Take a Closer Look at Life on the Frontier (August 7, 2023)

[Bandit LOAF]

Remember the story in the Privateer manual? It’s very well written but it’s a little odd since it opens the booklet with eight pages of uninterrupted text. And none of the backstory is ever referenced in the game!





It turns out Origin had originally commissioned a comic artist to illustrate the story. The work was developed and the contract was doubled after the first delivery… but it was all dropped from the design very late in development!





It’s all this super cool 2000 AD style stuff. Thirty pieces to cover the story! It actually adapts a longer draft which has another act setting up a rivalry between Burrows and another privateer.





So my contribution today is that I have organized it all and matched it to the descriptions from the art list! It’s like a Privateer comic book. It’s in the wiki along with copies of outlines and earlier drafts of the story!





You can also find all the other unused art from the rest of the manual, more development docs and in-progress work here!

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Original update published on August 7, 2023

 

[jpasan]

That story bit was awesome. It would've been a super intro section.

Maybe a short-film. It might be too long for a game intro

 

[Bob McDob]

Who drew the Privateer manual art? I discovered recently that I had tagged some of it on the wiki as being by Jeff Dee, along with all of the Claw Marks art. I have no idea why, I assume that I saw his name come up about it somewhere. Some of it looks like it's the work of Glen Johnson (who is now credited clearly for some of the Claw Marks art).

Which leaves the question: what, if anything, did Jeff Dee do? Was he involved in the Privateer art at all? I know that he did at least some Wing Commander art, so do we know what that was?