PROJECT A
Part 1
Concept visualization and Research
Project Name: Niorun
*Inspired by the Norse minor goddess, Njörun. She is rather known as a figure shrouded in mystery. Not much is known about Njörun except modern interpretations as being the Goddess of Dreams.
northernpaganism.org/shrines/niorun/about.html
Game owner: Euri Chu
Genre:
Third-person narrative/action RPG
Setting:
Set in a dystopian modern world
Story Overview:
Dreams are a reflection of reality. But what if you could control society with dreams? While dreaming, Ellis becomes fully aware that they are dreaming by a red wisp-like entity causing the dream to twist in unnatural ways. Ellis catches this wisp but somehow "bonds" with it. Ellis is suddenly transported to an infinite white space realm that contains a spiraling tower that seems to never end. Branching from this tower are faded people sleeping with cubes or pools containing projections of their own dreams. The red entity known as "The Guest" can speak to Ellis saying this tower is a "Dream Hub" where human dreams are connected and watched, but by whom? When waking, the government called "The Shepherds of Humanity" (SOH), kidnaps Ellis because they were an anomaly within their Dream Hub. They find out Ellis has bonded with this conscious entity which is unheard of. The government controls the dream hub using these entities' power- they control thought in dreams which then become a reflection in reality (perversion of privacy/mass surveillance). However, some of the entities are escaping a power containment for the dream hub and are killing off humans in their dreams in order to survive (like a virus feeding). The SOH forces Ellis to help them extinguish these invasions because they have the unique entity bond. The origins of these entities are unknown.
Gameplay:
The player can choose whether Ellis is female or male. The player will travel to various invaded dream states (upside-down worlds, corrupted dreams, nightmares) using The Guest's powers to fend off entity attacks. The story will evolve and progress from either siding with humans or the entities.
Conflicts and Themes:
Humans vs. Entities, Freedom vs. Control, Privacy vs. Surveillance, Player/Ellis vs. Morals (Ex: The evil of killing humans for survival or control of an entire population?)
dream states mood board
The imagination is a powerful tool- a tool The Shepherds of Humanity want to suppress. The dream states Ellis visits vary in design: nightmares, stress dreams, twists of reality, upside-down worlds, black and white worlds, and perhaps worlds belonging to a red-green color blind person.
*The image bottom right of the computers reflect the monotonous life people live within this dystopian world.
Scientific America describes from scientists that "dreams serve as an important function" in human psychology.
Dreams are theorized to come from memories of a person. What we see in reality make up the construct of our dreams. Dreams affect how one wakes up in the morning. The Sigmund Freud theory is that dreams contain forbidden desires. What if there was an outside source that had the power to influence, change, and control these desires in dreams and thus influence how a person reacts in the real world?
scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-dreaming-and-what-does-it-tell-us-about-memory-excerpt/
Dream hub pre-conceptualization
Basic and Rough 3D model of the Dream Hub for concept art aid.
Each branch from the Dream Hub tower contains a shadowed person with their dream. Yellow dream states mean they are stable within the Dream Hub. Red dream states mean they are unstable being invaded by the entities.
General structure idea, but the tower extends infinitely
Close up of a branch in the Dream Hub
Part 2
Draft
Dream hub conceptualization
The Dream Hub is a construct and does not exist in our physical world. The structure of the Dream Hub has evolved from being the concept of just a tower to a tree (or rather its trunk). The idea derives from each platform or level is dedicated to a singular person's dream state being a branch connected to a whole- the whole being the trunk or base of the hub. Within the base of the tower are red markings similar to tree bark outlines. The glowing markers are a visual representation of the power conduit running throughout this structure (the power source being the same color as the entities').
Perspective wise, I wanted to capture the vastness of how infinite the Dream Hub is with Ellis standing small in the space looking up at this tower.
Connected to Ellis is "The Guest", a sentient entity that looks almost wisp-like and takes a humanoid form of Ellis.
Dream state COnceptualization
Inspired by the black and white office image, this is a possible dream state Ellis would visit in their mission to combat these rogue entities who have escaped the power unit of the Dream Hub to feed off humans in their dreams. In this instance, Ellis has gone into a person's dream state and wakes up in the dream where the dream initially started.
This person is an office worker within this mundane controlled dystopian life. Outside the window, all hell has broken loose where the earth and the moon have cracked and splitting into the nether of the dream world.
Within this composition, Ellis is surrounded by unaffected dream office workers working away, but on the other side of the window is the entity looking menacingly at Ellis. Inside the office space are shades and tints of yellow (close to black and white), but outside the windows, the world would be in color, but in dark reds and blues (triad color scheme).
-Dynamics between a grey world, and a color world outside in destruction.
Part 3
Final COncept art
Dream hub
The drawing of the Dream Hub was my first attempt at drawing semi-realistically in a digital medium. This shows the size comparison of Ellis and the infinite Dream Hub that glows with red energy (similar to the entities'). Each platform contains the shadow of a person. Stable dreams are yellow and invaded dreams are red.
Dream state COnceptualization
Dream States are not places to linger in especially at the threat of collapse. Here, Ellis faces an entity that has corrupted and unbalanced this dream's state. To reiterate, entities invade one's dream in order to feed off the destructive energy within a dream which has the consequence of killing the dreamer and the visitor if fully achieved.
The original idea of this drawing was to show a black and white world vs. a color one. However, while drawing and exploring digital media techniques from the first drawing, the color from the color environment behind the glass was so intense that it created an optical illusion that made the black and white office look like it was brown and blue. Therefore, I made decisions for the focal point to solely be Ellis and this obscure entity.
- I removed "The Guest," the conscious entity attached to Ellis, from both compositions because I believed it created a distraction from the emphasis of both pieces' goals.