Project Overview
Harbour city 9 was once a place of wonder, and prosperity for the many. Seen by world governments as a wondrous, utopian city the rest of the world should use as a template for rebuilding their own cities after the asteroids hit. The city built as a refuge for people escaping poverty, and deprivation caused by the near apocalyptic event.
Over time, greed, corruption in governmental systems, over population, and crime have turned the city into a shadow of the initial vision. At least for the vast majority of the population of the city, who live in cramped, and often unsanitary conditions. The cost of living is extremely high, and as such most people live in poverty. People do what they can to survive and usually turn to crime to raise extra money. In contrast to this, the rich live above the city in the mountainous region, which is situated on the north side of the city. The region can only be accessed by traveling through the dividing checkpoint wall. The rich live in stark contrast to the rest of city 9. They own luxurious, spacious homes with views of the harbour, cove, and reaching across to the islands.
Inspiration for the city comes from present day Hong Kong, and East Berlin during the Cold War era.
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Project Keywords
Crime, Broken Utopia, Propaganda, Labyrinthine Streets, Surveillance, Micro-Climate, Totalitarianism, Near Future.
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Project Goals
World building is my main focus with this project, to design a believable, lived in city of the near future, that shows my personal vision of what a city of the future could look like. I want the city to evoke a feeling of anxiety, akin to East Berlin during the Cold War era. Where paranoia amongst the people, and surveillance conducted by the Stasi caused division amongst the people. This is a harsh city, one that makes life difficult in almost every way imaginable for the average citizen. Harbour City 9 isn't a pristine, clean city. It's one that's been fixed up and repaired many times over to "make do".
Environment Concept - Line work Roughs
The process of creating the various regions for the project is a complex one, and requires solid foundations, and plenty of research. The city downtown region is heavily inspired by present day Hong Kong, with buildings that are built to house many people in extremely tight, confined spaces. Inspiration for the architectural style for the region also comes from researching East Germany (East Berlin in particular) during the Cold War. The aim is to produce a hybrid architectural style of brutalist, soviet era architecture, combined with Tong Lau architecture found in present day Hong Kong. I felt these two styles would work well together in creating an environment that feels overwhelming to people at street level.
I'll be updating this section with more line drawings as the work is complete.
Weapon Concept Design
Another major part of the world building process is fleshing out the world with objects that give the audience a particular perception of the world I'm trying to create. Harbour City 9 is a hostile environment where corruption, and greed are rife. This over time has caused people to become more paranoid of strangers intentions, and people arm themselves with weapons to defend themselves.
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Hand Grenade - Thumbnails
To begin the weapon design process, I amassed a vast collection of reference of various modern, experimental, and historical weapons. Reference is a incredibly important aspect of the design process as it allows me to sketch/design with one foot in reality. The design in my opinion, will be stronger if it's based somewhat in reality, and on real life examples of the object.
The grenade design process begins with thumb nailing after all the reference collection, and researching how an object works has been completed. Gaining a general understanding of how something works allows me to make design decisions that are informed by the function of the object. The designs below are inspired by various real grenades from different eras. Whilst sketching the designs I was trying to imagine what a grenade would look like in 20-30 years time. Taking an existing grenade and moving it forward in time, so to speak.
The next stage of the design process of the grenade is to take a few of the thumbnails into perspective, and potentially build some of the designs in Blender to help explain how the grenade functions.
Grenade - 3D Block Outs
I took a handful of the thumbnail sketches and blocked them out to a stage where I have enough information to take the design further. From this point I can sketch over the top of the 3D, and iterate concepts using the models as a foundation to build upon.
The models were built in Blender using Hard Ops, and Box Cutter.
Grenade Storage Box - Block Outs
I decided to try a slightly different approach with this design, and began designing in 3D without an initial 2D sketch. I chose this approach to test my ability to design purely in 3D, using photo reference to inform my design decisions. Using Box Cutter and Hard Ops tools inside Blender allowed me to quickly build the object with realistic proportions, and details. These block outs will provide me with a good foundation for sketching the final 2D concepts of the storage box.
[Alt Ammunition] Hand Gun - Block Out
For the firearms for the project, I wanted to explore the possibilities for alternative ammo types for the guns, as well as traditional bullet fed weapons. The project is set in a near future time period, so I want to retain some form of realism to the project, but also have fun with where technology potentially could go to.
The weapon (In this configuration) fires an alternative ammunition that is stored inside a battery type "magazine" that is placed into the left hand side of the pistol. When the power is depleted, the battery magazine can be removed, and a fresh battery can be placed into the mag slot of the hand gun.
The guns for the project are centered around modular design principles, where each weapon can be configured in a different way depending on the player's personal preference. Different barrels can be attached to make the gun longer, or shorter like the example below. Scopes can be attached to the gun for greater accuracy, laser sights, drum magazines, or even traditional ammunition types if the player prefers. Modern games give the player choice when it comes to weapon configuration, so I wanted to incorporate this thinking into my concept design approach.
As before, the 3D base will be used as an underlay layer that will be sketched over in Photoshop.
Tools: Blender, Hard Ops, and Box Cutter.
