I was told by a colleague that Wrekless looks like me. I did shape its aesthetic more than any other digital entertainment I've art directed. 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 early 80s. The look also owes a debt to designers David Carson, Peter Saville, April Grieman, and Paula Scher. Wrekless reflects my enthusiasm for architecture, art, and graphic design history. 

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I started out illustrating the shape of things and creating style guides to define the project's palettes and tones. I designed its menus to ensure that items like inventory and options are intuitive and easily accessible. But interactivity requires patience. The outcome is driven by balancing my convictions with the astute observations of user testing. 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. As such, it did not require the narrative constructions that I'm typically asked to contribute. Spider-Man 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 easy. JRR Tolkien was difficult (I was able to write pretty convincing orc dialogue, but my dwraven banter felt a little forced... although once the lines were vocalized by Scottish actors, the conversations sounded more than adequate. Accents can do that.) 

 

Wrekless is pure aesthetic. It was intended from the start to be a saturated, hyper-active, inclusive, escapist world. I'm proud of it.