Technicae Brittannia

Technicae Brittannia

Overview:

Technicae Brittannia is an adventure game based around the future of Britain pulling heavily from its past, the old sub and counter cultures return to prominence as street gangs in the dystopian Cyberpunk future of the year 2075. Advancements in automation and prosthesis means that those who were at one point fully able bodied are now unable to keep up with their cyborg co-workers; Industrial grade prosthetic arms and legs able to support tons, reinforced skeletal structures which minimise risk of injury and Neural implants that advance intellect and computing ability mean that those who cannot afford to work cannot. Poverty if rife and crime is only increasing, new superstructures and superblocks replace the housing of old and thousands live within each. This new world is economically prosperous to those who employ and who are employed, and also to those who take their own initiative on the streets in less legal ways meaning the only ways in life is to gain augments and use them, either on the streets or in the factories.

Rather than being set in the corporate world of Britain in this era, the game is set firmly on the poverty stricken streets of Glasgow, you assume the role of NAME a youngster born into an old- school working class family, however as NAME grows they see that the world is not the same as what their parents used to know. Using what little money they could, they augmented and originally found work in one of the factories that was until being fired due to inefficient, old, hardware. And so, like so many before, they took to the streets with their friends, using their augments to commit petty and sometimes not so petty crimes to feed their aging families and own greed and eventually joined one of the gangs ‘Spirit of 2069’ A predominantly Skinhead gang who despite having to perform small crimes in order to feed their families are still deeply rooted in their own code of anti- racism and being politically neutral, these aspects has drawn a large following but as the group grows both inner and outer conflicts begin to rise.

1960’s, 70’s, 80’s Britain & its subculture:

As my game pulls so heavily from British subculture I had to do research into what group I believe would blend into this world well, and so I began researching into some of the biggest subcultures of the 60’s through to the 80’s.

Mods, the name derived from Modernist, were one of the biggest and most influential subcultures of the last century and have a lasting impression on many modern subcultures, Mod styles and influences have come in and out of fashion many times either through Mod revival movements or through amalgamation into other subcultures looks and musical tastes.

The Look: Often associated with wearing formal wear in an informal setting Mod’s were a major influence in the coming decades and many of their styles were adopted by other subcultures mixing formal and informal dress. Often wearing suit’s or blazers along with braces and porkpie or trilby hats along with formal leather shoes and riding Lambretta or Vespa scooters, which made the use of leather bomber jackets common and of course, the adoption of the British M.O.D roundel as a staple of the look.

The Music: Often associated with 60’s through 80’s Britain as a whole the Mod subculture popularised Modern Jazz, Ska, Reggae and soul throughout Britain and supporting British bands such as The Who, who famously share the M.O.D roundel.

Mod’s also famously feuded with other subcultures such as Rockers.

Rockers were another subculture of the 1960’s who famously clashed with the Mods, also referred to as Café Racers these youths took influence predominantly from American Rock ‘n’ Roll however differed with a British twist. While being often eclipsed by Mod’s in later decades Rocker influenced subculture did return in the form of Rockabilly and Psychobilly subcultures later on along with having a heavily influence on Punk Rock.

The Look: Rocker gangs often used much more intimidating styles of motorcycles to the Mod’s this theme of intimidation also influenced their whole look, skull and cross bone designs were common on jackets, on the helmets and on the bikes themselves, leather was extremely common. Leather jackets and heavy leather boots, open face bike helmets and aviator goggles often along with Levi jeans, which were adopted by many subcultures yet to come.

The Music: As the name Rocker implies, American Rock ‘n’ Roll such as Chuck Berry.

In the late 60’s the first wave of the Skinhead subculture appeared, starting in London. By far one of the most controversial and misinterpreted subcultures to come out of the UK the first wave Skinheads drew their look from adopting the aspects of three other subcultures which simultaneously existed in Britain and Jamaica, the Mod’s, to a small extent the Rockers and heavily from the Jamaican Rude Boy subcultures – Making the blanket opinion of Skinheads being inherently racist very odd as while also adopting the look of the Rude Boy’s they also, like the Mod’s, adopted much of the Jamaican music which swept across the country, famously Skinhead’s were renown for listening to Ska, Reggae, Dub, R&B, Soul and Rocksteady first wave Skinhead’s along with many second wave Skins were strictly a-political. The second wave was post-punk, this lead to many Punk’s entering the subculture which caused Punk-Influenced Skinheads and the original Mod inspired Skinheads to be at odds with a clear divide in the subculture resulting in it’s bad name which was then reduced further when many of the non-traditional Skinheads became associated with the far right, which spread to other countries resulting in the modern American Skinhead many of which, ironically due to the origins of the subculture, openly parade ‘white supremacy’.

The Look: The original wave of Skinhead’s along with the later traditional Skin’s had a much more Mod inspired look, which also drew from the Jamaican Rude boy and adopted the Levi Jean’s and leather boots of the Rockers. Typically wearing shirts and Levi jeans often rolled or tucked, held up by braces along with wearing Doctor Martin’s or other high leather boots and bomber jackets. Later and more Punk influenced Skinheads tended to drop the Levi’s for camouflage trousers.

The Music: Common among the British Skinheads was the heavy influence of the Jamaican music boom of the 60’s; Ska, Rocksteady and Dub, in the revival stages this was often replaced with Jamaican-inspired British groups such as Madness, the Specials, Cockney Rejects once Jamaican music turned more towards Jamaican internal nationalism, however classics such as Toots and the Maytals remained in popularity throughout.

(Left: A pair of 60’s Skinheads. Right: A pair of 80’s Skinheads and a ‘Skinbird’ a female Skinhead).

The Gothic rock scene came from the Post-Punk era, originating the the UK in the 80’s Gothic Rock is sombre but often upbeat in its instrumentals and pulled heavily from 19th century Gothic literature and horror for its aesthetics. The first band to receive the term ‘Goth Rock’ was the band The Doors for their almost hypnotic beats and unsettling vocals, this was brought back when Post-Punk and New Wave bands such as Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshee’s rose to popularity in the late 70’s, which boomed during the 80’s. Goth’s often wore black however this was not such a staple in the early period of the genre when it was essentially the Darker version of Punk. During the mid 80’s the true Goth subculture began to grow and pull away from Punk, 19th century inspired clothing and black leather jackets became popular along with pagan iconology and with the growing popularity came new bands such as The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim.

The Look: Typically Goth’s were pale skinned and had teased hair wore heavy, black leather jackets and rolled jeans and black boots similar to the skinhead style, they also often wore makeup regardless of sex although not all did and most of the look was completely up to the wearer rather than being a uniform look.

The Music: Music considered Gothic often had a sombre vocalist along with bass heavy backing and a metronomic drum beat, the other instruments could emphasise themselves or be second to the backing beat leaving the vocalist to deliver chilling lyrics this is common within New Wave, Goth Rock, Post Punk and their successors with notable bands such as; The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, New Order, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Killing Joke and Adam and the Ants however the Gothic aesthetics inspired many other groups and their intense, hypnotic backing beats were adopted by groups outside the genre such as The Cult.

Gangs of 2075:

My game will use these and influences of other subcultures to create a dynamic mix of these into a new generation, obviously not all of a single subculture makes up a single gang and so each gang must have their own aesthetic looks to distinguish themselves from others of their subculture, however in the ideal of saving time for this section I will be limiting myself to a small group of gangs and will be designing members of the main gang in which the player finds themselves along with a few others to bring more of my vision out.

THIS WILL BE A CONCEPT DUMP OF VARIOUS IMAGES WITH DESCRIPTIONS

First Dump – Raw images and scans:

Workflow:

After ascertaining what exactly I would be working on for my project I set about looking into games I can use for inspiration for the prototype, seeing as the project itself is more about world-building and less about gameplay design I thought a first-person adventure game style would suit what I am trying to accomplish well, akin to The Fullbright Company’s 2013 game “Gone Home” a simple first person camera with environmental interactivity. I will also be using a low poly aesthetic in order to give the contrast between a future setting and a retro-style along with being a time saving and clean looking aesthetic to use, also influenced by my personal interest in low poly models.

My first step is to block in my Unreal 4 scene with basic shapes in order to create a test environment along with setting up a first person character and disabling anti-aliasing in the world options in order for my low poly models to truly fit the look, this is inspired by the environments in early 3D games like Alone in the Dark (1984):

Obviously in this game the environments were pre-rendered, but I wish to use a similar low poly style in a first person 3D environment, which again meets my personal like of this style in indie developed games.

The next step was to create lists of basic assets, I unfortunately made these on paper, and have since lost them, however in my journal it shows which assets were created in a week by week basis.

The method was pretty standard, create a basic silhouetted model, unwrap the UV’s and apply a low-res texture which was created in Photoshop then imported and assigned and exported with the model then imported and positioned in Unreal Engine 4 I also used a semi-realistic scaling system of meters in Maya and 3DS Max in order to create a more consistent scale.

I intend to make custom particle effects and a singular animated character model in the scene too, however these will come much later.

Example Models so far: