During my summer break and time to reflect between modules (DE4404 Experimental Practice and DE4405 Specialist Practice respectively), I found time to watch the series 'Scavengers Reign' that had recently arrived on the streaming platform Netflix.
To sum up the series it follows the survivors of the damaged interstellar cargo ship Demeter 227 who are stranded on Vesta, an alien planet bustling with flora and fauna but filled with dangers. Initially the survivors are separated into three groups: Azi and her robot companion Levi, Sam and Usula, and the isolated Kamen, who travels with a telepathic creature named Hollow. Over time all their paths converge towards the crash-landed Demeter. The series makes the most of the development of these characters through the journey they undertake rather than the destination they hope to reach or the means in which they got into this situation.
The obvious parallels between this series and my own project are what originally drove me to watch this series but it was uniquely distinct and interesting in how it dealt with similar themes in an almost polar opposite way but achieved results in my own reaction to how I would wish players would react to my own project.
Firstly having a series of primary characters who we follow along with (rather than just one space suit) allowed the producers to show off the different ways humans could react to their situation and delved deep into how their own personalities had an impact on this particular reaction. The characters are split into several groups comprised of Ursula and Sam, Azi and the robot Levi, and finally Kamen who pairs up with a telekinetic frog-like creature later called Hollow. These pairings are purposely chosen to highlight the differences between characters and their approaches to the planet as well as allow the characters to interact and help each other grow and journey through their own relatable character arc.
Ursula is an ecologist and a botanist, she's resourceful and observant and learns from the world around her. She's able to adapt to the environment the easiest possibly because she didn't have any strong connections before arriving on the planet. What little we do find out about her past is that she was once a mother and had a family but we never meet any of these characters even in flashbacks, she doesn't even talk about them and in comparison to other characters we get very little backstory for her. This may be intentional, perhaps her family died or left and she was looking for a fresh start aboard the Demeter. Whilst on Vesta, Urusla's observant nature allows her to solve a lot of the problems that she and Sam encounter, she witnesses events that are so small yet mean so much - the beautiful birth of a tiny creature, its entire lifespan and death all in the span of 2 minutes something rarely witnessed by any living being on this planet. Urusla is able to become so interconnected to her new environment because she had no strong attatchment to her old one and all that matters are the connections she's made here. This all gets contrasted against Sam, an incredibly smart pilot, engineer, and captain of the Demeter. He is able to use his ingenuity to build entire devices using flora and fauna on the alien world with him and Ursula making a brilliant team with it at first seeming that their survival is guaranteed except for Sam, who opposing Uruslas observance and wonder of the environment, hates this planet. He doesn't stop to admire the scenery, he just wants to get back to his old life refusing to adapt to the world instead reminiscing of his past constantly talking to Ursula about his brother, his friends, and old lovers, unable to let them go. Urusla marvels at the world she's seeing and finds it fascinating, Sam is upset and terrified by it fighting it harder than anyone else in the show because he feels they don't belong here and the more he fights the more the environment tries to keep him. While telling the haunting story of an old colleague Sam tells Uruslua "I just couldn't imagine giving up that kind of control over my own life", and in an ironic turn of events a parasite latches itself onto Sam's heart and hijacks his mind, he literally loses control over his own life. Not that he ever had control to begin with he just believed he had a sense of control to give himself a sense of comfort. As the Demeter's captain, he lost control of the ship, and his makeshift radio fails because of natural error, when making their way through the wall Ursula doesn't listen to him trying to control their movements. The more control he loses the more terrified he becomes fighting the world even harder and losing more control in a downward spiral realising to late how much he has lost with the parasite and with his final act, refusing to let the parasite fully change him, he takes his own life making sure he dies while he's still himself a defiant act allowing him to pass by his own hand and control, ensuring Ursula's survival and passing on the mission to her.
Azi is in charge of cargo on the Demeter and when she lands on the planet she comes equipped with lots of useful gear. She sets up a camp, sets up crops, and marks off territory, but unlike Ursula who embraces this land, Azi is only surviving in it she has no intention of staying only securing her own survival long enough to be rescued. She doesn't wish to live in harmony with the planet and uses her tools to actively fight against the planet which fights back slowly depriving her of her tools. However unlike Sam she changes her view of the planet through journeying alongside her robot companion Levi - another of her tools with sentience which the viewers can assume would be the most likely to reject the planet and follow orders yet after coming into contact with some yellow mold like substance is the character who bonds the most with the planet, even after being destroyed by Hollow, a final loss for Azi, is then resurrected by the planet to fully embrace the new chimeric character they have become a mixture of Levi and the planet itself. It is this final loss that I feel pushes Azi to look at the planet in a different way and come to terms with the loss of her old life, though at several stages on her journey you can see her being slowly swayed to this way of thinking by both the planet and Levi at certain points.
Finally Kamen, a corporate middle manager which represents a tiny disposable link in a vast corporate chain and paradoxically he is the most disconnected person in the past before reaching Vesta. Kamen starts off stranded and driven mad by solitude and hunger, his isolation is an extension of his social identity, eventually being saved by this alien frog-like creature that uses telekinesis and telepathy to get other creatures to bring it food, using false images and dream-like visions of Kamen's ex-wife Fiona to force him into a role of subservience. Through these hallucinations, we learn what sort of person Kamen was before. He's toxic, arrogant, and self-destructive. He's got an inferiority complex and drove his wife away having few if any friends. Kamen's job represents what little worth he sees in himself, everything with him is transactional and selfish, he deludes himself into thinking that if he could succeed at this shitty little job that it would prove his worth to Fiona and win her back but we also learn that he is single-handedly responsible for everything that happened to the Demeter causing the crew to be marooned by disobeying safety regulations in a desperate attempt to succeed at his job putting everyone's lives in danger to achieve his own goals. Hollow comes to reflect the cannibalistic nature inside of Kamen, self-delusion is the core of Kamen's character with him eventually giving himself into the delusion and allowing Hollow to absorb him creating a safety from the chaos outside that he refuses to witness - refusing to face the consequences of his actions. The story ends with him having to come out of hiding and repent for his atrocities and a forced change is brought upon him, where he helps the remaining crew settle and thrive on the planet doing his own little bit and coming to terms with who he was causing all of his own isolation and losses.
By having multiple characters reacting to a loss of their old lives in such different ways, each being a reflection of their own characteristics, it gives more chance for people to relate to the journeys and see their own faults and qualities in a new way. Having my own game be based on one player allows the player to fill the player character with their own identity, however, along the journey they could find notes or data of other passengers who escaped and follow their stories along the way to open the conversation up to alternate perspectives through the journey of loss. As well as seeing the outcomes of how other characters may have interacted with the planet as a mechanic for displaying how to overcome obstacles and puzzles - think that first puzzle in the dungeon in skyrim where you witness a bandit attempting to solve the puzzle and being shot at with arrows when they put in the incorrect solution.
A secondary opposing artistic choice between Scavengers Reign and my own project is the abundance of life upon Vesta compared to my own choice of having an unmanned mining operation - I originally thought having no life on this planet would further demonstrate the isolation often felt during grief however being among a multitude of flora and fauna that you can't connect with, have a lack of understanding of, and in general don't fit in with can also cause the same effect to an even greater amount. reminding me of a Robin Williams quote about nothing worse than being in a room full of people and still feeling lonely because even though you're present you're not a part of the crowd. This would allow me to demonstrate my skills and developmental choices of designing parts of the environment with flora and fauna with concept art in a way that would be observable in my final degree show to professional quality similar to some of the concept art for Scavengers Reign below.
