Original Portal 2 concept art
Copyright Jeremey Bennett and Randy Lundeen, artists of Valve Corporation
Original Portal 2 concept art
Copyright Jeremey Bennett and Randy Lundeen, artists of Valve Corporation
One of the things I like about Portal 2 is the way it manages, through mostly level design, to indicate that the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre has forgotten its purpose. GLaDOS remembers nothing about a company’s purpose to sell product. It’s testing, testing ad infinitum, world without end… oh wait, the world did end. Not that GLaDOS cares. She has plenty of power and test subjects, what more could a girl want?
This blog has some interesting imagery, ranging from classic trippy to the grotesque and even terrifying.
80s sci-fi / technology chrome styled airbrush art, 1982
I think they used this for the computer game version of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
ART: Canned Qualities by Flow Market
Life is mostly defined by materialistic needs. It’s always about needing, wanting, buying, consuming, and many more verbs. Yet some things are “priceless” and can’t be bought because they are non-existent.
Which is why the Flow Market is selling these non-existent items.
I would have expected these qualities to be branded, rather than packaged generically, but on reflection that would have detracted from the core message.
I’ve started a game called Occupy White Walls, a sort of MMO art gallery building thingy. The grind is starting to hit; you basically have to excavate space one 4-metre cube at a time, and raise money by throwing open the doors as often as possible. Some people have been here long enough to create visual cacaphonies; I would too, but there doesn’t seem to be all that much modern art or abstract expressionism available. If you do play, please visit the gallery of hiatus (me.)
I’m still not quite competent with the graphics tablet, but here’s an initial sketch of the first area you visit: the throne room. If I can ever draw a decently straight line on this thing, I’ll wash out the linework (and put it on a separate layer) before flood-filling the parts. Flat colours and almost-but-not-quite straight lines are all part of the intended art style.
Currently I’m intending to use a canvas of 800x450 pixels, a quarter of my screen size. This should make for a decently sized download on most connections. Also close-ups probably won’t have detailed backgrounds to a) save space and b) avoid FIGWITs.
You’ll see this longer than you’d like in the initial cutscene.
I’m not sure where these are taken, but they’re simultaneously quiet, pretty, and slightly ominous.

All aboard the snekbus
