Summer Research - By Sabina Piasecka

During this summer, I have traveled quite a lot around Europe. I was able to see how do the every day lives of other people look like in different countries located in Europe - Including France, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. I have taken pictures, ventured through charity shops and looking for things, however I was mostly stunned by the architecture in France. Mainly many well preserved buildings that were around 300 years old. This gave me more of the idea for a post-nuclear game located in one of such places like France where you can see the contrast easily between the old architecture and the new built things.

Below I will present a couple of photos I have taken while visiting these countries and explain how did they inspire me and made me think about everyday life back then and everyday life now. It gave me more idea for a game setting that we could possibly have out of many.

France
This is the Saint-Fargeau Castle located in North Central France. These kinds of castles were "everyday life" for people who lived back 300-400 years ago.
 I am very interested in the old time architecture, especially grand buildings, and visiting this place was very inspiring as it gave me a good idea of creating a game that could be either open-world or with certain levels, and this castle being one of the levels where the player would have a mission to kill zombies/monster waves that would come onto him.
The castles around France as well as other old architectures are quite popular and there is a lot of them around the whole country.

This photography was taken inside the Saint-Fargeau Castle. It shows a reading room that was used by the aristocracy back then for relax and book or document reading. It shows also clearly how back then people would spend their time and the kind of entertainment they had.

I think a world setting in a post nuclear world with these castles and landmarks around the map would make it quite interesting.


                                       Modern France - Yet in the Past
While traveling around France I have visited many cities and villages in which the buildings were very, very old and yet kept intact and people would live their everyday lives there. This gave me a very serious idea about a game, in which the user would explore a post nuclear world around such village - thinking that the nuclear war and disaster happened back in 1700's, but as he would scavenge around the abandoned buildings he would be finding modern life things and items that would not fit to the thinking pattern and would make it more interesting for the person playing the game.

The streets and buildings in a small village of Noyers that is surrounded by walls - no new modern buildings, no typical McDonald's or anything of this kind. People living in this peaceful setting in the very old buildings with very narrow streets, when back then there were no cars but only carts with horses.

This village is very well kept and gives you the journey into the past. It is an amazing feeling, but well, what it is for the residents of this village if not simply Everyday Life?

During summer when I have been traveling I took many photos as well as I did many drawings that can be used for the idea of a game. I have observed people reading newspapers, waiting on a plane on the airports, as well as in restaurants in different places of Europe.

This is my quick pastel sketch of the old timey buildings located in France in which people live until nowadays.

There are many restaurants and shops located around, mainly in the lower parts of these buildings. They date up to 1500's.

These are my drawings of people who were waiting on a train station for their train.













Later I started getting more creative and started designing characters that could be used for the game, starting with simple things such as the photo below and infusing the drawing with the color.

 

Below are photographs that made me think about Everyday life as well. I was not thinking about my everyday life in particular, but for example for people who work on boats or ships and have to cross the seas or canals every day. It is something normal for them but not for me in particular.

This is Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. I found the shape of the trees interesting which is why am I including it in this post.