Might And Delight Talks About Their Inspirations For Book Of Travels
Might and Delight’s Book of Travels offers a fresh take on the genre with unique visuals inspired by fairy tale books. In a new dev blog on Steam, the developers share the influences that helped shape their vision for the upcoming MMORPG.
“The last year was one where we slowly opened the door to Book of Travels and all it involves. We’ve been deeply gratified to read your response, in particular those replies that have lead us to books, art and other media that you feel share similarities with the square-peg project that is our TMORPG. With that in mind, and to make for a reviving start to the epic year that will be 2021, we’re dedicating this post to a deeper investigation of key inspirations behind Book of Travels, and we hope you feel inspired to share your own inspirations with us too!”
Notable influences include the open world mechanics of Baldur’s Gate and Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges’ The Library of Babel which inspired the games seemingly random yet poetic dialogue and almost infinite quests. The team also drew inspiration from 1001 Nights and Judith Schalansky’s Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands when designing the “dreamy reality and magical everyday of Braided Shore.”
The balance of light-heartedness and looming darkness of Tove Jansson’s Moomin books, the peace and solitude from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s films, art style from AJ Casson and other Orientalists, the ambiguity of David Lupton’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and diorama aesthetics from Czech animators all influenced the overall look and feel of the game says Might and Delight.
“Of course there are tonnes of other influences that go into the Book of Travels cooking pot to stew, some of which are those unplanned, organic and human things. There’s a phenomena in the theory of visual art whereby artists cannot resist the temptation to fill all available space with detail. It’s known as Horror Vacui, and unsurprisingly that’s exactly how the game ended up looking how it now does.”
Might and Delight promises to share more information about the game in the coming months, including battle, the dangers of Braided Shore, and game audio. In the meantime, you can check out the developers’ first gameplay commentary video below if you haven’t done so already.
