Entertainment Design

BEHIND THE SCENES

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

A really important part of ChromaCorp’s story is this juxtaposition of cartoony nostalgia mixed with the darker side of corporate America.

Many companies in entertainment started off decades ago as smaller groups of innovators and humble small studios. Many of these early innovators created iconic styles, symbols, and beloved characters that are now symbolic and parallel America’s rise to power and late stage capitalism throughout the years. In ChromaCorp we felt that this was a fitting visual motif when our team wanted to explore lasting modern concerns and plights that still plague our games, entertainment industries and beyond.

For the animations we wanted to really make sure we had this older cartoon look. Originally we were trying to decide on one single decade but our inspirations stretched from Betty Boop and Popeye to the Jetsons and we ended up blending these decades of animation, picking out the aspects of each style. We mixed them all together to create this vague sense of nostalgia that we hope makes the game feel timeless.

Moreover, the experience itself takes place in physical cubicles—in a world where the set is created to resemble a scene straight out of a cartoon, but it is completely devoid of color. We wanted the physical space to feel surreal and fantastical, but also nostalgic, reminding players of classic cartoons they might have grown up with, yet feels distant because of the colorless gray tones used throughout. However, the vibrant animations and characters serve to communicate our central themes of escapism and the struggle between individuals and corporate entities.

STATEMENT OF INNOVATION

Many games before ChromaCorp explore beloved western art styles—from Dragon’s Lair’s (1983) use of classic Disney-like animation, to more modern examples such as Cuphead (2017) and Bendy and the Ink Machine (2017) using 1920’s-30’s rubber hose style animation—these games have been loved by players for their art styles and the nostalgia that accompanies them. ChromaCorp uses this tool of visual nostalgia by vaguing referencing styles across many decades. By doing so, the goal is to also create an overall environment that is both classic and familiar, yet odd, cold, and generic. Consciously using art styles that arose alongside the development of American Industry as a means to critique itself, we wanted to bring in an underlying social commentary that further rooted the game into the continuously examined topic of unethical work practices.

ChromaCorp not only creates this message through 2D work of the in-game assets itself, but invites the players to step into the world first hand, without the need of a headset, and physically interact with the physical world. There have been notable art IRL installations that have played with this concept of user fantasy-fufillment, from artist installations such as Meow Wolf’s “Black and White 1920’s Cartoon Room,” to the more recent Airbnb experiential marketing activation, “Step into X-Men ’97,” comic book mansion —but none of these are a fully playable game.

ChromaCorp takes the nostalgia and historical relevance of classic Americana art styles, and merges them with the immersive nature of installation art work to create a fully playable experience. We take players on an adventure that explores using a company’s products at what cost, the dilemma of looking out for oneself versus that of another’s plight, and all the while holding up a mirror to the late stage capitalistic machine in which we all participate.