The Blog of Andrew Marathas

RIFT, exposed

A Brief History...

As it's fair to say that I receive numerous in the way of questions about what is seen on the internet in the mysterious and, perhaps, somewhat vaunted ways I have it displayed (maybe "vaunted" is replaceable), it is also fair to say that some kind of thorough explanation of RIFT is needed. Or maybe I just want to talk.

"What is Rift?"

"What are these drawings for?"

"Is this a comic?"

"Is this a video game - what is this?"

etc.

If you've been paying attention to my work over the last few years - and I assume that you have been as you're here. And I also assume, I guess, that the work has been easy to spot as it is out of place from my norm (" "?) and is, most notably, the most consistent thing I do that isn't just some weirdo, shrimpy figure on a landscape. If you have been paying attention, you've noticed my updates of this mystery shit and you've, perhaps, wondered about it. I put out very little when it comes to explaining some of my loopier work - the paintings on wood, the strange MBTA sketches, the vague and crappy metaphors. This is different. So, I'll explain a bit, give some flavored history, etc. I'll give you the guts of the thing.

The year is 2008, and I'm in a basement in Middleboro, MA. It's practically winter or close to. I want to say that it was November - whenever Lich King came out. When was that? Just keep in mind that it's winter and I'm existing, primarily, in front of a computer. Or just keep in mind that it's winter. Actually, let's just keep it basic. It's 2008. I'm also back living with my dad. It's 2008.

Bryan Basset, my great friend (recently married this past October, by the way! Beside the point.) and fellow science fiction fan and I are online and we're talking. We're both recently out of school and wondering about what inspires us - or, more specifically, we're wondering about what keeps us inspired. A conceptual distinction should be made there, right?

For the record, we're also complaining in our way about not doing the full of what we'd like to be doing and/or had envisioned at the outset of high school and/or college. This is not atypical. Anyway-

We're discussing these things to the backdrop of our normal sets of conversation, conversations revolving old school and contemporary gaming ("Ocarina of Time" this, "Star Control II" that), conversations about movies and heroes, comics, good books we've read, great books we've read. All the while we're connecting the dots in these conversations to potential real world applications. Maybe we can make a game. Maybe we can write a book or a movie, something. Maybe I can string together some storyboards; he can cook up a few chapters of something, whatever.

It started as a video game pitch. This is an important point to make, and I'll explain more about that later, about why it's important to make that clear designation.

It started as a plan to write and illustrate a video game pitch that would and could compete with every video game ever made. We'd put the work together and make a pitch. Anyone who talks about video games as much as he and I do and did understand that great video games are made from great initial ideas that are worth a simple damn. Sounds obvious, but it's still important to point that out: great video games are made by studios and, more specifically, by creators that give a shit. Our assumption was that every great game had some kind of small beginning. I believe this still.

There were obvious, accepted realities we faced from the start.

1. Who the fuck knows how to make a video game?

2. The video game industry is tough, densely competitive, and scarcely populated by accessible art directors. That was my guess. The reality is different, depending on how you look at it, but the challenges are obvious.

3. A solid story that we understand through process is better than a juicy story that we misunderstand as we bend it around limitations.

"You know what," we both thought. "You know what? Let's just make a book. Let's start on the concept - images, ideas, put some writing together, put some storyboards up, see where it goes."

Was it a comic, a book? Were we pitching or self-publishing? Do we bring others in on the project? Do we need someone to work on ideas for sound or animation? Who learns to make wireframes? We didn't focus on those specifics, and what I can offer in conversation for that kind of thing is that, with that, when you deny the initial designation of the thing, the things to the side that deal more with delivery, you're really opening the door to simply fleshing out the idea as it comes. You're not as limited by the medium that you're working in or the goal that you're aiming toward. The resolution of your idea gets better and better as you're able to polish what you do know - basic ideas for plot, ways to conceptualize quickly and visually, ways to document and share what's produced.

We began creating this thing from an idea unbound from our initial, technical plan, and we just have a wealth to draw from. There's a lot of meat to the thing that wouldn't be as full if we had stuck to forcing the technicalities.

Anyway.

What it has become, ultimately, is an illustrated story. For the sake of ease, I would say - or just by our present means and method, it will end up as a book, a comic book, graphic novel, but - and this is where my point comes in about it being important to indicate that this did, indeed, begin as a video game idea - it is also just ending up as this huge, again, wealth of content that can be used for whatever-the-hell, and it certainly derives its soul, in part, from the idea of great video gaming. So, let's just include an asterisk with any talk of it being a comic.

Simply, it will be the sequential result of the work we have so far, and that is also to say that what we have so far, in general terms, is the following: a story in four parts, a prologue, three main, bulk chapters. It will be futuristic, in a sense. It will draw from classic and romantic ideas, trends of epic cycle storytelling, etc. There's war. There's outer space. There's invasion. There's humanity and/or lack thereof, plot twists, characters that you have permission to care about. It is inspired by our time. It's just great.

I'll leave you with this. If you've been paying attention, you'll recognize it.

(More to come)