H.R. Giger

**Hans Ruedi Giger** (known popularly as **H.R. Giger**) was a Swiss artist known for his "biomechanical" designs that blended machinery with human anatomy. He was born in 1940, and passed away in 2014. Throughout his life, he worked on such popular franchises as *Alien* and *Species*. He was also hired on to work with Cyberdreams on their game *Dark Seed*, as well as its sequel *Dark Seed II*. The Dark World, Ancients, and all related creatures are of Giger's own making.

Giger's work was often inspired by his dreams that would haunt him. He said of his artwork: "I expel these creatures, and their pain, by painting them onto a surface, trapping them forever. In a somewhat symbolic manner, I also free myself."

## Involvement in *Dark Seed*

Game designer Mike Dawson said that Cyberdreams president Patrick Ketchum wanted to bring Giger onto the *Dark Seed* project as a "shrewd [business] move."

> In order to differentiate the small company from more established developers, he attached a high profile artist to each title – not only to use their art, but to leverage their celebrity.
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The artist was initially skeptic his work could translate well into the then limited world of computer gaming. Giger's agreement to work on the project came after what was described by Cyberdreams as "lengthy negotiations, two trips to Switzerland, dozens of faxes and telephone conferences", and "the assistance of Giger's U.S. publisher, Jim Cowan". Giger was paid with what Dawson described as "lots of cash". Giger wanted the game company to make sure that high-resolution graphics were used in order to avoid "square and jagged" look common in so many games of that time.

Cyberdreams was given access to Giger's artwork library in order to decide which pieces would be incorporated into the game's Dark World. Among works chosen included "N.Y. City III", "Hommage a Bocklin", and "Li II". Pieces chosen for background artwork would be scanned, saved as a computer file, then reproportioned to be used in the game. An early version was taken to Switzerland for Giger to review and approve. Upon booting up the game, Giger replied, "It's beautiful!" He would go on to offer suggestions regarding scaling and element placement.

Dawson recalled going to Giger's home in Switzerland during game production.

> Giger is truly a dark artist. I visited him in Zurich and the stuff you see in the movie *Alien* is toned down from his original work. What else? He had a shrunken head just sitting on his desk. And, when he gave us a tour of his place, he casually referred to one room as the place where his ex-lover had killed herself.
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Despite this, Dawn cited even having the ability to travel to Switzerland to meet Giger as an example of how his time at Cyberdreams was an awesome "first fulltime job".
Giger later recalled his own response to seeing his work within the game:

> As a fine artist, I was originally somewhat skeptical about graphics quality. However, when Cyberdreams came to my home in Switzerland to show me my images on the computer, I was very pleased. As I looked at screen after screen, I recognized my work and felt that great care was taken to keep many elements of my original art. I could only say "beautiful."
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At the same time, Giger would go in 2008 to express some disappointment in his lack of involvement.

> I didn't have much to do with that [the game]... That was done without my real involvement, they just used my name. I didn't create any new stuff for it. I wasn't very pleased with that..."
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## Involvement in *Dark Seed II*

When Cyberdreams began development of a sequel, Giger was again hired on. David Mullich, game producer for *Dark Seed II*, had already been a Giger fan since high school. Giger requested that the sequel include "images that had recently been haunting him," and science fiction author John Shirley was hired as a story consultant to figure out how best to incorporate Giger's images.

Much like Dawson, Mullich had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland to meet with Giger and get his opinion on the rough version of the game produced thus far. He traveled with Cyberdreams art director Peter Delgado and Destiny artist Gregg Haggman, and later recounted their experience:

> After spending several minutes looking at our point-and-click adventure, Giger told us that he had a completely different idea for the game. He wanted to know if we could turn it into a game where the player climbed up a series of catwalks inside a pyramid, and when he got to the top, he would find himself in another pyramid, with the game being a succession of pyramids. Using my best diplomatic demeanor, I told him that that was very creative idea, but since this was a sequel to the previous game, fans would expect it to be an adventure game like the first one was.
> This did not please Giger at all. “Mia, Mia”, he muttered to himself, referring to the name of his ex-wife, who was now acting as his agent. After a few moments, he wandered off to another part of the house, leaving us alone in the living room. After about fifteen minutes, I asked my art director, Peter, to look for him (Peter had met Giger on a previous visit, and the two seemed to get along well). When Peter returned, he said that he found Giger sitting in his badroom, apparently talking to his deceased girlfriend Li, who had committed suicide twenty years ago. We decided it would be a good time to leave.
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The men would return the next day, speaking with Giger's ex-wife and agent, Mia. She pressed the issue he had raised the day before, and Mullich offered a compromise where the main character would walk around the world on catwalks while displaying Giger's artwork in the background. That pleased Giger and Mia both.

The box for *Dark Seed II* showcased Giger's 1978 work "Illuminatus I".

## Known Inspirations

The following connects which pieces of art were used with which in-game character or setting.

***Dark Seed***

 Fido | *Vlad Tepes* (1978)

***Dark Seed II***

## References

1. ↑ *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 25
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/playing-catch-up-i-darkseed-i-s-mike-dawson
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Dark Seed* manual, pg. 6
4. ↑ *Dark Seed* manual, pages 7-8
5. ↑ *Dark Seed Hint Book*, pg. 5.
6. ↑ *Imagine FX* magazine, July 2008. Take from here.
7. ↑ *Dark Seed II* manual, pages 24-25
8. ↑ *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 26
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://davidmullich.com/2014/05/05/memories-of-h-r-giger/
10. ↑ *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 27