Ruinenlust in Zen

A Deadite among the ruins, "Build me a world human!"

Hello World!

Welcome to my blog, you're lucky enough to be here for the first post (oh yeah!). I figured I'd just start talking about what I'm working on at the moment, like tonight type of moment.

Lately I've been making a big push to finish up a demo for Zen. I thought a great first topic to talk about would be the idea of Ruin Lust (Ruinenlust to German readers) within the world of Zen. Ruin lust is the feeling of appreciation and wonder when looking at ruins, with each ruin embodying its own mystery and story. 'What was it before it was abandoned? Why was it abandoned? Who made it?' and so on can run through your head when looking at ruins. They essentially open up a world of unwritten lore in terms of video games, placing them in a scene can entice players to wonder at what the world of Zen once looked like before it's current fractured state, allowing them to fill this void  while leaving an air of mystery when looking at the ruins.

At the same time ruins have another odd feature of blending into the environment almost naturally (let's not mention that some ruins are actually built and placed as ruins in real life, look it up!) as if they had always been there in a state of decay— a wonderful characteristic do to the conjoining of a man-made object and an organic shape formed over time by the elements, scavenging an so on...

The visuals of these ruins and the idea of ruin-lust take such a large precedence over the art style and backdrop of Zen due to a link that can be made between ruins, ruin-lust and the concept of 'momento mori' or 'remember (that you have) to die'— often represented through objects and symbols which serve as warnings or reminders of our impending death.

Death and life, good and evil, old and new, love and hate among other polar opposites in life, such as the concept of no left without a right and no right without a left. This is a repeating theme within Zen, speaking on a larger concept of balance within a seemingly deranged world in which the player finds themselves.

A work in progress shot of the ruins in Unity along with some sketches above made before hand.