HUBRIS – my final project for Vancouver Film School, a pitch for a sci-fi adventure video game.
Hubris
HUBRIS – Pilot and Partner
Pilot is the main character for my sci-fi video game, Hubris, and Partner is their cat sidekick. Together, they traverse the dangerous landscape of the alien planet they’ve crash-landed on, searching for safety and a way back up to the stars – if such a way exists at all.
Pilot is heavily influenced by my love of streetwear/techwear fashion, and I wanted to give them a spacesuit that looks unique and futuristic without compromising my inspiration from classic sci-fi and current spacefaring technology. As for Partner, she’s heavily based off of my own cat, Sprite.
HUBRIS – Fire Dust Desert
Winds blow across the deserts of Hubris, and herds of giant Songwalkers make their name for themselves as the wind gusts through the rows of gills running down their neck, creating a low whistling noise that echoes for miles. It’s how the herds stay close even when the dust gets impossibly thick, and calls the flocks of smaller flying creatures down to snatch particles of food from the dust they kick up.
HUBRIS – Key Art
Pilot and Partner run into a Tisgul, one of the most dangerous creatures on Hubris.
Partner is quicker than Pilot to accept the strange visions they’ve both been receiving since their crash, and follows them to the city of Sirocco, leaving Pilot to chase after her.
HUBRIS – Natural Environment
The surface of Hubris is shaped by its winds, from sculpted rocks to plant life evolved to stand against it or blow with it. In vast caves beneath giant sheets of slate, humid jungles flourish protected from the gusts, and on the surface everything eventually bends to the pressure of the gale.
HUBRIS – Icarus
The Icarus (1C4RU5) is Pilot’s ship, which crash-lands on Hubris after Pilot and Partner receive a sudden series of jarring visions. Icarus remains destroyed until after Pilot and Partner have met the Povu, after which it is eventually built using Povu technology and Pilot’s skill. Even without Pilot and Partner being knocked off-course by their visions, Icarus still wouldn’t have stood a chance – it’s a ship designed to fly through space, and the moment it passes into Hubris’s atmosphere and gravity takes hold, it’s destined for the ground.
HUBRIS – Sirocco
Sirocco is the largest Povu city on Hubris. All Povu cities follow the same basic outline – high walls facing into the winds, with layers of buildings stacked up against their interior, and tall skyscrapers behind. Inspired by a mix of art deco and industrialism, Povu cities start with crowded industrial districts at ground level, rising up to fancy glass domes and indoor gardens at the top of the skyscrapers. Bridges connect the rings of walls together, and high-up metro tracks weave between skyscrapers.
HUBRIS – Alien Life
Hubris is populated by thousands of strange creatures, all of whom have followed a very different evolutionary path to those on Earth. Instead of ears, eyes, nose, etc, the creatures on Hubris experience their world through the sensory crest on their heads, which combines all their senses together. Additionally, the vast majority of creatures here are filter-feeders, with rows of gills down their necks to catch the tiny micro-organisms that enrich the winds constantly blowing around the planet. However some, like the Tisgul, have evolved to hunt larger creatures, and their filter gills have changed to large, gaping jaws.
