The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

It is summer time. I am in between my junior and senior years and Ringling College of Art and Design. I passed preproduction for my Game art and design thesis, though not without argument and controversy, but the important part is the passing. It is in my opinion that any idea worth doing is worth fighting for, and a project that doesn't stir up at least a little controversy is not worth doing. So here I am, ready to work, create, push myself and most likely struggle through until the end.

I decided to start this blog so that I would be able to show the process of my thesis to people other than those I go to school with, but still keep that list pretty exclusive.

The idea I'm trying to get across is a playful satire on a somewhat dark subject matter. Many films and video games have taken ideas and inspiration from the atomic age because it was such an interesting time in our country's history. What interests me most about it is the hype surrounding nuclear technology that was created by advertisers and eaten up by consumers. Such as the way people envisioned a bright future with nuclear powered cars and less dependency on natural resources, and children played with Geiger counters, atomic ray guns and science kits that came with uranium. On the surface it seems like such a simple and optimistic time, but along with that optimism came fear. Eventually all of our bright hopes for a nuclear powered future went up in the smoke of a mushroom cloud, leaving behind a fallout of unrealized dreams of progress and regret.

I want to create a piece of the world that was left behind. A playground of nuclear fun left to decay in the harsh reality of the future that actually came to pass.

Another thing that really interests me about this period is the proliferation of the themes of monsters of our own creation and the pitfalls of science in film and television. What I would like to get across in the final piece is the kind of feel shows like "Tales of Tomorrow" and movies like "Them" and  "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" created.

The best place to start I guess is to post up the video of the outcome of last year's preproduction course. Its sort of a game pitch, sort of an animatic, and sort of a gameplay test. I have already made a lot of changes from what you will see here, but that is always a side effect of the creative process.

To be honest, this 'animatic' doesn't really get any of the above across very well at all, but it is my hope that I will be able to clarify my vision as I continue on.

the password to view this is: landisrules



My next post will be everything I've accomplished so far this summer, which is an amount I'm pretty proud of considering how much I normally accomplish in the months of May and June.