Mention the word Renaissance and the modern person will think one of three things: Shakespeare, Ratatouille, or little summer fairs you go to watch men in shiny metal suits jump and wallow around in mud exclaiming “FOR THE KING,” gasping for air. The actual age of the Renaissance, a sweeping revival of culture, arts, and philosophical innovation, has been stripped of its oomph. Reduced down into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Monty Python, and a rotating door of Shakespeare adaptations nobody asked for – we’re looking at you Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet.”
And yet, birthed out of the wonderfully weird mind of Joe Richardson, a revolution was soon to take shape. He unknowingly took upon himself the burden of dragging the Renaissance into a new frontier, video games, developing what would become his critically acclaimed trilogy: Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary, and Death of the Reprobate.
Alone in his Edinburgh apartment, later London, Joe studied Illustration with the ultimate goal of becoming an artist, fine-tuning his craft and channeling his inner Picasso all the while. That was until he realized, unfortunately, that he couldn’t draw for shit… With a quick flash of critical thinking and a rare bout of optimism, he pivoted into focusing on collages, movements, and interactions within art. His games became his canvas, and through them he showcased his deep love for Renaissance paintings, even with his self-proclaimed surface level understanding of each. Joe’s purpose wasn’t to understand the artists that painted them but to showcase these paintings in a way that makes them as fun for other people as they are to him, while at the same time transforming them into something entirely new. Something personal to him, his own work of art that’ll go down in history.
In relation to Joe’s background, his approach to game development is rather unorthodox. Every piece of art in the game is snipped and cut from existing Renaissance works in a collage style, down to the li’l knobs and bleeding peasants. His process starts the same with each title: cutting and placing each piece down on his canvas before any ounce of puzzling or dialogue is even considered. This way Joe can focus entirely on making the scenes work visually, preserving as much of the essence of the original paintings as possible. He creates a “sandbox” to play in if only to respect and stare at his own curated museum. Only after the foundation is laid is it time to incorporate puzzles, dialogue, and unearth a story from within. Everything is intertwined. The game isn’t just a visual collage, but a tapestry of elements all tightly woven together, all informed by and in service to the art.
The Immortal John Triptych takes Joe’s three critically acclaimed adventures and wraps them up in one ultimate Rabelaisian package. Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary, and Death of the Reprobate are combined and bring with them never-before-seen deleted scenes, timelapses of Joe’s artistic process from blank canvas to finished world, updated languages, and an expanded soundtrack by Eduardo Antonello.
This isn’t just a collection – it’s the definitive way to experience Joe’s work, all three chapters of his Renaissance obsession in one place, with the curtain pulled back on how it was all made. Meet the locals, solve some puzzles and slap the arses of a number of unsuspecting cows and/or bishops in this fantastically silly vision of medieval Europe.
Wishlist the Immortal John Triptych on Xbox today and experience the Renaissance like never before.
The Immortal John Triptych
Akupara Games
Immortal John is dying. A holy war has ended in chaos. Sin itself demands reckoning. Three interconnected tales unfold across a world built from Renaissance paintings and Classical music, where the ridiculous and the profound collide.
Help locals with their daily tasks, only to find the Devil lurking in the shadows. Chase a tyrant across kingdoms while assisting inept magicians and negotiating with God Almighty. Navigate sin, death, judgement, heaven and hell, all topped with a cherry of gleeful flippancy.
From quiet countryside kindness spiraling into madness, to holy vengeance wrapped in absurdity, to cosmic philosophy delivered with a wink and a nudge, The Immortal John Triptych proves that the most intelligent thing you can do is embrace the utterly ridiculous.
The post Bringing a Love of Renaissance Art to Life in The Immortal John Triptych appeared first on Xbox Wire.
