Acknowledgment to Studio ZA/UM (Disco Elysium) for inspiring this post
with their own and to mobygames for cataloguing a number of old box arts.
Over the years we have received questions from various people asking where Brigador: Up-Armored Edition came from. If you
really want narrow it down to a single genre, we’re okay with being dropped into the
Cassette Futurism bucket – but we think it better to give you a list of further reading.
The following is not a comprehensive inventory of every piece of media we’ve ever consumed, but it should give you an idea of where Brigador came from and might just introduce you to something new.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/274500/
GAMES
Despite appearances, Brigador is
not an homage to either EA’s
Strike Series of games or
Future Cop: LAPD. We have nothing against them; we’ve just never played either. Here are the video games we have played, and are still available to purchase and play on modern operating systems via the magic of DOSBox.
[h2]
Syndicate by Bullfrog Productions (1993)[/h2]
Enormously influential real time strategy. Sometimes we boot it up to hear the eight-minute loop of music again.
[h2]
Star Control II by Toys for Bob (1994)[/h2]
Widely regarded as one of the greatest PC games of all time, Star Control II weaved its lore in with its gameplay. Brigador attempts to recreate both, and was inspired by its balance systems in that even the smallest ships could take on much larger opponents.
[h2]
Crusader: No Remorse by Origin Systems (1995)[/h2]
An EA game we did play. Featured destructible environments, incredibly awkward controls (by modern standards) and live action FMV. We’re still getting round to doing the last one.
TV
[h2]
Miami Vice (1984)[/h2]
Legend has it Miami Vice was concepted on a memo that merely read “MTV cops”. Highly stylized. It was host to
an absurd number of celebrity guests over its five seasons, along with some of the best music on television.
FILM
[h2]
Escape From New York (1981)[/h2]
We’re big fans of John Carpenter and are honored to be living in the time period as he.
[h2]
Blade Runner (1982)[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Mood, Vangelis, worldbuilding – where to start?
[h2]
Dune (1984)[/h2]
Everything about
the first ten minutes of Lynch’s Dune left a strong impression.
[h2]
Brazil (1985)[/h2]
Have you got a 27B/6?
[h2]
Alien (1979) and
Aliens (1986)[/h2]
Ron Cobb’s work on the first film cannot be overstated and both movies are always worth a rewatch.
[h2]
Patlabor 2 (1993)[/h2]
Among other things meticulous thought is given to the setting’s infrastructure and logistics, and how the mechs are transported and deployed. This aspect is not made explicit in Brigador, but it greatly informs the game’s level design.
MUSIC
Did you know
John Carpenter is an accomplished electronic musician on top of directing some of the best films ever made? His music work informed the atmospherics and tone of Brigador. Here’s
a Spotify link to his work.
Speaking of playlists, Brigador’s campaign mission names are all directly inspired by specific tunes, which we’ve
collected into one 51-track playlist here.
BOOKS
[h2]Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism by Stephen Graham[/h2]
Essential in thinking about how policies, politics and warfare play out in space, which is something we wanted to reflect in Brigador. Divisions of space, of "real" cities and "illegitimate" squatter constructions directly influenced how Solo Nobre has very dramatic and physical borders delineating the haves and the have-nots.
[h2]
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad[/h2]
Obligatory for many games but especially so for Brigador.
[h2]
Generation Kill by Evan Wright &
One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick[/h2]
The Lieutenant Fick portrayed in Generation Kill by Wright ended up writing his own, very moving book dramatizing the soldier's perspective.
[h2]
Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay[/h2]
Vital in making sure that even the Brigadors had identifiably human traits.
ARTISTS
[h2]Katsuhiro Ōtomo[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Best known for Akira, but for our purposes please refer to the
Memories anthology from 1995, specifically
"Magnetic Rose", and the
“A Farewell to Weapons” short from 2013.
[h2]Kow Yokoyama[/h2]
Last and by no means least: the patron saint of kitbashing. The game’s various vehicle designs all draw heavy inspiration from Yokoyama’s work.
Here is a primer on Maschinen Krieger/SF3D.
