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THE ART THAT INSPIRED NO-MAN'S SKY

16/8/2016

21 Comments

 
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A big part of why I like No Man's Sky is the art design. It made sense when I read that the developers were inspired by 70s sci-fi art, from the likes of Eddie Jones, Peter Elson, Trevor Webb, Moebius, and the great Chris Foss. Who, notably, was also responsible for the famous black and white drawings in the first edition of The Joy of Sex. 

I may not have owned The Joy of Sex as a kid - I don't know why my parents never bought it for me - but I did have a huge, coffee table book full of spaceship art. I never knew the names of the artists, but I was inspired by their designs; brightly coloured, impossible, ships depicted against neon skies, and surreal, alien ruins.

There was something distinctly empty about the images; something which No Man's Sky nails perfectly. Take a look at this gallery, and see what I mean.
A blood orange sky, a ship that looks like a robot bumble bee, a round thing, endless, empty plains, and some sort of alien installation. That's No Man's Sky in a nutshell. Unless you're a PC owner, in which case you can just replace this image with a screenshot of the game crashing.
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70s sci-fi artists were obsessed with spheres. I mean, just look at Star Wars: the entire movie is one long trek to destroy a giant metal ball.
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I remember poring over this image as a kid. What was that thing in the centre of the hangar? It looks like the handlebars of a Chopper bike. Imagine flying through space on one of those. 
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Again with the spheres. I don't even know what's going on here, and it doesn't matter, because it looks awesome. Those two astronauts seem terribly relaxed given the evident destruction raging all around them. They look like they're heading home from the office.

"Got any plans for the weekend?"

​"I thought I might go and visit some spheres."

"Same."
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This could almost be a No Man's Sky screen shot. A planet on the horizon of a purple world, and a lone wanderer. That could be me. Maybe it is me. Bit weird.
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And this. Look at it. It hints at so much. There's a sense of ancient history, and the promise of adventure. And some seagulls. Spacegulls.
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This was another painting I recall from my youth. Two things really stood out: the ship on the right reminded me of a dinosaur. And that red thing the astronaut on the left is pushing. Is it a jelly on a plate? Is he hoovering? What's going on here?

The object just in front of him reminded me of Brian the snail from The Magic Roundabout.

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Something I've always been inspired by is the idea of worlds on the inside of some vast technological construction. The first Halo nailed the awe such a thing inspires. It's hard not to feel they've struggled to come up with something equally powerful for subsequent instalments. 
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It's like a load of little planets hovering in the atmosphere of another, bigger, planet. It makes no sense. It doesn't matter that it makes no sense. It's strange, and that's what's important. Also: what a lovely, cut lawn.
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Probably the biggest thing missing from No Man's Sky is cities. Even ancient, abandoned, alien cities would work for me - like the one in the 1980 TV mini-series of The Martian Chronicles. That freaked the hell out of me as a kid.
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This is a painting done by the great Ralph McQuarrie for Battlestar Galactica. Which, of course, would result in legal action from George Lucas. I include it here, because the Viper spaceship looks just like the one I own in No Man's Sky.
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Album cover artist Roger Dean clearly inspired a lot of the geology and topography in No Man's Sky - not to mention the movie Avatar. The latter of which would result in (unjustly dismissed) legal action from Roger Dean.

Arguably, the covers of many Yes albums were better than the albums themselves.
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Look: floating rocks. I accidentally landed on one of those in NMS the other day, and fell off when I got out of my ship, and couldn't get back up to it. I had to reload my previous save. Maybe NMS2 could have a grappling hook? Or a big ladder? Or stilts?
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Also, please can we have these big city-ship things in No Man's Sky 2? And something to drive around in? The walking is achingly slow, and having to refuel the ship every time I take off is a terrible grind.
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Tuuuuuuuuuuube.
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What so much 70s sci-fi art achieved - something which George Lucas nailed in Star Wars - was a sense of history, a used universe. A place where ancient civilisations had risen and fallen. And why wouldn't we take donkeys into space with us?
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Among the most evocative moments in NMS is when big capital ships warp into view in front of you. This image captures it perfectly. What a lovely thing to see. What a time we live in.
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FROM THE ARCHIVE:
REVIEW: NO-MAN'S SKY (PS4, PC - PS4 VERSION TESTED)
MODERN GAME LOGOS ARE RUBBISH
THE XBOX ONE OWNER'S GUIDE TO NO MAN'S SKY - AS ILLUSTRATED WITH GUY FIERI
21 Comments
Tinker's Cuss
17/8/2016 10:17:01 am

I had a few of the Terran Trade Authority books and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as a kid (I recognise a few of the pictures here) and NMS nails the look completely.

And sod waiting for NMS2, I'd like to see your suggestions in an expansion pack. I wonder if a Moebius-style graphical filter would be possible?

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Vincent link
11/8/2017 02:16:55 pm

TERRAN TRADE AUTHORITY! THANK YOU! I've been trying to remember the name of those massive sci-fi book cover coffee table books for years now.

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Dellie
17/8/2016 10:42:12 am

I poured over Tim Whites work as a kid and I even over obsessed with detail ever since. I love your posts.

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Darren link
17/8/2016 10:45:09 am

And this is why I am enjoying NMS on an aesthetic level. I grew up with those sci-fi novels and the artbooks, so to actually be wandering around in a landscape lifted from those pages makes it kind of magical.

Yes, it is an utterly boring repetitive game, but I got rained on last night on some planet...rain...pitter patter rain...and this was the first time this had happened and it felt like magic. Will there be snow? Fog? More weather? And then there are the sunrises...and the myriad collection of ships whose designs continue to make me "oooooh" in delight.

But yes, utterly dull as a game, but fantastic as an experience.

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Clockwork Fool
17/8/2016 05:33:21 pm

That's basically what I bought it for.

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Lucius Merriweather link
17/8/2016 11:29:10 am

Thanks for sharing those images, they're brilliant! The first one reminded me of this great interview with Chris Foss: https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/09/chris-foss-the-joy-of.html

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Col. Asdasd
17/8/2016 11:30:17 am

Good stuff. The best sci-fi and fantasy art makes sense and defies sense at the same time. You don't want to think, 'that could never exist', but 'I wonder *how* that could exist?' The difference is subtle and I think it takes a sort of genius to create the latter feeling over the former.

Can a procedurally generated algorithm ever understand that destinction? My suspicion is that it couldn't, but that with enough randomised iteration, it could spit out results that are indistinguishable, and therefore magic.

I'm still not buying it for forty bloody quid though.

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Virtual Hermit
17/8/2016 12:14:29 pm

Lovers of classic sci-fi art should have these in your collections -

Bought this one from a second hand book shop, an absolutely amazing book.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Infinite-Worlds-Fantastic-Visions-Science/dp/1852276649/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1471432125&sr=8-5&keywords=infinite+worlds

Chriss foss art book!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hardware-Definitive-Works-Chris-Foss/dp/1848566980/ref=pd_sim_sbs_14_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2S7RSHXF7BKGMTHASSGE

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TekMerc
17/8/2016 01:17:01 pm

Loved Chris Foss and Syd Mead art books growing up. Looking forward to getting stuck into NMS once it's patched up a bit.

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Euphemia
17/8/2016 01:27:36 pm

So true about the Yes album covers, some crackers that almost made up for the twiddly, twaddly hippy-drivelly shite contained inside.

The kings of album cover rock.

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Clockwork Fool
17/8/2016 05:34:00 pm

I love all of this stuff, cheers Biff.

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patters
17/8/2016 05:48:26 pm

I have ordered a PS4 for the sole purpose of playing this (Xbone is my main system). Hope it's as good as I think it will be. I too loved all these sci-fi illustrations and it's looking like this game will be precisely the sort of thing I've pined for since Elite on the BBC.

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FatDave
17/8/2016 06:37:56 pm

Have you not tried elite dangerous on the 'bone?

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Clockwork Fool
18/8/2016 03:01:18 pm

It's a very low key game in most senses. I personally enjoy it for the visuals and the less than frenetic pace, the almost meditative wandering of an alien galaxy full of strange creatures and unusual sights on exotic worlds.

But it's not full of crafting and player creativity like minecraft, or high octane action and the story content comes in odd little written moments (that have made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck once or twice, admittedly) and not high-stakes cutscenes.

Which is to say, don't overhype what the game is in your head before you play it. Expecting too much is the biggest problem most players have had with the game, tbh.

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Acid_Arrow
17/8/2016 10:41:46 pm

Bootiful!

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Paulvw
18/8/2016 08:35:11 am

Oh Man, you've got me day dreaming now. Big thanks.

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timmypoos
18/8/2016 09:50:00 pm

"TUUUUUUUUUBE!"

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Lord Jonty McMonkey, 18th Earl of Thuringshire
19/8/2016 08:25:25 am

DID YOU KNOW? Roger Dean was responsible for both the Psygnosis logo and the word "Psygnosis" itself. It came from a script he'd written and had something to do with dreaming about owls after meeting aliens or something.

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Alastair
19/8/2016 04:10:20 pm

Sometimes it's nice to look over pictures like these and just imagine the worlds they inhabit, instead of reading the books they adorned.

Granted, some of them covered very good books indeed, but at the same time some of them (or in Foss' case all of them) bore no relation to the actual story within at all.

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Anton Gully
29/8/2016 06:29:18 pm

That cover of "Earth Abides" is actually of the, ya know, "Earth". Excellent book. Written in 1949 about attempts to build a community after disease kills off almost the entire of mankind.

If you like this sort of art you should check out:

http://conceptships.blogspot.co.uk/

and

http://conceptrobots.blogspot.co.uk/

They don't seem to be updated as much as they used to be and the self-promoting banners between every post are incredibly obnoxious, but some lovely art.

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Wet Ham
22/9/2016 05:49:39 pm

Do you know the work of Simon Stalenhag?
http://www.simonstalenhag.se/

I'd love to see a game work with his design aesthetic.

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