By Quintin Smith on March 23rd, 2011 at 11:02 am.
This is quite the thing. PC Gamer has caught sight of a photo posted by Team Fortress 2 community member Political Gamer on his recent visit to Valve’s offices, which he writes about on the Steam forums here. Most of the images in the thread are idle photography, but one of them- which you’ll see in full after the jump- is a wall of sci-fi looking concept art showing space-ships and whole load of headshots of people who might best be described as “incorrect”. My unstoppable speculation follows…
Click for bigger!
In their own coverage of the story Big Download point out that later in the thread Political Gamer claims that these sketches are “just some art done by people at Valve”, a strange sentence where the word “just” has no place whatsoever. The above wall is hundreds of man hours of work! Surely it must have been put together with a game in mind. If you really wanted to downplay the importance of it you could speculate that it showed art belonging to an abandoned project, but that’s no fun whatsoever.
Instead, let’s assume that this is all concept art for a game they’re working on right now. Here’s my guess as to what that game might be.
Here’s your protagonist, Lick Powder, Intergalactic genius. Powder travels from star system to star system, in his trusty ship the U.G.V. Monstrous Monstrous-
- on a quest to find and kill the elusive Miss. Joanna D’Forehead -
What did D’Forehead ever do to wrong Lick Powder so grievously? Nobody knows. But one thing is certain- these two unimaginable intellects are drawn to one another like two black holes caught in one another’s orbit.
The game will be divided into two parts, the first being a free-roaming space exploration, Freelancer-type deal, with Lick Powder pulling off various daring heists and feats of heartless blackmail to fund his continued search, and sections of FPS combat as Lick Powder uses a nanofibre whip of his own design to rip through destructible environments towards targets that might provide information and profit. The whip will also function as a grappling hook.
But Powder’s not the only one doing the pursuing! No. In a nod to Jeff Lint, a sinister group of exclusively female space pirates known as The Ladies Of The Belly hunt Powder relentlessly, seeking payback for Lint’s daring robbery of Mother Belly, which will be explained in a series of flashbacks that play – in reverse – during the game’s loading screens.
I should probably go and do some actual work now, but I reckon you guys should pick apart the rest of the art on that wall an explain what role those characters and ships play in the game.
23/03/2011 at 11:03 diebroken says:
Episode 3! No wait…(?!)
23/03/2011 at 11:09 Ricc says:
The guy next to the space ships, with the thing legs, looks like a Stalker. :P
23/03/2011 at 11:12 Pop says:
Could be! I’ve been furiously replaying HL2 and its episodes in the vain hope that it would spure Valve into some kind of action.
Could be the transhumans you have to deal with?
However… I have now gone into post-excitement with Episode 3. I’ve staggered from desperate waiting into apathy, where the agony of waiting can no longer be felt. I now doubt Valve will ever release it – I mean how can they possibly make that story line resolve in any kind of sensible manner?!
23/03/2011 at 11:57 konrad_ha says:
What I fear most is that cancer or an accident will strike me down before Episode 3 is ever released. I could never go in peace with the storyline of Half Live unresolved.
23/03/2011 at 13:17 Xercies says:
I’m sure if your nice enough God would tell you the ending
23/03/2011 at 13:20 Pop says:
@konrad_ha “Half live”? Do you know something we don’t? Is that a subtle hint at an upcoming F2P browser based Half-life?
Could that be the very reason the Black Mesa Mod seems so dead? Is portal 2 release actually episode 3? Did Valve kill JFK?!
23/03/2011 at 16:11 Dances to Podcasts says:
It’s their new collaboration Games for Windows Half-Live.
23/03/2011 at 16:17 Andrei Sebastian says:
It’s totally Counter-Strike 2.
Because, you know, that’s exactly what the gaming medium needs most at this point.
23/03/2011 at 18:35 surv1vor says:
Nah, it’s Richochet 2.
24/03/2011 at 09:44 apa says:
This is a bit like those catholics who see jesus in everything ;)
23/03/2011 at 11:08 sbs says:
wooo! speculation!
23/03/2011 at 11:08 Arglebargle says:
For all we know it could be work from contestants for a ‘Warp that Image!’ contest that wins the artist a free pizza.
Or it could be test work from their secret project “Space Aliens Stole my Baby!”
23/03/2011 at 11:08 Caddrel says:
For some reason I really love the idea of “unstoppable speculation”.
23/03/2011 at 11:08 sexyresults says:
nanofibre whip?
23/03/2011 at 11:08 dartt says:
Nailed it.
23/03/2011 at 11:09 Nighthood says:
A lot of people are theorising it could be related to that cancelled Spielberg game, what with the style of the pictures and shapes of their heads and things.
Still, if Valve make a game set in the far-future I will be the happiest person alive. Maybe they’d even do an RPG! That would be something.
23/03/2011 at 11:11 Mike says:
This is significant because Doug Church was apparently involved on the project. Cue speculation that his recent hire brought on this art.
23/03/2011 at 11:12 Quintin Smith says:
That’s mad as hats. Project LMNO was a near-contemporary game featuring a single alien with a big forehead, no? And this is a sci-fi game with spaceships where everybody seems warped in some way. The only link is literally big foreheads.
23/03/2011 at 11:15 Alex Bakke says:
Also, comparing the picture of evolvo-girl here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/05/footage-info-on-spielbergs-cancelled-game/ , the proportions are too different. Evolvo-girl looks like an egg, but everyone here looks like their head’s exploded from the inside but their skulls are too tough for it to show.
23/03/2011 at 11:20 Nighthood says:
I’m not saying that’s what it really is, just that some people are theorising that.
Personally, I’d say it’s more of a very-cyberpunk, very far-future thing, with human genetic mutation/augmentation.
Other conspiracy theories are that Valve actually wanted him to take a picture of that art, to increase speculation and start an ARG. Not so sure about that though.
23/03/2011 at 11:22 Jahkaivah says:
The only link is literally big foreheads.
23/03/2011 at 11:22 Quintin Smith says:
Haha. That would be amazing.
23/03/2011 at 11:33 Tei says:
The world need more of what Avatar did. Pretty aliens. Cameron accidentally found a diamond mine, seems.
Is like Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing and E.T. in a single package.
post data:
I am not writting this, and you are not reading this.
23/03/2011 at 11:41 Lars Westergren says:
Found this on Reddit.
http://i54.tinypic.com/2q9vypt.png
Possible, but not certain. It’s hardly a unique design.
23/03/2011 at 11:53 sexyresults says:
similar, but not conclusive
23/03/2011 at 12:08 TheApologist says:
Hats can be perfectly sensible.
23/03/2011 at 15:34 Urthman says:
Hasn’t anyone digitized the pictures and run them through audio recognition software to look for hidden radio messages?
23/03/2011 at 17:01 jeremypeel says:
Also, EA project made into a Valve game? Take Blizzard’s angry staring into account and they’d be fighting a staring contest on two fronts!
23/03/2011 at 21:39 YanDaik says:
“Maybe they’d even do an RPG!”
NO! PLEASE! NOOO! I beg you.
23/03/2011 at 11:09 Alex Bakke says:
Hmm – Joanna D’Forehead reminds me of the evolved human from Spielberg’s cancelled game.
23/03/2011 at 11:09 Stephen Roberts says:
I like Valve’s approach to design. Those spaceships have moteefs (motives?) throughout that mean they could easily be translated into guns or armour or whatever. A bit like the combine gun shape is similar to the train shape. Geometry!
23/03/2011 at 11:54 Loopy says:
motifs?
23/03/2011 at 16:54 arccos says:
Votives?
They smell nice!
23/03/2011 at 11:13 DanPryce says:
Fart Cops seems to be coming along nicely then.
24/03/2011 at 19:24 chargen says:
I was yawning while I read this, so my chuckle came out as big goofy *chirp* and now everybody at work is staring at me and now I have to keep typing and clearing my throat and hoping no one else asks “who the hell was that? what the hell was that?” while I try to play that off as some kind of “singing cough” that I just came down with.
23/03/2011 at 11:14 Javier-de-Ass says:
oh good more urban douchebag designs. need more of those in games.
23/03/2011 at 11:21 Quintin Smith says:
If you want a picture of the future, imagine an adorable form-fitting bootie stamping on a human face–FOREVER!
23/03/2011 at 12:49 Hanban says:
What’s urban douchebag design? Or rather how would you define it? Asking earnestly here.
23/03/2011 at 13:01 frenz0rz says:
Oooh. Its like 1984 crossed with Mirrors Edge!
23/03/2011 at 13:07 rivalin says:
In the future SUP£R_DRY will have expanded into an oppressive world government, with everyone forced to spend 85% of their pay on staggeringly unoriginal and generic looking “well good mate, innit?” urban threads (pron: freds), the aim of the game is to overthrow the tyranny, and defeat the army of SuperDrones™
oh, for examples:
http://www.arkclothing.com/prodimg/Superdry_Black_Super_Brad_Jacket5_1_408.jpg
http://thesuperdrystore.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/-57772606736153670.jpg
23/03/2011 at 14:36 Saul says:
Hehe. English people wear funny clothes.
23/03/2011 at 17:03 jeremypeel says:
We do.
Just trying to lighten each others’ days. This evening I’m wearing a silk nose-scarf number in a bid to spread some mirth among Sheffield’s glummer residents.
23/03/2011 at 11:18 InterstellaUK says:
Can I just say, I REALLY want to play Quinns’ game!
23/03/2011 at 11:23 KingKrapp says:
You’re not alone there.
23/03/2011 at 11:20 Kaira- says:
I believe they are designing new Alien mothership-styled hats for the deformed heads of TF2-warriors.
23/03/2011 at 11:22 KingKrapp says:
I’m getting a rather Pathologic-y vibe from some of those pictures, especially that blue-danny-devito-with-a-fantastic-collar fellow when compared to this.
23/03/2011 at 11:26 Leelad says:
People mutated after being stored in aperture for too long?
Saw this on facepunch though. The whole lot is well worth a read/look.
23/03/2011 at 11:31 Tei says:
This is probably just testing ideas for new “franchises”.
Why are we seeing this thing? normally this things are secret.
I would play any game with these graphics. Have some high-quality science-fiction quality with it. So whatever whas these draws for, is nice work.
Other than that, I can dream of a Portal game in the future, where GlaDOS has created a demented giganteous worldwide city, and humans are subject of all type of experiments. Somewhat like the BLAME episodes. But …oh well.. I am a fanboy. Probably it would be even more awesome if his really new, and not a continuation of anything already existing.
25/03/2011 at 05:41 wu wei says:
They made an anime of BLAME!? Fantastic, thank you :D
Tsutomu Nihei’s artwork is fantastic but I never have any idea what is going on storywise…
23/03/2011 at 11:32 mcwill says:
Reminds me really strongly of the hybrids from X-COM: Apocalypse.
23/03/2011 at 11:33 Valvarexart says:
As if this isn’t an intended viral leak… Someone at a respected magazine like PCGamer would never do that without permission from Valve, and Valve would CERTAINLY not be happy about it…
23/03/2011 at 11:55 sexyresults says:
They grabbed it from the steam forums. They likely shot an email to valve about it, but I’m sure they didn’t need their consent.
23/03/2011 at 11:35 Kadayi says:
The guy at the bottom of the left hand section looks a tad like Doug Lombardi tbh (in a caricature type way). Still defintely does look like a new IP and that in itself is no bad thing.
23/03/2011 at 11:39 Bodminzer says:
Every single fucking bit of idle speculation here is going to resurface on forums as “Pretty sure I heard Valve confirm this at some point though I can’t find anything on it at the moment.” in like, 2 months.
23/03/2011 at 11:40 Giant, fussy whingebag says:
I rather think those might be oversized, sci-fi guns rather than ships… at least some of them.
Also, as with some others, it made me think of the cancelled Spielburg/Doug Church thing, but I guess it’s just a “People have strange heads” connection along with the recent news of Church’s move to Valve…
EDIT: Although… the art in the very centre of the photo is particularly reminiscent of evolvo-girl. Obviously not identical, but trying different variations is part of the point of concept art, no?
23/03/2011 at 18:07 Wulf says:
That’s what I thought, too. The first thing I thought when I saw it was…
Diesel. Punk. Gun.
23/03/2011 at 11:44 Valvarexart says:
Jay Pinkerton? Hmm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Pinkerton
23/03/2011 at 11:47 N'Al says:
They’re just designing the new Aphex Twin album cover, is all.
23/03/2011 at 12:00 Basilicus says:
It’s a Richard D. James pick-up game in which you compete to pick up the highest number of variations of Richard D. James.
23/03/2011 at 15:51 golden_worm says:
Rubber Johnny Game?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7382676545570345084#
23/03/2011 at 11:51 Curvespace says:
Someone’s got a ‘thing’ for Kate Moss, that’s all.
23/03/2011 at 11:51 westyfield says:
The people are what we’ll have evolved into by the time Episode 3 comes out.
23/03/2011 at 11:56 AbyssUK says:
Rumour has it that this is just a picture of the RPS meetup in London
23/03/2011 at 12:10 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
You win!
23/03/2011 at 15:19 Ricc says:
Heh, solved!
23/03/2011 at 11:58 Shazbut says:
This game is not a patch on the original Half Life. I, for one, have been most disappointed in Valve’s decline in quality. D’Forehead is quite funny though, but not as good as Glados.
In general, it starts well, then gets boring towards the middle, then gets better towards the end but not to the same level as the beginning.
EDIT: – Actually this would work better for any company other than Valve
23/03/2011 at 12:06 MadTinkerer says:
Just because Valve have some concept art, that does not mean it’s actually in development. Without some kind of in-engine screens or at least some models it’s more likely to be:
1) Not greenlighted yet. If so, we probably won’t hear anything official for at least two years.
2) Very recently greenlighted, still high likelyhood of being cancelled and/or shelved long-term. TF2 was once mentioned in the same breath as Duke Nukem Forever, and we’re still making “Episode 3″ jokes.
3) Already turned down, and the artists are busy archiving their work for the next Raising The Bar Artbook which will feature the art and basic premise of the game and why they felt it wouldn’t work out.
After Portal 2, DOTA 2 is what Valve are intending to release next and we haven’t even seen anything beyond concept art of that. That’s for a game they plan to release this year, pending Valve Time. Plus there’s Counterstrike 2, which has been leaked that it’s being worked on but we’ve seen even less of that.
All that said, I’m sure Valve do intend to bring out some new IP eventually, and this game may be one they’re seriously considering. But it’s going to be a looooong time before we find out for sure.
23/03/2011 at 12:41 HermitUK says:
This is Counter Strike 2. It now takes place in space. With aliens. And laser guns. And hats.
23/03/2011 at 12:08 wsmieszek says:
Some of these spaceship resemble guns as well.
23/03/2011 at 14:41 Saul says:
They’re spaceships AND guns! When you pull the trigger, they fire tiny people. Into space.
23/03/2011 at 17:07 jeremypeel says:
In which case, they’re RUBBISH spaceships. Never combine your transport’s seating with its weapon-loading mechanism.
23/03/2011 at 18:51 Sassenach says:
Unless you need to kill space scorpions:
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF186-Guntron_Alliance_Force.jpg
23/03/2011 at 12:11 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
SPACE[ship]WHALES!
23/03/2011 at 13:08 stahlwerk says:
*yawn* ;)
23/03/2011 at 12:23 Jonathan says:
But Pinkerton’s a writer.
23/03/2011 at 12:25 Ubernutz says:
Theoretically. A large video game company, could have their artists put together some really cool art work – just ask them to make something they want to. And then they could leak the pictures, and watch what happened. A couple of days, and an incredible amount of speculation later, they’ve got a mound of new game ideas detailing what people do and do not want. Conspiracy ahoy!
23/03/2011 at 12:25 Mr_Hands says:
Just gotta say. I’m happy it’s (probably) not Episode 3.
23/03/2011 at 12:38 markcocjin says:
This will all be found on Half-Life 2: Episode 3 on its way to Half-Life 3.
The Combine Advisors are just brain carriers that move about via psychokinetic energy. The actual Combine themselves are descendants of humans who travel to the past which is our present scouring the universe for organisms to weaponize. The threat is an actual alien species to our galaxy of which their arrival spells certain demise of all life as we know it.
Or it could be about the sci-fi noire game Fart Cops.
23/03/2011 at 13:03 itsallcrap says:
Do you RPS types knowingly use ‘quite the thing’ wrongly?
I can see how the utterly vague wording makes it an amusing idiom, but surely it means fashionable rather than remarkable…
23/03/2011 at 13:52 kael13 says:
I was about to lambaste you for being such an uncouth American, but I believe you might be correct.
23/03/2011 at 14:45 Saul says:
Language evolves. I can’t even get my head around it meaning “fashionable”, as it’s not an expression anyone ever uses down my way. I’ve picked up the RPS usage, and it does nicely.
23/03/2011 at 14:46 itsallcrap says:
I am, at worst, an uncouth Englishman.
That said, they do know more about the correct use of English than most of us (listen to John’s Rum Doings podcast if you’re in any doubt about that one) and they do use that phrase incessantly, so I’m inclined to believe it’s a deliberate part of some in-joke of which they are amused to leave us ignorant.
23/03/2011 at 15:01 Koozer says:
I have never heard or read of the phrase being used to mean “fashionable,” but plenty of times to mean “remarkable.” As we all know, anecdotal evidence is the best kind of evidence.
23/03/2011 at 15:57 itsallcrap says:
Since my last post I’ve been trying to cite a reference, but practically all of them seem to be American.
The wily former colonials certainly seem to agree with me, but the only definition I can find from a British source is around half way down this page:
http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/thing
… and that appears to agree with neither me nor the Hivemind. The obvious means of settling the issue is a fight to the death, but since they’re all impractically far away it will need to be by post.
24/03/2011 at 03:26 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
So if I say something is “the shit” your head is going to *completely explode*?
24/03/2011 at 15:32 itsallcrap says:
Nnng. No. I’m not trying to enforce rules. I was just asking whether it was deliberate. This has gone on far too long and I never got a useful answer anyway. Sigh.
23/03/2011 at 13:15 mickiscoole says:
What if it isn’t concept art at all?
We know that valve are doing experiments with focus testers getting biometric data by putting probes on people, what if these are photos of some of their more extreme focus testing experiments that have had horrible consequences?
23/03/2011 at 20:31 7rigger says:
Having a huge forehead isn’t normal, but on Steam it is.
23/03/2011 at 13:38 Ultra Superior says:
It looks like a submarine rather than spaceship.
23/03/2011 at 14:21 edit says:
It really does seem more likely to be ‘some art on a wall’.
This talk has got me craving some new Valve IP. Would love to see their take on an open world RPG in an original universe.
23/03/2011 at 16:14 Marcin says:
This.
Any creative studio, be it gaming or otherwise, is going to have some type of concept art on the wall, and it can be a concept for anything. Our wall at GG was full of art for 4? potential projects, none of which saw the light of day – but some of it was repurposed elsewhere.
So yeah, it’s just some art.
23/03/2011 at 14:52 Monchberter says:
Am I the only one here thinking this tranche of art looks rather generic?
Like a more kooky Mass Effect?
High sci-fi is a very hard genre to do with any originality.
My thoughts are that this a a far flung future game, hence additional evolution and weirder looking humans / post humans. Expect telepathy, huge lasers, space pirates but no actual aliens.
23/03/2011 at 14:55 clownst0pper says:
What if Episode 3 is set on the Combine home planet and doesn’t involve Gordon? Or is set in an alternative City 17 hundreds of years in the future?
23/03/2011 at 15:18 Clean3d says:
I was planning on finding the personal art blogs of some Valve employees, certain that at least a FEW of these artworks would show up. That would prove (at least to me) that they really are just personal pieces that got hung up inside the office.
Unfortunately, Valve employees seem to be a focused lot, in that they don’t seem to spend their time on fancy websites where they post their artwork. -_-
At any rate, at least one of those spaceships is done by Peter König.
http://peterkonigart.com/
You must now raise your conspiracy theories up a notch.
23/03/2011 at 15:28 The Sombrero Kid says:
I’m more focused on 2 black holes caught in each others orbit, the way i see it, either one is inside the others event horizon & they’d be instantly merged, or they’d be outside each others event horizon & the gravitational impact would be insanely negligible.
That leads me to conclude that Quinns must be talking about the former as opposed to the latter, any thoughts?
23/03/2011 at 15:47 VarianTemplar says:
Niven’s Ringworld.
23/03/2011 at 15:47 BarerRudeROC says:
HOLY MOLY COULD THIS BE SYSTEM SHOCK 3?
23/03/2011 at 22:05 rpsbot says:
SYSTEM SHOCK 3 – YESSSSSSSS. Only Valve can handle a franchise this hardcore, now that Irrational has dropped the ball.
23/03/2011 at 15:58 Soon says:
Jay Pinkerton is an anagram of “Ninja Yet Pork”. Therefore it’s Valve’s take on Super Meatboy. You’ll play a ninja, yet one who is made of pork. The people look strange as they are sausages squeezed vaguely into shape with a face drawn on. They fly spaceships.
23/03/2011 at 16:03 propjoe says:
I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I have to say: look at all of his pictures. One of these things is not like the other. All of the pictures are fuzzy, largely overexposed shots of models from already-released games, or Valve’s many trophies – except this one. This one is clear, crisp, and of something we’ve never seen before. There isn’t even a Valve employee in any of the shots, save for Gabe. I have to go with the “Valve planted it/let him have it for a reason” theory.
23/03/2011 at 16:20 Nighthood says:
Where did you find the other pictures? I’ve only seen that one.
23/03/2011 at 16:40 propjoe says:
The article has a link to the original Steam forums thread:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1803644
23/03/2011 at 16:08 BobsLawnService says:
I seem to recall a while ago arstechnica had a tour of Blizzard’s offices and they also had framed art on their walls drawn by in-house artists. Sometimes you have to tell artists to just go nuts and create something unique and individual to allow them to express their creativity. Contrary to popular belief most game artists create their assets according to very strict guidelines set by the art directors and it can be quite a restrictive environment.
Also, how is “just” out of place there.
23/03/2011 at 16:34 thegreatcaligula says:
Valve, I love you, but please work on HL2: Ep3. Your killing me.
23/03/2011 at 16:45 Vinraith says:
I sincerely don’t understand their lack of interest in finishing the Episode trilogy. It’d make them a fortune, presumably they’ve known what they wanted to do with it since Ep2, they’ve already got the engine, what on Earth is the hold up?
23/03/2011 at 18:05 Nick says:
blue balling us after a cliffhanger is quite annoying too.
23/03/2011 at 16:54 godgoo says:
occupation: speculation
23/03/2011 at 17:49 Howl says:
Oh, now that is a wall-full of Clive Barker-born wrong’uns. I would pay damned good money for a next-gen MMORPG by Valve penned/painted by Barker.
23/03/2011 at 17:59 Lukasz says:
I just don’t get what valve is thinking with episode 3.
Orange box did sale.
They should just finish that farce, put it behind by releasing the game quickly. Even if it is not as good as previous games they will be able to move on. Few more years and ep3 will be technically impossible to release forcing Valve to abandon franchise which made them what they are now.
Not that interested in their new projects I am because of that.
23/03/2011 at 18:10 Wulf says:
Just in case it gets lost on the first page – that really didn’t strike me as a spaceship, because I’ve seen exactly that sort of design before. What do I think it is?
Diesel. Punk. Gun.
Yes indeed.
Dieselpunk is awesome, so I can only hope.
23/03/2011 at 19:03 fedoramanjim says:
Pregnant space pilot confuses me.
23/03/2011 at 19:59 DigitalSignalX says:
I refuse to speculate. I’m sure we’ll all find out in 9 or 10 years when it comes out after ep3.
23/03/2011 at 20:28 Overlai says:
This art is old. I’m a Valve playtester and I asked them about it and that’s what they told me. The game certainly exists, but this art may not be reflective of what it is now.
23/03/2011 at 20:57 Nighthood says:
I’m sceptical that you are a playtester for them, but if that is indeed true, how old, and how far into development is the game likely to be?
23/03/2011 at 21:51 Overlai says:
It’s really hard to say because they tend not to tell anyone…Anything, even if they’re a tester. I was specifically told the art was old, and that “Even if it was a new game I couldn’t tell you anything.”. As for proof I can only provide pictures of me in their lobby, and that’s not really proof of anything.
23/03/2011 at 20:48 Trithemius says:
Mother Belly = blatant Metabarons rip-off, eh Quinns?
I’m sure Jodorowsky doesn’t mind though.
23/03/2011 at 21:11 groovychainsaw says:
Lint! Quality writing of the highest order. Someone should hire him to write a game design. It would be ever better than (dare it say it) Quinns’ (although I like where you’re going with yours Quinns, just needs more surrealism…or hats). It would be like that time he tried to write an episode of star trek… but it was too rude to broadcast…
NB (For anyone who does not understand, read the book. And then if you don’t understand, well, you’re not cool. Or nerdy enough. One of few books to make me laugh out loud in recent years)
23/03/2011 at 21:56 Thants says:
Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie7oDMY1aCQ
24/03/2011 at 00:00 Neurotic says:
Episode 3 is the new DNF. Ha!
24/03/2011 at 00:18 Jim9137 says:
I may have to stop hating Valve and feel good about myself for supporting their corporate with my filthy steam swag, if they indeed are making an X-Com: The Way It Ought To Be.
24/03/2011 at 04:03 Muzman says:
It’s just a collection of foetal alcohol syndrome warning material kept around by one of the goth-ier staff members.
24/03/2011 at 04:29 Buttless Boy says:
Oh my gosh, I love you for the Steve Aylett reference.
28/03/2011 at 06:37 CaiusCaligula says:
Fuck yes, that made my day. I thought I was one of maybe five people who actually read Lint or other works by Steve Aylett. Glad to know I’m wrong.
24/03/2011 at 05:11 zal says:
It looks to me like they were looking for a specific deformation/distortion for something and let their art crew go nuts.. maybe something that instantly registers as “inhuman” but isn’t repulsive or something like that, so if it were a game’s art it wouldn’t neccessarily be full of random different deformities; maybe just one alteration that everyone in the setting has or something. the way elves always get pointy ears and asari have squid heads and but once the game tells us in the intro its an alien, thats that and we can safely stereotype away.
24/03/2011 at 06:54 Hidden Thousand says:
I wouldn’t mind something new and mind-blowing.