I was told by a colleague that Wrekless looks like me (upon release, I'll make sure the haircut from my sailor-suit-wearing days is available). I acknowledge that the aesthetic is close to my own, at least compared to my other contributions to digital entertainment. Bravely pink long before Barbie nudged the color to the forefront of design, Wrekless wades deeply into a look shaped by my first exposure to surf and skate culture in the mid-80s. The look also owes a debt to designers David Carson, Peter Saville, April Grieman, and Paula Scher. Wrekless is bold, but not in a bombastic truck commercial way.  

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This project started with a pitch. I'd recently designed a few zines devoted to graffiti culture, a catalogue for a splendid SF artist, and a brief DJ appearance celebrating the roots of punk and hip hop. The eventual style guide defining Wrekless' palettes and tones borrowed from those experiences (plus a lifelong enthusiasm for architecture, art, and graphic design history). I also carefully listened to the scene that Wrekless depicts. Research. The pitch worked; the experiment was funded. We built the toy. Interactivity requires patience. The outcome required balancing my convictions with the astute observations of user testing and feedback. Dogma has no place, especially in Wrekless.  

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The game is almost entirely intended to be user-generated (participants build & share skateparks). We provide the tools; players tell the story. Agency is wholly theirs. The riot of color and kinetic energy depends on an intuitive, easily accessible user experience.

 

As a building toy, Wrekless did not require the sort of narrative constructs that I'm typically asked to contribute. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, for instance, required me to adopt and adapt the writing styles of Lee and Tolkien. (Stan Lee was relatively easy. JRR Tolkien was difficult. I was able to write pretty convincing orc dialogue, but my dwraven banter felt a little forced... at least until the lines were vocalised by Scottish actors. Accents can do that.) 

 

Wrekless, though, is pure aesthetic. I didn't want it sullied by current slang or any language at all. It was intended from the start to be a saturated, hyper-active, inclusive, escapist world. I'm proud of it.