If there is a perfect dieselpunk video game, it must be BioShock (our review here). It has several of the genre’s major influences (Art Deco, Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, dystopian fiction like Nineteen Eighty-Four, Hugh Ferriss, the Red Scare and Jazz) as well as tropes (the lone hero fighting the system, mind control).
It’s the BioShock aesthetic, though, that is the most evocative.
Concept art
First, let’s take a look at the concept art Thomas Pringle, Mauricio Tejerina and others created for the BioShock games.
Fan art
Rapture has inspired many digital artists. A search on ArtStation or DeviantArt will turn up hundreds of results. Here are our favorites.
Movie concept art
Kasra Farahani and Jim Martin produced the following concept art for a BioShock movie that never happened.
More at the BioShock Wiki.
Scenes from the game
We’ll conclude with a few beauty shots from the game itself.
Remember, with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well!
1 Comment
Add YoursWonderful as always! Though such a necessarily artificial and constrained environment has always seemed to me an unlikely setting for a Libertarian city.