Acknowledgment to Studio ZA/UM (Disco Elysium) for inspiring this post with their own and to mobygames for cataloguing a number of old box arts.

Over the years we have received questions from various people asking where Brigador: Up-Armored Edition came from. If you really want narrow it down to a single genre, were okay with being dropped into the Cassette Futurism bucket but we think it better to give you a list of further reading.

The following is not a comprehensive inventory of every piece of media weve ever consumed, but it should give you an idea of where Brigador came from and might just introduce you to something new.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/274500/

GAMES

Despite appearances, Brigador is not an homage to either EAs Strike Series of games or Future Cop: LAPD. We have nothing against them; weve just never played either. Here are the video games we have played, and are still available to purchase and play on modern operating systems via the magic of DOSBox.

Syndicate by Bullfrog Productions (1993)

Enormously influential real time strategy. Sometimes we boot it up to hear the eight-minute loop of music again.

Star Control II by Toys for Bob (1994)

Widely regarded as one of the greatest PC games of all time, Star Control II weaved its lore in with its gameplay. Brigador attempts to recreate both, and was inspired by its balance systems in that even the smallest ships could take on much larger opponents.

Crusader: No Remorse by Origin Systems (1995)

An EA game we did play. Featured destructible environments, incredibly awkward controls (by modern standards) and live action FMV. Were still getting round to doing the last one.

TV

Miami Vice (1984)

Legend has it Miami Vice was concepted on a memo that merely read MTV cops. Highly stylized. It was host to an absurd number of celebrity guests over its five seasons, along with some of the best music on television.

FILM

Escape From New York (1981)

Were big fans of John Carpenter and are honored to be living in the time period as he.

Blade Runner (1982)

Mood, Vangelis, worldbuilding where to start?

Dune (1984)

Everything about the first ten minutes of Lynchs Dune left a strong impression.

Brazil (1985)

Have you got a 27B/6?

Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)

Ron Cobbs work on the first film cannot be overstated and both movies are always worth a rewatch.

Patlabor 2 (1993)

Among other things meticulous thought is given to the settings infrastructure and logistics, and how the mechs are transported and deployed. This aspect is not made explicit in Brigador, but it greatly informs the games level design.

MUSIC

Did you know John Carpenter is an accomplished electronic musician on top of directing some of the best films ever made? His music work informed the atmospherics and tone of Brigador. Heres a Spotify link to his work .

Speaking of playlists, Brigadors campaign mission names are all directly inspired by specific tunes, which weve collected into one 51-track playlist here .

BOOKS

Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism by Stephen Graham

Essential in thinking about how policies, politics and warfare play out in space, which is something we wanted to reflect in Brigador. Divisions of space, of "real" cities and "illegitimate" squatter constructions directly influenced how Solo Nobre has very dramatic and physical borders delineating the haves and the have-nots.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Obligatory for many games but especially so for Brigador.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright & One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick

The Lieutenant Fick portrayed in Generation Kill by Wright ended up writing his own, very moving book dramatizing the soldier's perspective.

Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay

Vital in making sure that even the Brigadors had identifiably human traits.

ARTISTS

Katsuhiro tomo

Best known for Akira, but for our purposes please refer to the Memories anthology from 1995, specifically "Magnetic Rose" , and the A Farewell to Weapons short from 2013.

Kow Yokoyama

Last and by no means least: the patron saint of kitbashing. The games various vehicle designs all draw heavy inspiration from Yokoyamas work. Here is a primer on Maschinen Krieger/SF3D .

[ 2022-09-26 17:00:50 CET ] [Original Post]