Alien RPG - Concept Art

Dhruin · July 1, 2009

Kotaku has 20 concept images from Obsidian's Alien RPG, apparently gathered from various developer personal sites and the like. As some of you will already know, the first image surfaced the Codex a few days back and Obsidian's Anthony Davis responded with some comments and context in that thread.
More information.

szokol · July 1, 2009

Oh, my God.
Now I understand why they cancelled the whole project. This is horrorible. :thumbsdown:

DArtagnan · July 1, 2009

What exactly is wrong with the art?

szokol · July 1, 2009

DArtagnan said:
What exactly is wrong with the art?

Those aliens.

One looks like a dog, another like a fat bear-something. They are more funny then scary.

Alrik Fassbauer · July 1, 2009

So you expect Aliens to be scary over anything else ?

Wich means on the other hand that the whole game should have looked like being developed by Mr. Giger himself ?

I'm not sure whether in this "age of dark & gritty" such an RPG would find enough customers, maybe yes, but I don't really know.

DArtagnan · July 1, 2009

szokol said:
Those aliens.

One looks like a dog, another like a fat bear-something. They are more funny then scary.

I agree it doesn't look exactly like the traditional aliens, but I don't mind a bit of variation if there's a reason for it. I don't think I would start laughing if I encountered one of those things, that's for sure.

Most of the images look pretty true to the source material and I'm still sad that this, the most interesting CRPG (to me) in ages was cancelled.

I'm not surprised though.

Hindukönig · July 1, 2009

szokol, nowadays you can't make an RPG with just one or two types of enemies.

Starwars · July 1, 2009

Those different enemy types come from the notion that whatever species the Alien decided to "mate" with, the off-spring would take on characteristics from the host. This is an idea present in the movies as well.

That said, I've never been particularly crazy with the various departures in Alien design from the first film (as seen in the others), and I'm not crazy about the creatures in the concept arts either.

However, the environments look really lovely. Shame we won't see how that would translate to the Onyx engine.

Cassius · July 1, 2009

szokol said:
One looks like a dog, another like a fat bear-something. They are more funny then scary.

The original alien was a giant walking penis. If they went back to Geiger for the concepts all they'd get would be variations on human genitalia. The man's inspiration never varies. They'd have essentially ended up with high-poly versions of the user-created creatures from Spore.

Squeek · July 1, 2009

Starwars said:
Those different enemy types come from the notion that whatever species the Alien decided to "mate" with, the off-spring would take on characteristics from the host. This is an idea present in the movies as well.

It is? I was surprised when I read Davis' statement that, "The Xenomorphs according to canon absorb some dna traits from host creatures" because that's not how I understand it. And what "canon" was he referring to, I wonder?

The alien was a mystery in the original film, but its implant definitely wasn't sexual (though it did seem almost sexual). There was no swapping of chromosomes or blending of DNA. The implanted alien merely used the host and exited when it was ready to leave.

The science officer who studied it in the original film (the android) concluded that it was a finely evolved species, one that he realized couldn't be defeated by the crew. That conclusion seems to be at odds with Obsidian's interpretation.

In the fourth film scientists cloned Ripley and the alien presence inside her, blending their DNA, iirc. That was, of course, different.

Right??

Shagnak · July 1, 2009

Squeek said:
It is? I was surprised when I read Davis' statement that, "The Xenomorphs according to canon absorb some dna traits from host creatures" because that's not how I understand it. And what "canon" was he referring to, I wonder?

It's pretty well known that this is the case. I was well aware of it from just watching the movies and reading some (well, very little) "tie-in" material.
For example, in Alien 3 the alien took some of the dog-like characteristics of its dog host.

It is not "Obsidian's interpretation".

Also, our Earthly method of "swapping chromosomes" or "blending DNA" does not have to hold for an alien life form, y'know.

JDR13 · July 1, 2009

Cassius said:
The original alien was a giant walking penis. If they went back to Geiger for the concepts all they'd get would be variations on human genitalia.

Huh? I've never seen Geiger art that reminded me of anything like that. I think that statement says more about you than anything...

Squeek · July 1, 2009

Shagnak said:
It's pretty well known that this is the case. I was well aware of it from just watching the movies and reading some (well, very little) "tie-in" material.
For example, in Alien 3 the alien took some of the dog-like characteristics of its dog host. It is not "Obsidian's interpretation".

It had dog-like characteristics? I don't remember those. That strikes me as odd since, as the film was originally made, it gestated in an ox and not a dog (a detail that got changed in post-production). Ox or dog, the alien still looks like an alien, not an ox or a dog. That's because its implant is a parasitic thing, not a sex thing.

Shagnak said:
Also, our Earthly method of "swapping chromosomes" or "blending DNA" does not have to hold for an alien life form, y'know.

Whose saying anything about what has to be? I'm talking about Alien the way it happens to be and whether or not Obsidian had it right. I think they simply misunderstood (probably due to the story in the fourth film where there was genetic blending of DNA).

Starwars · July 1, 2009

It had dog-like characteristics? I don't remember those. That strikes me as odd since, as the film was originally made, it gestated in an ox and not a dog (a detail that got changed in post-production). Ox or dog, the alien still looks like an alien, not an ox or a dog. That's because its implant is a parasitic thing, not a sex thing.

The makers of the movie confirm it in either the audio commentary or the extras in the Alien DVD set.

Zygo · July 1, 2009

[too slow edit] @Sqeek, of course

Obsidian had it right and didn't misunderstand. As Shagnak said, per official- not just Obsidian- canon, aliens take on characteristics of their host. You can argue that the canon is dumb and 'unrealistic' if you want (in which case you can spare some thoughts for super acid blood, ftl travel etc) but you can't blame Obsidian for following it.

Squeek · July 1, 2009

Zygo said:
Obsidian had it right and didn't misunderstand. As Shagnak said, per official- not just Obsidian- canon, aliens take on characteristics of their host.

I guess I never understood it then. May I ask what you're referring to as "official canon" and where it can be found? I did google searches and came up with nothing that supports that as being common knowledge.

Re-read my posts, and you'll see that I'm not claiming anything is "unrealistic" or "dumb." It's just not how I see it.

Shagnak · July 2, 2009

Squeek said:
Whose saying anything about what has to be?

Well, you are.
You are using it as support for your argument, i.e. DNA transfer only happening as a result of DNA melding during fertilization:

Squeek said:
That's because its implant is a parasitic thing, not a sex thing.

For the xenomorphs the DNA exchange happens as a part of the "parasitic thing".

Also, your google-fu is pretty bad:

The "Dog alien", also known as the "Bambi burster",[41] or "Runner alien" in the expanded universe stories, was introduced in Alien 3. The creature itself shares the same basic physical conformation and instincts as the other aliens shown in the previous films, although there are several differences due to the host it was spawned from (a dog in the theatrical cut, an ox in the extended edition).

Dog or Ox, its differences were contributed to the host being a quadruped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(Alien_franchise)
And elsewhere on that page.

I'll admit that the franchise isn't as consistent as it could be (in fact that page points out some inconsistencies in the very concept we are discussing).
But I repeat: this is well known concept within the franchise.

Inconsistent or not, Obsidian took an existing idea rather than reaching some sort of "misunderstanding".

Squeek · July 2, 2009

Shagnak said:
Well, you are.
You are using it as support for your argument, i.e. DNA transfer only happening as a result of DNA melding during fertilization:".

If you say so. But I think I'm just willing to discuss things on the Internet the same way I'm willing to discuss them in real life, and by that I mean I'm willing to be spontaneous (in other words, to risk being wrong). That's how I saw it, and I said so. To be perfectly honest, I take pride in being willing to risk being wrong. Hell, why not?

Shagnak said:
For the xenomorphs the DNA exchange happens as a part of the "parasitic thing".

Yeah, I see what you mean now. OK, my bad. So Obsidian had it right, and I was the one misunderstanding it.

Shagnak said:
I'll admit that the franchise isn't as consistent as it could be (in fact that page points out some inconsistencies in the very concept we are discussing)."

Thanks for that. It certainly didn't come out in the first two films (not that I can tell, anyway). I wonder if that's what they had in mind all along or if the idea evolved over time.

JemyM · July 2, 2009

Taking traits from it's host also plays an important role for the predalien.

If you ask me, this was a great idea to add variation to the game. When I first heard of an alien RPG it struck me that 1 enemy in a RPG wasn't enough.

woges · July 2, 2009

The 'implantation' is totally a sex thing. The guy who game up with the idea said basically the alien f**** the human, and Giger's work is all penis and vagina in Alien.

Edit:

Dan O'Bannon is the guy I'm thinking of (remembered his name at last).

Alien RPG - Concept Art

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