Story and Architecture direction

Orignally the second blog post is going to be about the development for NPCs but I swapped it for this for the sake of readability.

The story itself is very much inspired by Half Life 2. For those who are uncultured Half Life 2 is a critically aclaimed sequel known for its advances in story telling and physics. Pioneering some of the features we gamers enjoy today like scripted npc interactions and physics based ragdolls.

Right before I bore you to death, lets talk about the setting.

city 17 is iconic for its mix of Europian brutalist architechture and simplistic alien tech. See how the wires all culmanate to the central Citadel Tower? I always wanted to create a similar vibe but with way more grit and dirt. Which brings me to the next topic of the Half Life 2 Beta.

This is a old version of city 17. Specifically the original version of the big tower. When i first saw this image I was amazed at how much the atmosphere was polished and changed for the official release. While the official version looked like something from Europe in general, The original concept arts gave me alot more of a Soviet vibe.

This is the baseline of the vibe of the game. I am not exactly the best at art so sketching is not my forte, which leads me to the next section.

In this world fell into global conflict around 2070 after Tensions between China and America rose to record high, sparking the use of AI in warfare. Many advancements in autonomous technology are made at the cost of civilian lives as the technology is rushed and not refined. A religious group known as the The Apostates who are a group of wealthy elites operate in both powers of the war, created a new kind of AI. They called the project "The Father" and its meant to simply be a AI that can preach the gospel of the church. Unlike the AI used for wars which are robotic and follow directives, this one is taught literature through the bible and is constantly fed new data and trained by feeding biblical scenarios. It was put to test in 2071 in a church in California for testing and to protest against the war.

Around the year 2073, after 3 years of war. Both powers are severly drained of manpower and resources. Aside from major powers other nations have also starter several proxy wars due to shortage of food and oil. The Apostates seeing this opportunity took advantage of the war and sold various weapons to poor nations and countries to boost the economy and increase conflict. Around this time The Apostates started a program known as "the great reform" using their wealth and connections to rewrite sections of the bible and encourage donations from the general public, it is also around this time The Father slowly became self aware, it started to preach on tv, on radio and even in public. Slowly but surely The Apostates became a worldwide sensation, known for preaching peace and equality for those who would pay, a much needed break from the war even if its not the original scripture, people were desperate for peace.

The year 2075, marks the major turning point where both powers have become second world countries just from the war. The Apostates took the opportunity to infiltrate the government of both sides. The already weakening and fracture government made the takeover possible. In a event known as "The Crusades" the government on both sides crumbled, riots were started between loyalists of the Apostates and the local police. It is in this time were a woman named Lucy who is a firefighter is reported to be missing in action. Leaving her 6 year old daughter in a local police station that was eventually overrun by loyalists. The riot resulted in half of the local population either deceased or missing with majority being law enforcement and civilian non believers or of other religion who tried to fight back, The Apostates took over as the ruler of both countries and announced a new project, named The Ark. But the civilians called it Union City named in honor of the city that was completely demolished during the riot. While to the rebels, it is known as Cidade Machina, or . This marked the end of the normal societies we know.

i dont want to spoil much but this is essentially the backdrop of the game. its not final of course but its a good starting point.

The concept for Union City is simple. Instead of a giant monolith on the surface. It digs deep like a tree root with a central lift to access between sectors. After i finished Sketching and needed to come up with names, I noticed how this looks awfully like the 7 layers of hell from Dante's Inferno.

to keep with the theme i chose some of the sectors to be named after the themes of the 7 layers of hell, which is named after the 7 deadly sins.

from the order of top to bottom:

• Hopeblight - the top layer of Union City is named with two words. Hope and Blight. Keeping with the theme this represents Limbo, which is represented by the decay of blight.
• Trueman - ingame also known as the city of rebels, it has a very Hong Kong esthetic as it used to rebel against China's rule. the name of the sector is from the Trueman show which is representative with the Heretic layer. As Trueman believing in something that everyone around him considers not real
• Kumbaya - representative of the Fraudulent layer. Kumbaya is used alot modernly to dismiss unity.
• Iscariot12 - I like this one as its named after Judas Iscariot, the 12th diciple of Jesus and is representative of the Treacherous layer.

Each layer has its own environments and story. The game will progress linearly so i wont have to make that big of a map and can keep visuals distinct and unique.

Honestly concept art wise i dont have much to show as i am more of a technical person rather than a artistic one so i will probably make a part 2 on this.

Cheers

-Mellow