The color of nostalgia is brown...

Sat and looked through the 'Making-of' folder on my harddrive and found some old pictures from the Fallout days. It's pretty remarkable how little the designed changed from one idea to the other, and how well the features from Fallout translated into BioShock ones. Which in turn also explains why everything worked out so quickly while designed the new artwork. I guess I was, and still am, pretty confident about the general game design.

1) The very first hand drawn artwork with the overlaid Autocad approximation of the playfield.

  Come to think of it - the fallout version is not that bad and very, very, close to the final version already.

Considering I had almost no parts to measure at that point in time, it's amazing that I got the proportions pretty much right by looking at photos online. Internet is a beautiful thing! :)

2) Close up of the top playfield. Pretty much the same here as the BioShock version, even got the "big figure to shoot at". The bobble head may actually have been more satisfying to shoot thou. Instead of the vent we'd have a Vault (with moving door). The bumpers would of course be the boxing ring at New Reno...

3) The lower playfield is also very similar. The lights have changed a little but, otherwise it's pretty much the same. The PipBoy would naturally be the center piece and the saucer was intended to be a drophole, to take the ball to the upper playfield, in the shape of a crater.

4) Players view of the top playfield. I think the Bobble Head and the accompanying stats board would have looked killer in real life! While sketching I pretty much draw what comes up, but I'd really love the idea of having a Vault Ball lock. It was supposed to lock the ball physically with a moving gear door and a rotating red "warning light" on top, although I changed the position of the vault in this later sketch. Awesome. 

5) Finally - The red lines are the old Fallout drawing, and the image is of course the BioShock artwork that was created around the final drawing. Not a lot changed, as you can see. The main target was moved a bit more centered, and the lights were changed/moved...

If I had to regret one thing - It would be not having either the stats board or the vault. Actually, I might do the stats board in the future with the spare Arduino I have... so the thing I regret is the vault.

Next time thou! ;)