Abandoned Concepts with Bioshock Infinite

I live in a world of half-formed ideas. Seeing the development of movies and video games, especially in that fertile first ground before everything has been finalized, where the really wild ideas grow. Often I'll like a game's concept art more than I like the finalized version.

With Bioshock Infinite's second DLC dropping on Tuesday, I wanted to revisit my copy of the The Art of Bioshock Infinite, crawl around in the game's primordial ooze, and discuss some of the cool things I find there. Beware! I have included some spoilers, so be warned. I probably don't need to include that, but I will.

Fink's Workers
Jeremiah Fink is Columbia's resident robber-baron plutocrat. A mixture of Henry Ford and an evil version of Henry Ford, he runs the city's only corporation. He pays his employees in money that is worthless outside of his own store, deliberately imports "undesirables" so that they can be exploited, and sloganeers obnoxiously much the same way Andrew Ryan did in Bioshock. Fink's brand can be seen on nearly everything: vigors, vending machines, turrets, even the slum district where his army of tenement laborers live.

In the finalized version of the game, as you wander his factories, you see his employees: indigent, oppressed, and sad, but somehow lacking in the visual punch much of the rest of the game has. Where everything else in the game is larger than life, the poverty and abuse the workers suffer feels stunted. I found myself looking to other media that shows class warfare and abuse, and this came up lacking. Hundreds burned alive in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fires, the lower classes locked below decks on the Titanic, people accidentally ground to sausage in The Jungle. None of this, and nothing like it, exists in Columbia. Heck, during an elevator ride you see the interior of Fink's factory, and this interior section looks entirely automated: stock shipping even while the employees are actively burning the factory down. An automated factory? If these poor people don't want to be there and they're not needed, what are they even doing there.

All this was frustrating. Then, in the concept art for Finkton, there are several extremely inhumane-looking machines that originally served as part of Fink's manufacturing operations. As you can see, some of them suggest that the employees are tortured if they slow down, or simply tortured continuously. Some machines feature amputees belted or strapped to prosthetic extensions. They thus could fill several roles not met by the "standard human" employees: they underscore the danger to life and limb employees face in these factories. They serve as interesting setpieces to make this part of the game distinct from the rest.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they could serve to more adequately explain the Handymen. Tears, automatons, and vigors: the technology that resulted in Handymen could be any of these, and yet it's not clearly any of these. Rapture apparently relied on the Big Daddies to maintain it structurally (they dug foundations and repaired leaks) and to protect ADAM-harvesting Little Sisters. They arose from the technological development of splicing. There is no such visual, philosophical, or technological precursor or need for the Handymen.

Why They May Have Gone In a Different Direction
I wasn't sure why such great imagery would have been cut out of the game in favor of the workers we end up seeing. It seemed in line with the game's intent--portraying Fink as an evil tycoon of the highest order of villain (They named him Fink, for crissakes), up until they started equating the Vox to the very hierarchy they were fighting against. My assumption was that this stuff was cut because the creative staff felt the current model served the story equally well while being easier to model and animate.

Vigor Junkie and Snake Oil Salesman
Vigors were badly underrepresented in Bioshock Infinite. Originally I disagreed: we had two enemies based on vigors, whereas in Bioshock no enemies use anything that looks like the plasmids available to the player. They're obviously spliced, but you don't ever shoot up with a bottle of Crawl On Ceiling or Teleport. This was even more frustrating in Bioshock 2, where interviews with the creative leads promised "expert splicers" who knew how to handle their plasmids... but ended up being Brute Splicers, who just use a combination of tonics for their trademark physicality and endurance. So I was excited when we had a Murder of Crows themed enemy AND a Devil's Kiss themed enemy, even if only one is adequately explained.

After an examination of that, I've changed my mind. In Bioshock and Bioshock 2, enemies at least splicers: although they don't use plasmids the player has available, they're at least participating in the same world as you.  In Bioshock Infinite, most of your enemies don't use vigors, or even seem aware of them. You pull a grenade launcher on a guy with a truncheon, he'll dive behind a box full of vigors for cover. He'll sit there, surrounded by gallons of a fluid that, with one sip, would let him throw fireballs or shoot lightning out of his eyes, and then he'll come running at you with his dumb stick. Just drink the potion, man! The people you're fighting are just regular dudes and ladies (Columbia's equal-opportunity military is pretty impressive), and it doesn't make any sense. The aggressive, suicidal rampages made sense with splicers: they were drugged up, mind-controlled lunatics who want to feed your blood to little girls. These people presumably have families, friends, some remaining desire to not get sawed in half.

The Splicers in Bioshock prevent the omnipresent advertisements, vending machines and EVE hypos from seeming disingenuous or out-of-place. While relatively few enemies actually use the plasmids the player can equip, plasmids still inform nearly every aspect of the world. That same design consistency isn't covered in BSI.

Worse, BSI has moments that could really benefit from these distinctly different characters: the fight/flight moments. Often when you arrive in a completely new place, people haven't yet identified you as the enemy, and you won't get attacked until you violate the law: rob, murder, trespass. However, most of these events focus on police and guards preventing you from robbing a store. Junkies could have further diversified those events, while simultaneously re-grounding vigors in the world.

Why They Were Cut:
The vigor junkies see new life as Frosty Splicers in Burial At Sea, but both they and the other enemies seen in the art book presumably were cut for a pretty obvious reason: the mechanics that grew alongside the designs were abandoned. The snake-oil salesman

Automatons
There is concept art for Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson Automated Patriots that were cut. That's disappointing for a lot of reasons: the Key/Sword/Scroll philosophy that appears in the temple at the beginning of the game is almost totally gone by hour 2, and Jefferson and Franklin won't be mentioned again until the asylum later in the game. There are lots of other automatons in the original art that never made it into the game, including a few that are purely nonthreatening, but I think it is the absence of the Franklin and Jefferson that is the most disappointing as a fixture of the story.

Why It was Cut:
Unlike the other stuff, I find automatons kind of a mystery in general. They're cool and they bring the game a certain je ne sais quoi, diversifying the enemy ranks in a way that it really needed, but I have no idea how they fit in with tears or vigors. It is expressly mentioned in the art book that automatons were a fascination of the era, but that's it. The Motorized Patriots are initially introduced as props in a museum, reciting patriotic gibberish, but that really supports presenting all three Fathers getting equal time.

The cut may be the way that the two factions' Motorized Patriots are distinguished: Washington for the Founders, and a devilish Lincoln for the Vox, but the distinction between the two factions hardly ever comes up as a function of gameplay and friendly Patriots are always identified by green lights anyway, so that hardly seems like an adequate explanation.

The Admiral

Ah, welcome to my study. Please excuse me for not rising to greet you, old wounds you see, though on second hand perhaps you do not, at least not all of them. No matter. Please, have a seat and do not be shy about the brandy. The Frank ambassador likes to send me a barrel every year in thanks for my actions at the Battle of Cardonnes. In some ways, the bottle you see before you is simply another of the trophies to decorate this room.

Your reputation precedes you and I have heard your skill with pen may match mine with sword. I have sampled several of your previous works and can conclude that the praise awarded you is not undue. As such, I would make a request of you. My time is nearing its end and I believe it proper that I leave behind something to mark my thoughts on my life. I am aware that you have been working on a biography of me to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Vernica, often considered by others as the singular event that catapulted me to fame and glory. In addition to that, I would request your assistance in producing my own personal memoir. No, I do not jest. I have the utmost confidence in your ability to rise to the task and I offer you my time and what is left of my memories to assist.

You accept? Ah, most excellent. Then how shall we proceed? Stories? Of my past? You mean you do not mind an old man rambling on and on about bygone days? Lovely, I think this will be a most enjoyable liaison. Is there anything in particular you wish to hear about or shall I simply ramble on? The horns sitting next to me? Ah, an interesting first choice. Few have actually asked about them though I know many have been very curious about their presence. Very well, it all started when I was a young leftenant in the Corps....

Zachary Gorden is a guest author for Screwdle. You can read more by him... eventually...

The Fairy Queen

In case you can't tell from pretty much every other Screwdle ever, I come from the lineart school of art. Painting is something I never really went in for and it's haunted me ever since I realized I don't have the artistic breadth to do anything useful or interesting with art unless I learned how. Sort of like "drawing with colors until 2006" or "drawing things from photo references until 2010" or "hey, maybe get something more powerful than MS Paint until 2012".


So here is me, experimenting with another new technique. Well, we all have to learn sometime.

Locust

They were locked away in the Earth. It is impossible to say how many there were. No manner of reckoning their number had yet been invented when they sank through mud and gravel. Their bodies were pushed into the deep places beneath the Earth. For a millenia the world stank of their ruined corpses and the whole of it was their sepulcher.

But memories pile on memories, and dust on dust.  Glaciers rose and sank. Seas parted. Forests bloomed and burned and from the ashes, bloomed anew. In the middle of one forest, a particular tree found purchase in loamy soil. Its canopy dwarfed all others, and its roots plumbed impossible depths.

It was the deepest taproot that pierced the cold carapace of the horrible thing. Woodflesh mingled with chitin. Conveyed upward, the vanguard of Things climbed root to trunk, trunk to branch, branch to leaf and for the first time in unknowable millenia shared the sky with the sun and the stars.

From inside to out the thing--all other names long since battered to sand on the tide of ages--choked the life from its benefactor. Leaves fell and branches withered.  The trees saw the greatest of their number weaken, slacken, and decay, and they girded themselves for a time when her mighty corpse could no longer contain the horror waiting to escape.

Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2-5 diced sweet or bell peppers
• 3-5 diced cherry tomato
• 2 teaspoons garlic
• 1/2 diced white onion
• 4 oz coconut milk
• 1/4 cup cashews / unsalted peanuts (optional)

 Put 2 chicken breasts on a medium heat with one tablespoon oil. Lightly dust with curry powder of your preference. Cook until most of the pink is gone from the meat, then add your peppers, along with one tablespoon yellow curry paste. Increase heat to high to evaporate excess water and give the chicken a firmer texture. With a wooden or plastic spoon, carefully stir ingredients together to ensure a thorough cooking and even seasoning. When the chicken is completely done and most of the extra water evaporated, reduce heat to low. Add coconut milk, onion, garlic and tree nuts of your preference.

Serve over jasmine or basmati rice. Serves 2 people.

Fun Variations

Jalapenos:
A diced jalapeno added with the rest of the peppers gives the curry a spicy kick.

Mangos:
Half a diced mango sweetens the curry for a lighter, fruity meal.

Pineapple Husk:
Pour the finished curry and rice into hollowed pineapple and bake it for a very sweet pineapple glaze and exciting table centerpiece.

Peanut Sauce:
Thai peanut sauce or a tablespoon of peanut butter can serve as a protein-rich alternative to coconut milk.

Cheese:
If the finished meal is excessively spicy, a dusting of mozzarella cheese can round out the spiciness.

Mango-Habanero:
Finely chopped habanero and mango chunks make for a complicated mix of sweet and spicy.

Who's REALLY Committing Suicide, Here?

Recently--like seriously fifteen minutes ago--I learned that DC Comics is running contest entitled "Break Into Comics". Wow! That's exciting.  I've drawn three comic books, so the aspiration is there, although the skill isn't, even as I maintain this alleged art blog. They were amateurish, done on 8.5"x11" printer paper for small assignments in high school and in college. I think I might have colored one in MS Paint? So I'm excited. I like contests AND external validation, so I thought maybe I'd enter. There's no way I'd win, really. I don't think I'm equipped to draw any DC titles, but where's the harm in entering? I'll whip up a page, no problem.

But then I read the details of the contest. You, the contestant, must draw Harley Quinn, holding a cell phone tower above her head, trying to get struck by lightning. Then her, trying to get eaten by alligators. Panel three is Harley tickling a whale for some reason. And finally, Harley committing suicide by getting naked and dumping a bunch of appliances into a tub.

This is a bad, dumb contest. Put aside the fact that DC got a fair amount of backlash for Harley's new design both in Arkham Asylum and The Suicide Squad. We'll ignore the fact that creative staff has departed for creative differences regarding gender and sexual identity inclusion.

At it's heart, this is a company asking people to apply there, by telling prospective artists to draw a woman committing suicide in four hilarious ways. Okay, so they're not actually hilarious, although it's pretty clear that they were meant to be. That somebody--possibly a human being!--sat down and thought of four funny ways for a woman to kill herself is kind of weird and gross all on its own.

Especially because sensitive subject matter like suicide is hard to make funny. I won't say impossible, but there are correct channels to go through and criteria to meet in order to make it funny. You have to distance yourself from the reality of the situation, for the absolute horror of death and the incredible suffering a suicide victim must be going through to make it an option. Being dead isn't the punchline to a suicide joke. But then there's this sentence: "We are all watching the moment before the inevitable death." There is a voyeuristic element of anticipation in that sentence that completely terrifies me. That might be the second clearest way to tell somebody "I have watched a snuff film before." It makes the fact that this is a tortured psyche desperately trying to end her own life horrifyingly real, but we're intended to still feel excited about seeing it.

There has to be a better way to make my point. So, to underscore how creepy it is, let's do the same thing with The Joker. It's not going to make it funny, but I kind of hope it makes it clear how genuinely gross this is.

We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. - See more at: http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151#sthash.av0Q3HBJ.dpuf

Empty World Syndrome

Recently I just played through Brutal Legend again, and it was a ton of fun, just like I remember it being when I originally played it in 2009. It's a really interesting game because the world is truly awesome. There are tons of cool monsters and locations strewn throughout the world, and the game has specific constructions that allow you to take advantage of these aesthetic pleasures. Ordinarily I hate that kind of emphasis creating a look, creating setpieces that neither serve the gameplay nor really further the story, but Brutal Legend is an epic world that really benefits from a variety of huge, cool setpieces.

Anyway, I beat the game I spent some time just kind of driving around the world, looking at all the cool stuff and visiting some of the areas I had liked while I was playing the game. I rode through some settlements, camps, and places where I'd stopped the bus during the campaign, and I began to notice something: this world was pretty empty. Whenever I'd beat a side mission, the units offering it would vanish, leaving an abandoned campfire behind. The settlements I'd worked hard to rescue from the clutches of vile monsters were empty of people. In spite of its beauty, this world felt sort of abandoned.

I am, of course, comparing it to the RPGs of my youth. In those games, cities were heavily populated, with dozens of locals discussing local landmarks, moving the story along, or offering gameplay advice disguised as banter. Perhaps this is somewhat unjustly offered. Brutal Legend does make some efforts to make the world feel occupied: the whole world is full of units constantly marching around "kicking ass", as they proudly proclaim, there are a few areas where you can interact with campaign characters after the fact, and a few units can be seen doing odd jobs.

But the automated units running around fighting creeps never feel quite like characters: they fight, often they die, and they're replaced by new units as though nothing happened, often while you're sitting there, watching. Seeing people live and struggle in their world is pretty cool, as is seeing aspects of gameplay happen without you--it makes the world feel more immersive.

But then again, it was strange to think that at the beginning of the game, when the humans are living as slaves under Doviculus, they can be seen having a party on the beach--a party that vanishes after you beat the associated secondary missions and never returns, even after the campaign is over. It seems incongruous and makes you question whether you actually improved anything.

However, the absence of civilians from the gameplay is something I've noticed in a couple games. The whole human population of Rapture seems totally absent--you meet a few people that are implied to be non-splicers, but they're always story focused, and their rarity is underscored by the fact that more than half of them show up as corpses and the fact that you have to murder a dozen people just to go to the bathroom. The idea that this place is still a functioning city in the throes of a civil war--and not a long-dead, mouldering ruin--is completely damaged by the overwhelming presence of enemies.

Borderlands basically didn't have anybody. The first town features one NPC and three corpses, but the doctor behaves like he's in a bustling small town. There's a jobs board that often features jobs written as though they're from people who live in the local community, but you almost never see them, or any indication that they might exist beyond a note and the promise of a handful of cash. This is another game where you're exterminating small civilizations the way most people might clean the garage. So any given hut could be a clown car full of axe-wielding bandits, but entire cities often consist of the one guy who coincidentally runs a planetwide chain of vending machines. Again, incongruous.

Bioshock Infinite, however, breaks the mold by featuring civilians. Actual, real civilians that you're not supposed to murder and who flee as soon as the gunfire starts. It really took big steps towards making BSI feel alive, although you can review elsewhere for its storytelling deficiencies outside of the recognition that videogame setpieces don't have to be abandoned sets.

So don't leave an empty world. To me, games feel more interesting and the world more engaging when they they're populated. If you want to build a static dollhouse, we had the tools to do that lying around our mud huts 4000 years ago. We didn't need to tame lightning and teach it to count. If you have an open world, it needs people to feel alive. All those wonderful things setpieces you create should serve a population that has a need for them, or at least an appreciation for them.