial Ideas and Mood Sheets

Colour, time and reality - these were my main focuses while trying to come up with a game concept that I could illustrate for. Why time and reality? I went back to my original mind map for Altered States, and I tried to come up with new words that I could add to it, and these were the words that came to mind.

Since colour is the core focus for a lot of my work, it would make sense for it to be my biggest priority, but I feel that it must come after time and reality in this case, as it would follow them more naturally.

So what are the first things that come to mind when I think 'altered states of time and reality'?

My mind immediately went to steampunk. I absolutely adore steampunk - the fashion, the technology, the setting, everything! I've been looking for an excuse to use steampunk in my work more, so the fact that it fits in so nicely with this brief is perfect. On top of that, I feel that it would potentially fill a gap in the market to make a game centred around steampunk. While there are definitely games out there with a steampunk vibe, there aren't many modern video games that fully meet the criteria for a truly 'steampunk game'.

Other ideas I had were dystopia, parallel worlds, time travel, futuristic worlds and such.

I feel that the typical futuristic vibe, where it's all sci-fi space travel and minimalistic designs, is a little bit overdone and I wanted to make something more unique, so I disregarded it.

Dystopia however caught my attention far more. There are so many ways a dystopian society could form and progress, and for so many reasons. As a concept, I would have a lot more room to 'play around'.

My issue now was which direction to go in. Do I go for more creative freedom with a dystopian vibe? Or do I go with my passion for steampunk? I couldn't do both.

Then I realised- Who says I can't do both? Who says I can't combine those two concepts into something new? I thought back to the idea in my second brainstorm, parallel worlds. That's when I decided that I should build my game concept around two parallel worlds, one beautiful and steampunk, the other a grim dystopian reality.

I knew that if I wanted to use themes of steampunk and dystopia within my work, I would need some mood sheets to reference as I worked, so I went on Pinterest and put these together.

None of the following images are mine. These are reference only.

Dystopia

This sheet is mostly for aesthetic and background. I made this sheet with, for the most part, a form of dystopia I would like to explore more in mind, this being nature reclaiming the world. I made sure to include some other forms as well though, to try and keep my reference more diverse.

Steampunk

This sheet is mostly for aesthetic and background. Since I love steampunk, I am often recommended a lot of steampunk themed artwork on Pinterest, so these are images I saw that I feel fit the vibe.

Steampunk Characters/Fashion

This sheet is mostly for fashion and art style inspiration. I am still exploring what kind of style I would like to use for the majority of my work, so I made sure to gather a lot of different types of reference here.

The Hunger Games/Dystopia

This sheet is mostly for fashion inspiration. 'The Hunger Games' series of films demonstrate very well that not all dystopia 'looks' grim and dull. Within the world setting, things certainly do look very dark and grim for the twelve districts, where money is scarce. However, in The Capitol things are very different. While the districts go without, The Capitol is wealthy and strong, and this is reflected in the way that the people dress and behave. The pictures in this sheet show some of the fashion typically seen within The Capitol.

Divergent/Dystopia

This sheet is mostly for fashion inspiration. The 'Divergent' series of films show a slightly more modern take on dystopia in terms of fashion. The main concept of the world setting is that there are five factions, each filled with people that strongly display a certain characteristic- Abnegation (Selfless), Dauntless (Brave), Amity (Kind), Erudite (Intelligent) and Candor (Honest). The faction system supposedly brings peace, but collapses if someone doesn't fit into one of the factions (Divergent). The fashion within this series is fairly modern in style and colour, so this is proof that anything can go in dystopia as long as it can be explained.