Was at Border’s yesterday and aside from picking up my usual Future Music and Imagine FX periodicals, I picked up European Art of the Sixteenth Century. Not the best book on the art of the period by far, but for 20$, it packed almost as many useful pictures, quick blurbs and artist lists as the 90$ coffee table variety.

I’d always studied art as art before, my art history had always been more of a tree diagram of ‘ism’s than having much in the way of dates and context as without a reason for exploring context I tend to find the socioanthropology side of art a bit dry. So I was a bit astonished to find that Giuseppe Arcimboldi, one of my favorite pre-Surrealist Mannerists lived smack in the middle span of the century in question: 1527-1593.

A bit about my creative vision for the art (2D or otherwise):

I’d like to carry over the sense of purpose and weight from the Late Gothics, the Mannerists, and the Venetians, while highlighting saturated color and playful chaos. Basically trying to take the subtle but intense power of the art and sprinkle it with the insanity that would’ve been had their skills turned to magic power. I also really like the ‘fire’ of gold paint in ecclesiastical art, where it feels like pieces of the art are being lifted off from it and coming to play with you. I would like to replace this gold with swashes of uninterrupted color, in a very design-school oriented manner, as if someone had taken bits of stained glass and infused and highlighted parts of the otherwise subtle world of oil and canvas. Like the magic is poking through.

A Kaleidoscope of Chiaroscuro.

I will attempt to make an example piece using the magic of photoshop and tracing at some point soon.

Been doing a good deal of research into the setting and mood of the game.  I still believe that a pre-Steampunk-ish Renaissance-based game (14th-17th century timeline) is what I would like to see. The closest interactive/game that I feel has been created is Arcanum and I feel that this should be on our list of requisite games for developers.

One thing I am naturally researching this for is for setting (which technologies spanned which time periods, the art and architecture, clothing), but there is something that interests me more (as setting is truly our whim).

Thought landscaping, and mechanics that can be derived from.   Humanism, modern philosophy, science and the Scientific Revolution occured during this time period.  Problems and theories that were forefront during these times: political ones, economic ones, scientific ones, cultural ones.

Battles that changed the sociological landscape.

First-ever concepts in economics.
Some things we can use as a guide for making our own initial political structures in the game.

I’d like to highlight a possible extrapolation:

The high concept of the game is rooted in the concept of the Guild, and the era and setting simple follow suit to the most interesting time dissection of that concept.

One set of possible mechanics to derive from this:  In the rise from Apprenticeship to Master Craftsman you need to go through a Journeyman stage.  When you attempt to become a Master Craftsman you must create a unique Masterpiece which could be unique and patented to your character, such that you have a lasting effect on the world if you achieve this position.

Just some Wiki-food for thought.