Metal Gear Sloid

During the summer vacation, I was extremely obsessed with Metal Gear Solid. I really like Yoji Shinkawa’s mecha designs in this work, and at the same time, its discussions on topics such as nuclear weapons and AI are very thought-provoking, full of Hideo Kojima’s personal philosophy.

Therefore, I hope to extract some elements from this work to extend the theme of my own project. I think the main element I want to extract is the walking mecha. The diverse hard-surface mecha designs can make good use of my personal skill advantages, and at the same time, through this process, I can further improve my design level.

Nuclear absurdity & Cold War satire

When talking about literary and artistic works related to nuclear bombs, Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove is something that cannot be avoided. This film uses a playful kind of dark humour to discuss the Cold War and nuclear deterrence.

The scenes in the movie are simple, but their style is distinct enough. I might be able to draw some inspiration from this work, imitating some of the styles in it, such as that enormous conference table and the war room.

Interestingly, Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid also includes a character named Strangelove as a tribute. Although this female character has nothing to do with the original Dr. Strangelove, as a work that also discusses the issue of nuclear threats, this serves as a kind of Easter egg that brings a knowing smile.

Dystopia and the lonely watcher

AI-related future stories are usually dystopian. I want to tell a story about a watcher who stands alone and holds his ground in a dystopian society. This is both a kind of human brilliance and a beacon that looks back to the past under the wave of AI. The style of the protagonist may be similar to The Lives of Others.

Summary

Overall, I hope my work can strike a good balance between the deep themes of AI and my hard-surface designs. On one hand, I hope I can showcase my designs, but on the other hand, I also need to make sure that the visual design does not steal the spotlight in the short film, allowing the audience to still continue thinking after watching it.

Initial Theme Exploration

At the beginning of planning this final project, I had many thoughts, because my personal interests are actually very broad. Even just within the category of science fiction, I already have many different themes I want to make—such as an air-combat-and-AI theme similar to Ace Combat, or a theme like Metal Gear that focuses on mecha, espionage, and nuclear weapons. I think science fiction can, to a certain extent, combine my interests with the skills I am good at, and allow me to create more.

My skills

The design and modelling of hard-surface machinery has always been a direction I am interested in, so I will include related elements in my work and try to integrate this element well into my story.

Thoughts on AI

I have observed that whether it is Metal Gear or Ace Combat, they both focus on the use of AI and the threat AI poses to humans, and even the possibility of AI controlling the living space of humanity.

Although discussions about AI have continued for a century—from early twentieth-century debates about robots with self-awareness, to cyberpunk filled with AI elements, and then to further discussions of this topic in the new century—human beings have always been discussing and exploring existence and the self. However, the experiences of people who discussed these topics in the past are definitely different from those of people in the past two years, because AI has rapidly developed in almost all fields in recent years, and in some aspects has even far exceeded what people once imagined. Humanity has never been as close to the AI future described in science fiction as it is now.

Therefore, I think I am also able and have certain real-world conditions about AI to discuss this seemingly clichéd topic of AI in my final project. And I will try to incorporate the hard-surface design that I am good at into the work.