Mimesis Online from Polish Developer Tannhauser Gate, is a role-playing game that transports you to a far future world where the unexpected and mysterious waits around every corner. An unimaginable catastrophe on a cosmic scale transformed this world, playing havoc with the natural order of things, twisting everything, even time itself, wiping out civilisation as we know it. Universes died, billions upon billions of species vanished, and a new, fragile and barely stable world was born. The beings who survived the catastrophe have tried to rebuild their world, each in their own way, and now live side-by-side but not truely in peace with each other, not truely accepting each other. Nations have emerged, almost completely isolated from each other by nigh-on impenetrable barriers. This is the twisted world of Mimesis Online.

On a regular basis we will feature a developer's diary made by the Mimesis Online development team. In this diary, Derek Handley and others from the Tannhauser-Gate crew, tell us by who they are influenced.

Part 11. "Fix your shirt, your influences are showing..."

October is here, and the winter wardrobe is starting to look needed. The walnuts are ripe, and it's the best time of year to visit some of Poland's great food markets, and take your pick from the stalls. The atmosphere at the studio is calm - calmer than it was before the Betas began, more relaxed. There's just as much work to do, but it's of a different kind. I took the opportunity to corner a few of the team, and get them to answer a question that was put to me on a few occasions.

I have addressed a variety of questions during my time here at Tannhauser Gate, ranging from simple to answer ones ('How is PvP resolved in the game?', 'How will my character's skills and psionic powers develop over time?') to the ones I'd rather not answer so as not to give to much away ('Since they won't all be in it at the start, when will each of the Player Character species be introduced?', 'Can an entire land be destroyed?') to the ones that are complex and require longer thought ('Where do you get your ideas from?'). Today, I thought I'd get the core of the creative team to answer a question that has been put to us a few times, and never fully answered: What are your influences?
Without further ado, here are their answers:

Artur Jaskólski (co-founder and head of the studio):
There is one person I can think of that influences my thought processes when I'm in creative mode, and that is Mamouru Oshi, the director of, among other things, "Ghost in the Shell". Actually, I've gone on record before as saying that when I finally saw "Ghost in the Shell" in its entirity, I said to myself 'This is what I want to do - to make films, to animate...' Anyway, Mamouru Oshi has a sense of action and style that speaks to me in a certain way, and if anyone's work influences me when I animate, storyboard or plan, it's his. I actually met him and got his autograph while he was in Poland working on "Avalon".

I actually think it'd be easier to say what inspires me to work, and what keeps me going while I'm working, rather than trying to define that something is a clear influence. While I work - obviously, by work, I'm refering to animation work, which I still get to do a little of, and not administrative work - I like to have hard rock playing. I find it gives me an energy boost, gets the creative juices flowing. I don't find silence conducive to work.
I'm an architect by training, and it's modernism that inspires me in that field, and a little in other artwork I do. It's my favourite type of architecture.

Marcin Baryski (co-founder, head of game and game rule development):
I know some seem to think this could be a difficult question to answer, but I know exactly who to pick, whose sensibilities, styles, and ideas are something that I look up to, respect, maybe even pay homage to, while at the same time trying to carve out my own style.
My first choice is Philip K. Dick. I keep going back to his work, rereading it. I can't pick out any favourites; his whole sense of invention, of creativity, his ability to write about the real and the unreal and the surreal...great stuff.

Second choice - Frank Herbert. Each world he created - and I don't mean just the ones in "Dune" - came alive on paper, characters seemed to live and breathe. The depth of detail, the epic sweep of history that went into his work...not to mention the fact that the truths in his work will always be relevant. His work is amazing, simply put. Reading it made me want to create worlds, populate them, think everything through, and then take my 'receivers' - readers, viewers, whatever - to such a new world that they can feel around them, that is not familiar, maybe even has fantastic elements, yet seems plausible and consistent.

Final choice for me is H. R. Giger. His work is alien, with familiar elements, very solid and yet organic. There are a lot of artists whose work I like and respect, including many working in the comics industry, but looking at "Mimesis Online" now, with the bio-organic elements, with the familiar made strange - I think there is an element of Giger's influence in there. I don't think "Mimesis" is something that anyone will look at and think 'Oh, that's Gigeresque', but I think that when Artur and I were creating the basic gameworld, there were images from that at the backs of our minds.

Tomasz Gardiasz (head concept artist):
Three names spring to mind: Grzegorz Rosinski, Jean Van Hamme and Boris Valeyo. Van Hamme and Rosinski created "Thorgal" - it's a beautiful example of what can be done with the comics medium - the art and story complementing each other, the whole thing flowing so well. I had most of the original polish editions of "Thorgal" when I was young. They were part of what made me want to draw. The richness of the art and the fantasticness of the story...beautiful stuff. So I can say that they had a big influence on me when I began drawing, and training my skills. "Mimesis Online" is set in a completely different kind of world, and I've had to change a lot in my style to work on it, but that's all part of the learning process in art, isn't it? I'm going to go back to comics and comic art after "Mimesis Online" is released.

As for Boris Valeyo, I admire his skill and his work - the detail and care that you can see in his brushwork. He's a master craftsman, and I feel that any artist could learn something from him.
I think as well that the art I like, the art that inspires me, is art that keeps its sense of reality and tangibility whatever the subject, real or unreal. It's art that is enhanced by detail, without being overly-detailed, and not art that is abstract or inaccessible.

Waldemar Strzelczyk (head of the graphics team):
Artistically and in terms of storyboarding and the overall style of presenting something, I think myself and Artur are very similar. I would have to say that the artist behind "Akira", Katsushiro Otomo was and is a big influence on me. I have developed my own style, I'm not a manga-styled artist, but the way he made the page come alive opened my eyes to a different way of portraying action. His sense of action is very different to the 'western' style of comic art - I think his work is more dynamic.
I read a lot of science-fiction - it's not the only genre I'm into, but I reckon it's the one I'm most influenced by in my current work here at the studio. The writer I started with - and this won't be a surprise for many people from Poland - was Stanislaw Lem. There are those who don't find all of his work accessible, but it just blew me away. I know that others at the studio also started reading science-fiction from Lem's work - we've even been making sure that Derek makes up for lost time, by sending him on Lem hunts to the library.
I started with Lem, and continued with Philip K. Dick. He had such a way with words and images. I count them both as influences on my 'choice of career' - their work was an inspiration to create.

Derek Handley (head writer):
Okay. First, I'd have to say Alan Moore. His attention to detail, the way he spins out the plotlines and then pulls them all back together, and the way he treats each character as having the potential to be an important part of the story - when I sit down to write something, be it my own fiction or something connected with "Mimesis Online", I try to keep in mind that attention to detail and the 'bigger picture' kind of plot. I really enjoy most of the ABC Comics line (when I can get my hands on them - comics are not easy to come by here in Poland), and I keep going back to "The Watchmen". I know that Moore himself is disappointed that comics haven't moved on far enough to have forgotten "Watchmen", that he hoped it would be supplanted by something, but it has to be said that it remains a masterpiece. The detail, the intricacy - he and Dave Gibbons created something you can go back to so many times, pour over it, find new aspects. I think it's important to consider that when you write something, to remember that a piece should bear up to repeat viewings or readings. I want the plot of "Mimesis Online" to remain that intricate and challeging.

Scott McCloud is another person that I count as a major influence, and not just for his writing, nor for his insight into comics, but for the sheer scope of his activity. He is involved in so many things - I've always pictured him as very open-minded, very keen to have a rich experience of life, and to open others' eyes. I consider him an influence because I try to keep the same scope of activity going, in a variety of guises. And I think the "Earth Stories" in Eclipse Comics' "Zot!" were simply breathtaking.
I just realized that I could go on for ages, reeling off comic and prose writers and comic artists that I feel have significantly 'directed' the way I work: Jack Kirby for his clear, bold style, Larry Marder for sheer zaniness, Harvey Pekar, Wendy Pini - or talk about the importance of British and Australian kids' sci-fi in my childhood, but I see that everyone else confined themselves to three choices, so my third choice has to be Ursula K. Le Guin. The worlds she created in her work have stood the test of time, and for me are a benchmark by which I measure other science-fiction worlds. The way she paralleled so many things - I just love her books.

Okay, we've bared our influences, as requested by a few people, so I hope they are happy to have the answer to their question. I'm out of here before Myrthos throws me out for taking up too much space :)
See you next time for more from Tannhauser Gate and "Mimesis Online". Take care all of you, whether you're exploring other worlds or this one.

Derek Handley.