Appendix K
The Blogging Clerics, or Blerics, have been summoned again by the Bandwagon! This time, we're posting our own Appendix N entries. As a 90s kid, my list is comprised almost entirely of digital media with a dash of physical.
Digital Media
Here, I'll cover the digital media that inspired me. The video games, the TV shows, etc. The biggest theme I've noticed throughout is if I liked the soundtrack to the game or TV show, then I was more likely to fall in love with the characters. Before I jump into this section, I have to share that when I was in college and a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and Art, I started a video game mural in my bedroom that captured all my favorite video games from my childhood. I one day had the dream of sending it in to GameInformer to be highlighted in it. All this never happened, but I still have the partially finished thing on my bedroom wall at my parent's house. Enjoy!
This image highlights a quote from Heavy Rain with a poorly drawn piece of origami next to it. The partially sketched character next to the quote is from the box cover of The Longest Journey, which I still own!
This part of the mural highlights Kingdom Hearts and the Skies of Arcadia logos. I didn't trust myself enough to draw characters, but I wanted small key items from a smorgasboard of games I loved. Next to the Skies of Arcadia logo, there is the Oblivion symbol. To the left of the Kingdom Hearts logo is a mammoth which is a central part to the Syberia games.
This image highlight the most prominent pieces. Starting from the top, there's the Syberia logo with a small automaton sitting in the S. Icicles line the top of the ceiling too. Below it, there's the iconic thumbs up from the Fallout games. Briefly sketched next to the Fallout character was supposed to be a gene tonic from the Bioshock series. The red dragon is froM Dragon Age with the Lost Odyssey logo beneath it. The unfinished but sketched out Big Daddy is next to the dragon.
Writing and reviewing these images, it's no wonder I became a video game designer, haha.
Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)
My first console gifted to me was a Dreamcast at 7, and my dad made me try all kinds of games on it to see what I would like. The one I kept coming back to play was Skies of Arcadia. This was my first Japanese Roleplaying Game (JRPG) that I played. Another amazing soundtracke where I would leave the game on the main menu, so it looped through the main theme. I did this with Kingdom Hearts too, though if you left it at the main menu, it would play an entire animated music video to an orchestral version of Utada Hikaru's Simple & Clean.
Syberia (Video Game)
This gorgeous game is set in a fictional world where Automatons are integrated into the world. You play Kate Walker, a lawyer from New York, sent to seal the deal on a toy factory after the owner has passed. Kate quickly discovers there is another heir to the factory that sends her on a journey in the footsteps of a genius inventor, Hans Voralberg. In doing so, she realizes that what she had back home might not have been what she wanted after all.
I fell in love with the soundtrack to this game, and this was before they released soundtracks separately. The only way to hear the piece I loved was to watch the final cutscene over and over again when Kate waits until the absolute last minute to choose to change her life.
The Longest Journey (Video Game)
When people ask me what my favorite video game, I always answer with The Longest Journey (TLJ). It's a game about a young artist, April Ryan, in college figuring out how to survive in a dystopian land called Stark. Little does she know there's an entire other world, Arcadia, that's filled with magic. It's her job to keep these worlds in blanace. One cannot exist without the other. The writing is sharp and whimsy, the characters are loveable, and the story reminds you that it's important to have balance in all things.
In today's world, you're either a STEM kid or a humanities kid with an overwhelming emphasis on the STEM kids. I ended up a STEM kid, but I've come to realize, once again, that it's important to have a blance of both. I think that's why creating video games and desiging ttrpgs scratches that itch for me. There are technical and creative components blended together to create something beautiful. I think about this whenever I create something.
Disco Elysium (Video Game)
The writing and art in this game are sharp! While not a point-and-click adventure game, it makes you think in ways you don't expect. All the side quests that you think are filler really aren't and tie into the broader world of the game. It was delightful to have emotions mapped to skills in a RPG format. I'm currently working on a RPG framework where Disco Elysium is one of, if not the most, inspirational piece of it.
Hellsing (Anime/Manga)
I was an angsty teen into vampires. What more can I say about this one? I remember watching this with my parents. The story was dramatic, the music epic, and I was obsessed. My step-mom even made me a Hellsing themed birthday cake one year. Yeah, my step-mom is the coolest.
Star Trek (TV)
My mom, dad, step-mom, and step-dad could never get along, but the one thing that united them all? Star Trek. Each had their own favorite show and captain, but at the core, they all recognized the importance of Starfleet. My favorite captain is Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager. She was the first female captain and that always stuck with me.
As a kid, I felt I was supposed to behave like a Vulkan, but in the dysfunction from my childhood, I acted more Klingon than anything else. Watching B'Elanna Torres reconcile with her own Klingon identity and anger struck home for me. Representation matters!
Honorable Mentions
- The Prince of Egypt (Listen, the soundtrack and cast for this goes so hard - don't even come for me)
- The Secret of Monkey Island
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Batman the Animated Series
- Avatar the Last Airbender
- Kingdom Hearts
- Detroit: Become Human
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Physical Media
Here's all the physical media that I believe impacts my design. For these, I think the format of the book goes a long way. How do they use character perspectives? Is the narrator unreliable?
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
I read these as a kid, and they have stayed in my heart forever. I had a huge crush on Captain Holly Short. This was some of the first urban fantasy I ever read and loved. Again, the blend of modern day technology with fantastical creatures was perfect for me. The series inspired me to write a set of fantasy short stories about a centaur/fairy drug cartel in modern day. See, everything is making sense now, haha.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
One of my best friends threw this book at me when I said I wanted to read more classic science fiction. Even though the main character is whiny as hell, I loved the concept of the world and of people in such desperate times, they would take an uncharted trip into space on alien technology. The best part about this book is that between the chapters, there are entire pages of artifacts from the world. Sometimes these are flyers found in a common area or an advertisment, highlighting how the company lured people in. Any time I see this kind of thing in a book, I fall in love with it even more.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
This was the third book I read by Ray Bradbury after reading both Something Wicked this Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451 for school. The Martian Chronicles is still my favorite, because it's a collection of vignettes set in the same world. It gives me such one-shot vibes, and you kind of have to piece together a bit of what's happening in the world at large as you read each short.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This book is core hopepunk. How could such a short novella make me cry with joy? It's wholesome and hopeful in a way that's refreshing in the science fiction genre. It's not all dystopian and death. Sometimes you just want to have tea and chat. This world dovetails really well with my joy of Syberia and the idea of automatons. I started work on a small region where a hidden city primarily functions with and around automatons that hopefully I'll finish one day!
Honorable Mentions
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Pendragon
- Pokemon
- Stormlight Archive
- The Spear Cuts through Water
Conclusion
Two big takeaways I've seen in curating this list is that music is extremely important to me when consuming digital media of any kind. If I don't vibe with the soundtrack, I'm out! The second is that I like being asked to think about stuff. Whether it's a fantasy world or dystopian future, I want creators to give me space and time to think about what's really going on. This is probably why I love investigation games like Monster of the Week, Mothership, and Vaesen.