About creatures, monsters and other bad bugs.
With this article I inaugurate a series of entries to the blog, where I will comment some of the sources of inspiration to create some of the creatures of the game ‘The Bolt Age’. I have already commented on occasion, that Lovecraft is a direct source in terms of creativity. But as for the aspect, beyond the descriptions provided by the great author, I delved into several more or less recognizable sources, ranging from classical art, mythology in different cultures, comic etc.
Among all these sources, it is especially fun to go to the classic cinema and especially Series B. Ok, I confess, the whiff of B series creations fascinates me. What are you going to do? I am a nostalgic. Thus, in Lovecraft’s mythology, the phobia or the fear that he professes in his writings towards the sea and its depths is especially acknowledged. It can not be missing in ‘The Bolt Age’ the Deep, Dagon …
Inspiration in the cinema
And so we arrive, to that the cinema is nourished of films of terror, adventures etc where the marine monsters have a special relevance and even protagonism. Of the marine monsters, I would distinguish two slopes. One, where the habitat inhabitants of nature, although large or especially bloodthirsty are the protagonists. This series of films is nourished by sharks, whales, killer whales, crocodiles, anacondas and other snakes, piranhas, frogs, crabs. In lakes, rivers or seas, you can find any larger specimen of the account, and with an appetite of humans, willing to stick a good lunch.
This summer we can find in the billboards “Megalodon”, where the prehistoric monster that makes small the shark of the prominent “Jaws” must face Jason Statham, and we already know that it is not easy at all. Of all these films, I’m only interested in those that are especially bizarre; leeches, crabs, and animals with various tentacles.
In a second series, we would find those more fantastic, hybrid species, mutations with known or unknown origin. Hybrids abound between humans and other species (usually fish). Among all of them, immediately comes to mind “Creature from Black Lagoon”. Without a doubt it is a good reference to start, as a source of inspiration to try to recreate visually Deep One.
The Creature of “Black lagoon”
Well known to most just describe some specific things, there is a good Wikipedia entry to learn more about it. The creature (often named in this way) received the name of Gill-man. The original film is from 1954. It is not the first film where a monster with similar characteristics appears, but surely if it is the best known. About the design;
“Producer William Alland was attending a dinner party during the filming of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (in which Alland played the reporter Thompson) in 1941 when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon River. Figueroa spoke of a friend of his who disappeared in the Amazon while filming a documentary on a rumored population of fish people. Alland then wrote story notes titled “The Sea Monster” ten years later. There were various designs for the creature.
The design
William Alland envisioned the creature as a “sad, beautiful monster” and the sculpture of it was much like that of an aquatic development of a human. Alland said, “It would still frighten you, but because how human it was, not the other way around”. Originally, the creature’s design was meant to incorporate a sleek, feminine eel-like figure, which did not have as many bumps and gills as the final version. The designer of the approved Gill-man was former Disney illustrator Milicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by makeup artist Bud Westmore, who for half a century would receive sole credit for the creature’s conception.
The Gill-man suit was made from airtight molded sponge rubber and cost $15,000. The underwater sequences were filmed at Wakulla Springs in northern Florida (today a state park), as were many of the rear projection images. Part of the film was shot in Jacksonville, Florida on the south side of the river near the foot of the old Acosta Bridge. In the underwater scenes, air was fed into the Gill-man suit with a rubber hose”
I find it super interesting to note that the work was done by a wonderful conceptual artist, woman, something not so usual at that time.
The Bolt Age Game.
‘The Bolt Age’ is a dynamic action game, full of prodigious Steampunk designs and shadowy creatures from another dimension. In story mode, the player will enjoy hours of fun with this 3d Cover Shooter.
We will put ourselves in the shoes of William Bolt, an intelligent apprentice of science, Nikola Tesla’s pupil, but trained in the art of war with the purpose of stopping the announced invasion of inconceivable beings, coming from a dimension of death (H.P. Lovecraft creative Worlds)
Fortunately Bolt has an incredible armor and a fabulous arsenal designed by Nikola Tesla himself. Some of these weapons have a new strategic use, it will not be worth firing without more
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