World-Building Archives • Mike Barrette's WorkTable

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MEET
THE
CREATOR

NARRATIVE

Devise the Story.

CONCEPT

Visualize and Prototype.

GRAPHIC

Stylize and Inform.

WORLD

Create Context.

Below you'll find examples of the many narrative and graphic works found in the archives and also on Alphazett.

1 - NARRATIVE

World building and story design are always inter-related. These are some tools I've developed from projects I've worked on that continue to be used in Alphazett.

Story Maps are hyper-condensed encapsulations of any narrative set piece, combining art, narrative and design elements into a single vision.

Every idea, every concept, every character is a Storycard. A self-contained seed ready to be planted in a any narrative construct.

Alphazett is a website, a world-building project, and stories within stories.

Below you'll find examples of the many narrative and graphic works found in the archives and also on Alphazett.

2 - CONCEPT

Concept Design and Concept Art do not necessarily serve the same purpose. One is a tool used to convey how something is built and meant to function, while the other is an ad to calm managers and wow audiences.

Concept Design is a tool used to convey how something is built and meant to function, while Concept Art is an aid for calming managers and wowing audiences.

World Design covers a lot of territory Architecture, Culture, Environment, Spatial Movement, and Technology.

Below you'll find examples of the many narrative and graphic works found in the archives and also on Alphazett.

3 - GRAPHIC

Graphics and Infographics, Posters and Diagrams, Charts, Maps, and Illustrations, rich in detail and cryptic descriptions. These are the roots of my interest and approach as a designer.

Below you'll find examples of the many narrative and graphic works found in the archives and also on Alphazett.

4 - WORLD

Another good example of the world building process from concept to playable. This Is Vegas was a multi-genre open-world RPG brought to near-completion before being cancelled.

From first Storymap through playable level, an early prototype level for Shadow of Morder a co-op fantasy RPG release from Warner Brothers.

Below you'll find examples of the many narrative and graphic works found in the archives and also on Alphazett.

ARCHIVES

Organized in accordance with the Many-Boxes Theory of Content Containment, each box is an infinitely expandable narrative concept, as defined by its snappy title and brief description. Simultaneously both old and new, many of the entries are legacy projects that have been reworked in order to tell a story of lasting value beyond the oft-forgotten project itself... Good ideas never die, they evolve.

The Multiverse awaits at Alphazett

ALPHAZETT INTRO

A brief introduction to The Alphazett Project, a world building experiment and online portal to the multiverse, featuring all original art, design and writing.

Stories about Cities about Stories

ALPHAZETT CITIES

A catalog of events, memories, and landmarks and a periodically renewed city of ideas built on the discarded ideas from different (game) universes. A birthing ground for story ideas and building concepts developed elsewhere.

NARRATIVE | CONCEPT | ILLUSTRATION

The Pictorial Evolution of a Website

ALPHAZETT WEB

The site design for Alphazett was a slow, iterative process that reflected ongoing machinations behind the evolution of the Alphazett project itself.

WEB | GRAPHIC | CONCEPT

Post-apocalyptic Scribbles

APOCALYPTICA

End of the world art from a post-Reagan world. I was living in Boston, hating my job, and over-indulging. Then I moved to Los Angeles and it really got dark.

CONCEPT | ART

The City-Builders Parts Catalog

BUILD-A-CITY

A catalog of city-building components-- a riff on the 'Acme catalog' of everything, and a brick-and-mortar companion to Alphazett Cities.

CONCEPT | WORLD | ILLUSTRATION

Narrative Design and World-Building

BUILDING MIDDLE EARTH

Early design and prototype development from the "Shadow of Mordor" adventure-fantasy RPG. A rare example of a consistent visualization process from concept through (pre)-production.

NARRATIVE | WORLD | ILLUSTRATION | GAME

Building a City Inside and Out

BUILDING VEGAS

Ambitions were high to create an immersive, inhabitable Las Vegas in which to do unspeakable things with an XBox. Four and a half years later, we had a city, but the dream had died and the project was cancelled.

WORLD | GAME

Postcards from Distant Lands

IMPOSSIBLE CITIES

A "photo" essay featuring locations described in the journals of Syd Arthur, the Worlds Fastest Librarian.

NARRATIVE | CONCEPT | ART

Actual Drawings Made with Pencils

LINEWORK

Early concept drawings were always done in pencil before being run through the Photoshop gauntlet of magical effects and endless typographic possibilities. These were all produced during a particularly fertile period in the early days of XBox.

CONCEPT | ILLUSTRATION | GAME

Studies in Perspective Manipulation

PARALLEL VIEWS

Experiments in perspective depicting simultaneous events in parallel worlds. Perhaps abstract dissertations on living in Los Angeles, or simply fractured fairy tales.

CONCEPT | ART

Dark Drawings from a Dark Phase

PORTALS

Los Angeles was a dark time, but also a deep source of inspiration in unexpected ways. Riots, earthquakes, and a recession all featured heavily in my general outlook.

CONCEPT | ART

Pulled from the Vast Archives

SKETCHBOOKS

Curated collections from actual sketchbooks. While neatly compacted for presentation, minimal digital shenanigans has otherwise occurred.

CONCEPT | GRAPHIC | GAME | ART

Spindly Highways and such

STRINGWAYS

A loose exploration of spiderweb-like transportation networks enveloping a city. An early sketch series with continued relevance.

CONCEPT | ART

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS

A retrospective gallery of constructed drawings.

CONCEPT | GRAPHIC | ILLUSTRATION | GAME

Progress Report on Elevator Design

T.E.T. NAURU

A space elevator is a theoretical construct-- a cable stretching from earth to an orbiting space station. I took that a bit further and conceived of a 60,000 mile continually inhabited structure.

CONCEPT | WORLD | GRAPHIC | ILLUSTRATION | GAME