- #Difference in easy cut studio and sure cuts a lot movie#
- #Difference in easy cut studio and sure cuts a lot simulator#
We also had regular movie nights to explore the balance between satire and dystopia. Mixing references and inspiration is a great way to explore and design your fictional world as you build it, and we often looked toward 80s and 90s Anime for our industrial design to visual effects. While intentionally heightened and sometimes satirical, the dynamics between the working class and corporations in Hardspace: Shipbreaker are broadly the same as those throughout the history of labor and industry, and it’s easy to see those dynamics at play even today. We looked at existing welding and grinding equipment, and tried to bring that tactile, rough-and-ready look to everything we created for the game, staying away from science fiction technology that looked too sleek or unblemished. The industrial challenges of salvaging these ships are mostly solved through brute force.Īlthough Hardspace: Shipbreaker takes place in the future, our goal was always to show that the tools of labor often look similar, no matter the time period.
There is no faster-than-light travel, nor is there teleportation or advanced AI. Striking a balance between futuristic elements and details from our current reality was tough, but we set some ground-rules to make the game’s world internally logical.
You can come up with a lot of interesting ideas just by thinking through what a day in the life of one of these workers would be like, and how technology might help or hinder their work. the idea that in a fictional work “the limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its awesomeness”) as we stay immersed in the science of space travel so we can also engage with these designs in practical terms, working out how the game’s ships, tools, and systems might look and function in real life. Yet our approach is not just based on the rule of cool (i.e.
We pored over the blueprints for real-world ships, explored and photographed a derelict ferry, and even rented boats to ride alongside massive cargo ships to examine their construction.Īs a team of space lovers, we find a lot of challenge and joy in designing striking, iconic designs for the ships in our games. This means establishing the design language of our spaceships was crucial to achieving a sense of immersion, and our extensive research on contemporary seafaring boats and ships was key to making the game’s world feel lived-in and real.
#Difference in easy cut studio and sure cuts a lot simulator#
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is mostly played as a first-person zero-g workplace simulator as you explore the often dangerous inner workings of decommissioned spaceships waiting for salvage. To help shape the specific blue-collar shipbreaking setting and the plot related to it, we looked at many different things for inspiration, from the Luddite rebellion, to America’s Gilded Age, the Ironworkers who built the first skyscrapers in the 1920’s, all the way to the modern-day Shipbreakers, particularly in places like Alang Beach in Gujarat. To build the lore and general context in which the game takes place, we heavily researched emerging technologies and theories about the future of human space travel and the industrialization of space, as well as the history of industry and human labor. Our vision for Hardspace: Shipbreaker was retrofuturistic – and more specifically inspired by the “ cassette futurism” aesthetic which draws from 70s and 80s technology. Our zero-g spaceship-salvaging sandbox game Hardspace: Shipbreaker releases on consoles September 20, and we’re here to share some insider details about how its futuristic world came to be! Hi everyone! We are Elliot Hudson (Game Director), Chris Williams (Studio Art Director), and Vidhi Shah (Senior UX Designer) at Blackbird Interactive.