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Here's the idea I was working on this morning:
Quote:
Setting is an abstract dimension that consists of all the art ever made. Every artist has their own projection of their minds in this realm, but only a few artist are capable of travelling between each other’s minds (or even being aware that they are in this realm to begin with).
It’s called, the Artscape. We could probably come up with a better name.
An artist, calling him Charles at the moment, begins to have a breakdown after his work is blasted by critics. He goes home, defeated and broken, barely conscious. He feels so bad that he's even considering suicide. However, he doesn't have the energy to even get out of his bed and instead, he falls asleep.
In what he believes are his dreams, he enters what appears to be an imaginary realm constructed of his own art. He notices in the landscape a part of everything he has created, from his first doodles to his latest works, remembering something about each of them.
However, Charles’s dream ceases to feel dreamy when a strange, twisted creature that he never would have created himself appears and attacks him (1st Battle). Our artist does not know what to do, but, out of nowhere, Leonardo Da Vinci appears and fights with him. My dialogue idea for this scripted sequence:
ARTIST: “WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”
LEO: “YOUR CREATIVE MIND IS BEING INVADED BY POSTMODERNISM!!”
ARTIST: “WHAT DO I DO?!?!”
LEO: “BEAT THE SNOT OF IT!! SOMETIMES ART NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED!!”
After defeating the crazy creature, Leo reveals to our artist the nature of the Artscape, and that the reason Charles is able to be here is due to how much he values his artwork - to the point of considering suicide because a critic bashed him.
Only artists who reach this level of dedication are able to ascend into the Artscape.
Leo then tells him about the rampant spread of terrible art forms thanks to Marcel Duchamp (the guy who hung the urinal in an art museum), and that how he needs to be stopped before all of the art world is consumed.
Charles tries to argue free expression of art, etc., but Leo tells him that he misunderstands. The Postmodernists are actually trying to attack everyone else’s art by traversing the Artscape and smashing their thoughts.
Leo convinces Charles to come with him to the Siège de L'art (french for ‘seat of art’) to meet the League of Artists (this name needs to change, too).
Charles meets the League, consisting of a bunch of famous artists, I don’t know who all, yet. They tell him about the Postmodernists and how they need more help trying to find where Marcel Duchamp is hiding. The Artscape is so big that it’s nearly impossible to travel all of, and very easy to hide inside it.
Now, the player’s goal as Charles is to travel the Artscape, hunting down Postmodernists. I’m thinking we pick 5-8 of our favorite artists/art styles and base the areas in the game around these styles. Also, these artists can be recruited to the player’s party to help them take down Postmodernism.
Here’s a good source of artists and art movements to check out :
http://totallyhistory.com/art-history/famous-artists/
Some other ideas :
1. At some point, I think it would be cool for Charles and Marcel Duchamp to meet in private, or maybe with Marcel’s group of Postmodernists, and explain to Charles how the Postmodernists aren’t trying to force everyone to conform to their art. Instead, they’re trying to free art from the constraints imposed by the League of Artists. The player could choose to fight for either side, then, and the game could turn into a unique form of La Resistance vs. The Empire.
2. I was thinking we cover at least some more well-known and unique artists. My list currently consists of:
a. Salvador Dahli - http://totallyhistory.com/salvador-dali/
b. Paul Gauguin - http://totallyhistory.com/paul-gauguin/
c. Georgia O’Keefe - http://totallyhistory.com/georgia-o-keefe/
d. Norman Rockwell - http://totallyhistory.com/norman-rockwell/
e. El Greco - http://totallyhistory.com/el-greco/
f. Pablo Picasso - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_picasso
3. At some point, I think it would be a cool idea for someone like Andy Warhol to serve as an Ultros-like character.
4. I think a fun path to take the player down when hunting Duchamp (or whoever our main antagonist becomes), would be to have them break the fourth wall, like a literal giant wall and discover what’s on the other side. Maybe have a lot of lore and myth built up around the wall and have NPCs saying something like ‘Legend has it that when Duchamp broke through, what he found on the other side drove him mad.’
5. The final battle should be in a urinal (if we stick with Duchamp).
It’s called, the Artscape. We could probably come up with a better name.
An artist, calling him Charles at the moment, begins to have a breakdown after his work is blasted by critics. He goes home, defeated and broken, barely conscious. He feels so bad that he's even considering suicide. However, he doesn't have the energy to even get out of his bed and instead, he falls asleep.
In what he believes are his dreams, he enters what appears to be an imaginary realm constructed of his own art. He notices in the landscape a part of everything he has created, from his first doodles to his latest works, remembering something about each of them.
However, Charles’s dream ceases to feel dreamy when a strange, twisted creature that he never would have created himself appears and attacks him (1st Battle). Our artist does not know what to do, but, out of nowhere, Leonardo Da Vinci appears and fights with him. My dialogue idea for this scripted sequence:
ARTIST: “WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”
LEO: “YOUR CREATIVE MIND IS BEING INVADED BY POSTMODERNISM!!”
ARTIST: “WHAT DO I DO?!?!”
LEO: “BEAT THE SNOT OF IT!! SOMETIMES ART NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED!!”
After defeating the crazy creature, Leo reveals to our artist the nature of the Artscape, and that the reason Charles is able to be here is due to how much he values his artwork - to the point of considering suicide because a critic bashed him.
Only artists who reach this level of dedication are able to ascend into the Artscape.
Leo then tells him about the rampant spread of terrible art forms thanks to Marcel Duchamp (the guy who hung the urinal in an art museum), and that how he needs to be stopped before all of the art world is consumed.
Charles tries to argue free expression of art, etc., but Leo tells him that he misunderstands. The Postmodernists are actually trying to attack everyone else’s art by traversing the Artscape and smashing their thoughts.
Leo convinces Charles to come with him to the Siège de L'art (french for ‘seat of art’) to meet the League of Artists (this name needs to change, too).
Charles meets the League, consisting of a bunch of famous artists, I don’t know who all, yet. They tell him about the Postmodernists and how they need more help trying to find where Marcel Duchamp is hiding. The Artscape is so big that it’s nearly impossible to travel all of, and very easy to hide inside it.
Now, the player’s goal as Charles is to travel the Artscape, hunting down Postmodernists. I’m thinking we pick 5-8 of our favorite artists/art styles and base the areas in the game around these styles. Also, these artists can be recruited to the player’s party to help them take down Postmodernism.
Here’s a good source of artists and art movements to check out :
http://totallyhistory.com/art-history/famous-artists/
Some other ideas :
1. At some point, I think it would be cool for Charles and Marcel Duchamp to meet in private, or maybe with Marcel’s group of Postmodernists, and explain to Charles how the Postmodernists aren’t trying to force everyone to conform to their art. Instead, they’re trying to free art from the constraints imposed by the League of Artists. The player could choose to fight for either side, then, and the game could turn into a unique form of La Resistance vs. The Empire.
2. I was thinking we cover at least some more well-known and unique artists. My list currently consists of:
a. Salvador Dahli - http://totallyhistory.com/salvador-dali/
b. Paul Gauguin - http://totallyhistory.com/paul-gauguin/
c. Georgia O’Keefe - http://totallyhistory.com/georgia-o-keefe/
d. Norman Rockwell - http://totallyhistory.com/norman-rockwell/
e. El Greco - http://totallyhistory.com/el-greco/
f. Pablo Picasso - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_picasso
3. At some point, I think it would be a cool idea for someone like Andy Warhol to serve as an Ultros-like character.
4. I think a fun path to take the player down when hunting Duchamp (or whoever our main antagonist becomes), would be to have them break the fourth wall, like a literal giant wall and discover what’s on the other side. Maybe have a lot of lore and myth built up around the wall and have NPCs saying something like ‘Legend has it that when Duchamp broke through, what he found on the other side drove him mad.’
5. The final battle should be in a urinal (if we stick with Duchamp).
There you have it. There’s still a lot left to decide, but we have the luxury have having a subject that’s very easy to research and understand visually.
Also, we can use just about any graphics that are submitted to us if we include abstract art styles
Feel free to provide any feedback you like, and don’t be afraid to critque harshly. I’m a journalist, I’m used to it.
