M.U.L.E.

Foreword

I stumbled upon M.U.L.E. recenly, as in 2006 or so (It's when I drew most of the stuff seen here). It's a game about economics with lots of emergence coming from the interaction between players. It was made in 1983 by Dani Bunten. There are a couple of versions of it, but I prefer the C64 one because of its clean graphics. Anyways, the game has lots of fun aliens and I wanted to draw them.

Aliens

The aliens are colored by a teamcolor (chosen by the player), so I had to make a static color up for my concepts. I thought about giving them suits that can be the color of the team, but it didn't happen. I never actually played the game back in the day, so I'm really unsure how faithful I am to the feel of the game. I've put the leading designs on the top here.

M.U.L.E. redesign concept art Leggite Spheroid Packer Bonzoid Mechtron Gollumer Flapper

Even though the game has obviously ripped Puck... sorry, Pac-Man, E.T. the AT-AT... (and maybe Donkey Kong?) I'm not sure if I want to get too close to those originals, it seems like such a 'clip-art' thing to do. I think I'll simply do *-ish designs.

The Leggite sprite is inconsistant, from the side it looks like a Joust ostrich (Joust was the inspiration of balloon fight). From the front it's similar to a Star Raiders refueler ship (ie. mechanical and blocky). I tried to represent this with the riveted blocks on top. I think it would be funny with a suspension stilt thing skipping along in the desert, aswell as making the creature in control a worm with no legs at all. The sideview definately looks more organic though.

Spheroid is very shape shifty in my mind. I tried a robotic (Xmen cyclops) head on #1 but it doesn't allow any expression. I think I'll always make it the misfortunate one in my little 'funnies', cuz it's funny how it can't do anything about getting robbed, having no arms and all. Maybe it just has little larvae knobs.

Maybe the Bonzoid has a gasmask on? There face is a little weird. It might be a monoped, but it's more likely there weren't enough pixels to draw two legs.

The Mechtron were inspired by these old Basic books. BASIC Games and More BASIC Games (Go to thumbnails). I also made a few designs based on consoles/computers, but in the end (2009) I just drew something which looks like the sprite.

Still, I think the idea of a facial expression on a screen is very fun and silly. Someone presented the idea of making pirate Mechtrons with a little patch over the big pixel eye, which is fun because it's not actually an eye. Aslo, I'm not sure if Atari-800 biege one works with the camera lens thing. I'm tempted to do a Commodore Sx64 head though, as it corresponds with the shape on the sprite quite well, with some tweaks (screen in the middle, floppy drive on the side, and a lens on the other). Its belly would have a little keyboard it could flip out and re-program itself with (by using the arms, a very silly concept of course).

Wumpus and terrain

I also did some Wampus/Wumpus research. It's a big, intelligent, possibly deadly, 4-legged, opossum/sloth with suction cups, maybe a drill tail. There was a game called Hunt the Wumpus and it has some vague description of the creature (there even were a few crummy drawings in some old BASIC books).

The land lot icons could be interpreted into M.U.L.E. parts and/or a land lot. As I've understood it, the M.U.L.E.s are customized in a hangar, then parts of it is deployed to form the ...stuff on the lot while a basic M.U.L.E. works the lot. They can also run off, but I suppose they pack their stuff before doing so.

I found some interesting white deserts when googling for white desert sand etc. Giving the terrain color would sort of ruin it. Snow might not work, because somehow I get the impression of a desert. I think the map part of the game is very nice and clean graphically, and a regular sand colored desert would feel wrong.

I explored some ideas for natural resources and wild life, but they might not fit into M.U.L.E..

M.U.L.E. redesign concept art wumpus

Pirates

The ship doesn't match the topdown view much... I have zero patience for perspective, somehow I think I'll get away with it, but I never do of course.

M.U.L.E. redesign concept art pirate ship

Scenes

These are some ideas for illustrations which could help fluffing up the universe.

Establish the environment: 50-100m up view of the desert, plots, the river and colony camp near the horizon. Possibly a Wampus in the foreground if I can squeeze in a foreground cliff.
Pirate Attack (Started on it)
Gambling in the bar, one armed bandits and strange alien games (Starwars chess with little holo aliens?).
Misc aliens in the colony camp, street view, casual. Spaceship taking off or landing.
Overview of the colony camp (city).
Planet IRATA view, spaceship in the foreground, or crystite asteroid.
Inside the spaceship, 4 aliens anticipating a tournament.
An alien leading a M.U.L.E. through the desert.
Hunt the Wumpus 1,2, ehh wampus.
Overviews of the land types with deployed / working mules (Energy, Ore, Food).

Byline: Art by Niklas Jansson, 2006-2009.