Part 1 of 2 looking at the art behind the game of Bioshock: For the supplementary article talking a little bit more about what was discussed in the video, go here http://www.virtuallyreality.net/2011/05/30/the-art-of-bioshock-part-1-the-environments/ also, if you're going to post it on Digg (wink) we'd appreciate if you linked to the version on our website. thanks.

Comments

1. Guys i just saw my shoutout in this video after 2 years ! Im RadovanEdmond
   thank you so much ! And yes i am still watchin this video !
2. I doubt the design choice would've been a mix-up. You could argue that their decision to concentrate on deco was a mistake but it would still have been a conscious decision. A huge amount of research would've gone into it.
   
   With regards to whether deco would be a factually accurate style in 1959 and the years previous, it's not that important. Firstly, it's set in a parallel universe. That allows the imagination to overtake fact. Secondly, Andrew Ryan first started Rapture in 1946 and was in big business at that point. If New York in his world was anything like ours, he would've been surrounded by all the great deco architecture and interior design there was. I've read the book and it does talk about his place in New York, but I don't remember much about it. But he and his followers didn't necessarily want the most stylish and snazzy design, they wanted the greatest there was. The Empire State Building, built 15 years before Rapture, was the tallest building in the (our) world up until 1970. Ryan, born around the turn of the century, would've seen this decadent era of greatness build up and been a part of it. It's hard to accept new styles after a certain age. The people of Rapture would be people in their 30s and upwards.
   
   Another factor might be technological limitations. Building underwater is a feat in itself, introducing untested structural engineering into the mix would've been something people would not been keen on. Building regulations probably go against Ryan's philosophy but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some rule in place to stop an ugly brutalist building squatting down in the middle of his beautiful deco city. One last thing (because it's starting to look like I can write about this for days) is deco might've had an affinity with water, underwater, the sea, waves, etc. A lot of the detail looks like fins and clam shells, etc. If you had to allocate one design style to a seahorse, it would have to be deco.
   
   I love the design in Rapture. I'd hate it if it was done in a late 40s/50s style. Bethesda's Fallout 3 went that way with its retro-futurism, and it works in that game, but the devastated noir of Rapture really suits that earlier period.
3. Guys i just saw my shoutout in this video after 2 years ! Im RadovanEdmond thank you so much ! And yes i am still watchin this video !
4. Her voice is sooooooo annoying... ergghhh!
5. great video. i had a feeling the developers got the time period mixed up, but nevertheless this is a beautiful game that I consider a work of art
6. I don't know. I just love that old style look. Especially when they are colourful. That is why I love Bioshock and TF2 so much...
7. Interesting video, great comment as well - you know, I'm actually glad the makers might have gotten their dates mixed up, because I truly cannot imagine Bioshock without Art Deco. These two are now inseperably linked in my mind.
8. @VirtuallyReality I have to agree with n3ffey, you do throw alot of big words around and frankly your voice is extremely vexatious; theres a big word for ya!
9. Grim fandango had a very acute and sentimental artistic value. that game was just pure atmospheric genius.
10. been waiting for this for a while... excellent, as usual. now hurry up with that part 2! :D
11. Bioshock rocks, love the first 2.
12. As much as it is nice to say that Bioshock is a good example of how video games can act as an artistic medium for a player to experience, this game in particular falls short in the immersion it could have supplied to the player through its given goals and execution of gameplay. Although parodied by Ryan's revelation at the end of the game, the aspects of the objectives provided to the player through a distance-voiced to do list distracts the gamer from the environment he or she is playing in.
13. =====anti first=====