It started as a thought experiment, actually.

I wanted to look into what would happen if the large companies we have today continue to grow unchecked. Nowadays we already have corporations that have the same output as small countries.

It's not hard to imagine the amount of craziness the world can get into if they even start colonizing Mars or some other planets (Hi SpaceX, what's up?).

"Burt's Universe" is the result of that — a universe where companies grow with no one to limit them. Tech is driven not toward the betterment of mankind but ultimately for profit. And once in a while, there's a "good guy" out there trying to fight fire with fire.

[ Early concept drawings of the Pirate faction ] 

Space pirates, of course, try to make a living by robbing and stealing. Company owners with too much power start detaching themselves from reality. Governments merge together into a united front in order to combat the "evil" but ultimately in order to maintain their power base. It's a great place for a story to be in, totally fictional, absolutely nothing at all like real life.

Given how bleak this all sounds, visually, I'm going for a very funky feeling. There has to be this facade of craziness that juxtaposes the somewhat sad undertone of how little control the people in this world really have.

The art style, therefore, has got to be funky, out of this world. We're aiming for large contrasts, like from the color choices to the complexity of the individual elements.

[ Taking inspiration from Space Dandy!  Copyright © 2014  Bones Inc. All rights reserved ] 

That's why we'll have a lot of very detailed pieces to contrast with the UI which is composed of mainly solid colors combined with a wiggle animation to throw people off.

Needless to say, the characters and the world they inhabit should thus at least match the zaniness of the visuals we're putting together. /B