What started out as a few people making simplistic games for their own amusment has grown into
the most dominant entertainment medium of the 21st century. But for many critics,
the question remains: are video games art? Game franchises like Mass Effect are convincing
many that the answer is yes. Long gone are the days of eight bit graphics and non-existent
storylines. Instead, games like Mass Effect offer the player a universe filled with unique
world designs and a sophisticated approach to interactive storytelling. All artists
draw their influences from somewhere, the biggest influence for the artists at Bioware
was a guy from St. Paul, Minnesota whose name you have probably never heard: Syd Mead.
Who is that? Well, Syd Mead is an eighty-one year-old neofuturistic concept
artist who has worked on the design of a few things you may have heard of including Tron,
Blade Runner, Aliens, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and many, many more. And you don’t have
to take our word for it. According to Derek Watts, the art director of the series, “For
Mass Effect, the artist that influenced us the most is Syd Mead, the guy we bring up
over and over again”.
This influence is visible in a number of places. For instance
the design of the Citadel’s best club, Chora’s Den is modelled very closely off of Syd Mead’s
concept art for Blade Runner. That’s not all, the concept art for the
Earth Alliance building in Mass Effect 3 also looks very similar to Mead’s work. Another
example is the X3M vehicles often seen in the Citadel. While flying cars have always
been a staple of science fiction, the unique, elongated look recalls the designs of Syd
Mead. The look of the Geth and the Volus also seem to be derived in some ways by Mead’s
work, just check out this piece of concept art, which kind of make me want a Geth Kart
racing game honestly. Many even believe that the design of the Mako was heavily influenced
by Syd Mead’s “Mission to Mars” artwork. The films that Syd Mead helped visually create
also get quite a few references throughout the series. For instance, in Mass Effect 3,
Joker references a famous line spoken by Ridley in Aliens, saying “You wanna nuke it from
orbit? It’s the only way to--ah forget it, it’s probably fine”. Many fans have even
speculated that Mass Effect 3’s Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons’ computer-like world
that Commander Shepard is uploaded into is a direct reference to the Tron series.
From the Citadel, to the lounges, to the vehicle designs, the impact that Syd Mead’s vision
of the future has had the Mass Effect franchise cannot be overstated. Derek Watts and the
art team at Bioware set out to go in a completely different direction from their Knights of
the Old Republic series and succeeded by drawing on Mead’s long career. Watts explained it
best saying: “Syd Mead has a signature style that is clean, futuristic, purposeful, and
very different from Star Wars. His art suggested colorful and hopeful worlds with clean designs—not
bleak settings.These were places you might want to go to, places you could imagine yourself
being”. It is this art style that has elevated Bioware to the next level; as Mass Effect
was even included in an Smithsonian Museum of Art exhibit, one of a few games chosen to
be showcased at the event. Like all art, video games build on the creations that came before
them. Thanks to the futuristic designs of Syd Mead, Mass Effect was able to do just
that.
You thought you knew Mass Effect, but hopefully
you’ve learned just a thing or two more. Do you know of any other historical or literary
references we didn't cover here? Share them in the comment section below and we might
include it in a future episode. If you like Hidden History don’t forget to ‘Like’
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