Architecture

Shopping Street Day

Shopping Street Day

If you look at the background art for Aurora’s Nightmare, you’ll notice that the buildings have an old European style to them.  Specifically, the world of Lucerna was inspired by high gothic, the style used in iconic buildings such as the Notre Dam Cathedral.  Key features include arched ceilings, flying buttresses, and rose windows.  I’ve always loved the high gothic and have dreamed of what it would look like to design a whole city that way (rather than just a couple of buildings).  It has been done before in various games and comics, but with a darker twist (these days, high gothic seems to be mostly associated with vampires, haunted castles, and the like).  Aurora’s Nightmare, on the other hand, offers a glimpse into a world where the style is used as it was originally intended, for beauty and inspiration.

Clock Tower

Clock Tower

There is, however, one common feature of high gothic buildings that you won’t see in Aurora’s Nightmare.  For those of you who haven’t studied European architecture, I’m referring to gargoyles.  Their omission isn’t a mistake, such things don’t exist on Lucerna for reasons which will become clear over the course of the game.  In fact, the whole architecture style has deep ties to the story, but that’s all I’ll say on the subject for now.