Article: how fanart led a Brazilian to become the art director for the LBA reboot

[Medur]

I stumbled upon an article (in Brazilian Portuguese) about the art director for 2.21's LBA reboot, Paulo Torinno.

Google's translation is decent: https://www-overloadr-com-br.transla..._x_tr_pto=wapp

It has some small bits of information which I think are new about the original LBA as well as the reboot. It also mentions a fun story about Didier's private studio.
Something I thought was interesting was that LBA's art design was influenced by a toy truck that belonged to Didier's son.

[Quetch]

That bit about the toy car blew me away

[bloodhound]

Reallly cool that Ben believed in Paulo in spite of the language barrier. And to see Paulo's enthusiasm. Who knows what I could achieve at work if I had that enthusiasm and didn't always go on MBN

I hope he can deal with criticism that will invariably happen when he tries to interpret something where all the fans have a different image. For example for my inner eye, Quetches look just like humans, and the reason they looked different in the cutscenes is just because it wasn't feasible to render photo-realistic humans back then (and because LBA went for a cartoony style). But for others they are supposed to look like dolls, so it can never suit everyone.

By the way, I'd love to know what the toy car designer thinks about the car ending up in a popular video game

[SpaceGuitarist]

*gasp!*


Thank you so much for sharing this. Really, thank you, so much. Reading this article moved me in so many ways you cannot even imagine. It really touched me, about life, possibilities, challenges and whatnot. Thanks.

I want to share something;

On another occasion, Didier showed Paulo a yellow toy car, originally his son's, and which ended up becoming a design parameter for Didier in his work on the conception of the world of Twinsen's Odyssey. “He explained how the design of the game needed to have unity, and how that toy served as a reference. Everything you see in the game is kind of rounded, like that car.”
(from the website)

This can be seen on Time Commando as well:

[bloodhound]

Great eyesight, SpaceGuitarist! What do you think of Time Commando? Did any MBN member ever write a review of one of Fred's other games from an LBA perspective?

[Medur]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

*gasp!*


Thank you so much for sharing this. Really, thank you, so much. Reading this article moved me in so many ways you cannot even imagine. It really touched me, about life, possibilities, challenges and whatnot. Thanks.

I want to share something;




This can be seen on Time Commando as well:

Wow, I'd never have remembered that. Nice catch, very cool.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by Medur

Wow, I'd never have remembered that. Nice catch, very cool.

Thanks! Yes, Time Commando is up there with LBA's as one of my favorite games of all time!!! Including the first Alone In The Dark too which had Fred and Didier in it. And then they went to Adeline to make LBA's and Time Commando. Adeline was simply brilliant! Adeline was really at its apogee, from it's start to it's end, never in decline. This company with these guys simply made the best games of that decade, and imho, of all time. I think I wrote and made threads about them at some point during my 20 years in these forums, for sure I did! But I have forgotten where and when!

Originally Posted by bloodhound

Reallly cool that Ben believed in Paulo in spite of the language barrier.

Yes indeed (!!). That's what surprised me the most. That's very heartwarming of the 2.21 team. I would never believe such a thing to practically happen. Yet there it is, as real as life itself. I'm baffled. And it was quite clever of him to compare that to Twinsen himself having to use a translator to speak with the Zeelichians, that added some poetry to what would otherwise be just a boring real life problem.

Originally Posted by bloodhound

By the way, I'd love to know what the toy car designer thinks about the car ending up in a popular video game

That IS a very valid and cool question which I was thinking of too as I read it. Which is more brilliant: the toy designer that made it round-ish to avoid injuries on small children when playing with the toy, or Didier's vision to recognise that as a valuable design trait for all of his creations? Either way, fascinating, and I even went as far as looking into ebay.fr if I could find that toy... who knows, someone might be selling that. Couldn't find it thou, heh. This was the closest thing I found.




The yellow toy car dates back since LBA1 !

[SpaceGuitarist]

Now,

Other than the cute yellow toy car, there is something else.

Which also appears on both games. Discreetly placed there.

Something rather strange. Who is this ????????????????????

[bloodhound]

Hmm, interesting question! We'll have to ask Didier when we get a chance
I remember from my school French book, that they said that French people like using these super-wide cups to drink hot chocolate. Looks like it's true

[Polaris]

Oh yeah, I have that Edge magazine, saw the truck before, didn't realise it had such an important role.

That is a big cup, but idk, doesn't feel neither weird nor unusual to me... Can't say I lived a lot in France during the last 20 years though.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Well spotted...

So we have some strange items that are recurring in all of Adeline's games whenever there's a scene with a desk:

- Yellow toy car
- Blue pencil
- Suuuuuuuuuuuuuper wide chocolate mug
- Weird black&white portrait of God-knows-who
- Blue Adeline mouse pad

I've emailed Fred about the portrait but I'm not sure I'll ever get an answer, lol.

[Reek]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

Well spotted...

So we have some strange items that are recurring in all of Adeline's games whenever there's a scene with a desk:

- Yellow toy car
- Blue pencil
- Suuuuuuuuuuuuuper wide chocolate mug
- Weird black&white portrait of God-knows-who
- Blue Adeline mouse pad

I've emailed Fred about the portrait but I'm not sure I'll ever get an answer, lol.

worth asking ben of studio 2.21 i guess? i imagine he probably has more of a direct line to fred. he's on the discord afaik

[bloodhound]

There's also a 2.21 discord, which I haven't checked out though.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by Reek

worth asking ben of studio 2.21 i guess? i imagine he probably has more of a direct line to fred. he's on the discord afaik

I've sent it to the emails I've found on 2.21's website... some of you who uses discord could ask as well, pretty please?