Kessler: Architecture Trip - Florida
I wanted to set the game in a specific location of the world and over the Christmas of 2022 I was lucky enough to have gone on a trip to the sunny US state of Florida which made me a perfect idea which was to have the game be set in Florida due to Florida being home to NASA’s Kennedy space centre.
This was also perfect since the ending of my game includes the player traveling so much that they stumble across an abandoned rocket and launch themselves into orbit (or attempt to at least) and since Florida is where Kennedy space centre is located I thought it more likely the player would find a rocket left there than in another country/place like Paris for example.
Whilst in Florida I took photos of buildings and different architecture and as part of this research I drew them using the reference images I took to make the places look run down and abandoned as they would be in a post-apocalyptic setting like the one my game will use.
Below this are some of the pictures I took of different buildings whist i was away on this holiday, some ebeing shops in shopping centres, others being houses, others being theme parks and lastly some being famous land marks like the universal ball and for people who go to Florida regularly or live there they will know of what my family call "Mickeys ears" which is an electricity transformer by the side of an interstate in the shape of a mickey.
Also, cant be a game set in Florida without a Dan Newlin billboard, Dan is a injury lawyer in Florida and his promotional billboards litter the state, its crazy everywhere you look Dan Newlin watches so I took an image of one of the billboards I saw because I would like to include one of his billboards in my game as an Easter egg.
I may also try and personally reach out to Dan and explain and ask permission to have one of his full billboards in the game otherwise I would just have to use simpler colours but give enough to show its a reference to one of his billboards but enough difference to avoid being sued by a famous lawyer.
To the left is an example of how I am going to take these reference images forward and make them into concepts to inform my assets designs.
On the far left is the Reference image and the image on the right is the one I drew using the reference image I made it so that the building was missing letters and parts of the tommy Hilfiger logo are broken off and also I drew the dry wall/concrete being broken off to expose the timber frame
(almost all buildings in America are made without using bricks)
Also, during my time in Florida I also took pictures of Typography that i found around wheather that was a stop sign or some information in a store window i took a picture of it. I did so beucase ui wanted to get an idea of what random bits of information one may stumble across in Florida was and the style of said things so that later on down the line when I make assets I can base them off of a real case study image that i took myself to further add to the setting of the state of America in which i have chosen to set my game.
