The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

As I was looking through my list of potential things to research that bared relavence to late 19th century London; save for the history of it, itself, a friend of mine brought up 'The league of extraordinary gentlmen' written by Allan Moore and drawn by Kevin O'Neil- it held an alternate victorian setting with a steampunk edge to it.

The concept of the series draws from books, from that time period; for example Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. Written in the late 19th century 'Strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Using famous fictional figures from that time period, teaming up to fight against 'The fantom'. I find victorian fiction fascinating and this combination of well known figures was really well achieved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:League.jpg



I chose to watch the film adaptation of the comics mainly, purely for the scenes in London, I wanted to examine their adaptation of victorian London and also what areas were used most.
The opening sequence was possibly the most helpful part for me, as it featured police officers along with the appropriate setting; to no surprise the colour scheme was very monochromatic and dark, typical for the 19th century. Tall, overshadowing buildings, varying with tight, claustrophobic alleyways or wide open cobblestone roads. Large use of pipe work in the opening sequence as it pans down from the rooftops of London; technoligically there is electrical lights alongside the tank that breaking into the bank.

The characters colour scheme in the film are also devoid of much colour, either greys and black tones or natural hues; Captain Nemo is a slight exeption to the rule, wearing elaborate royal blue asian attire; emphasising how bleak Victorian London was.

Granado Espada

This MMORPG had a similar setting of Victorian-esque; I personally haven't played it, however the designs for the characters were absoluely beautiful. The detail in the clothes in particular are amazing, but what I'm aiming for in characters wont have massively elaborate outfits unless it suites their personality. eg. rich and fashionista woman.

Examples of the male and female wizard classes. when I saw these it was pretty much perfect as to how I wanted typical citizens to look like, or at least the silhouette they give off. Typical well dressed arisocrats.

Alice the Madness Returns

As I had it set that the setting for my project would be late 19th Century London I wanted to see what other games' take on that theme would be. Unfortunately the spectrum of games with this setting were very niche, leaving me little to work with. I only managed to find one game that held some relavence that I could draw inspriation from which was Alice: Madness returns (2011, EA)

The art style combines colourful and macabre together wonderfully; although this is restricted to the wonderland levels, the actual London areas are much darker and have a grungy appearance. With my idea I wanted London itself to look dark, overcrowded and polluted, but with almost sickeningly bright colours splashed in. So essentially combining wonderland with London in a sense. For that reason I want to examine both 'worlds' in this game.

Wonderland

The buildings in wonderland follow the macabre style of distortion and pretty much ignores the logistics of how architecture actually works; also noting the heart shaped windows, logically this wouldn't even be considered in architecture. Along with that, the reddish hue the windows completely sets the mood for the scenario. What I also like about this is the natural part of the environment leading up to the castle, the overexagerrated dip in the path not only emphasises the castle itself but adds to the ominous air the concept art has.
I'd like to take a page from the concept art in this game, using bright colours and still maintaing a scary image.


London

There was a lack of London concept art for this game, which is understandable; wonderland is the focus and Alice actually spends a limited amount of time in the 'Real' world. This is a concept for a slums house, the colour pallete sticks to mostly brown tones; there is a definate vibe of 'You really wouldn't want to live here' The proportions of the house are precarious at best, mentioned before don't really work in real life houses. This however is how I would like the buildings in my design of London to look like, overshadowing the people; making it look unappealing to go inside.

Initial ideas

For this project I am going to research relavent games and other sources as to what I am drawing inspiration for my brief.

I have an outline for the plot I will be using for my narrative, the setting is late 19th to early 20th century London, but an alternate reality from what it actually was like. The story will follow the protagonist who is part of the police, there have be a string of murders and mutilations recently and the protagonist is thrown into the case.

I will put up a more detailed version of the plot and how my 19th century London will differ from what it was actually like.