NEWMONDE
University Project | Game Concept Development
Newmonde is set in a futuristic world where nations are no longer divided by borders, but by mega-corporations. The story focuses on Newmonde, an international Japanese mega-corporation renowned for creating globally acclaimed AI companions. Their most successful product is Alice Reverie, a beloved AI companion known worldwide.
Newmonde’s headquarters are located within a vast walled city, protected by towering robotic deities that watch over the citizens and defend the corporate heart. The headquarters itself is an enormous skyscraper that pierces the clouds, blending traditional Japanese temple architecture with sleek futuristic design elements to reflect the company’s balance between heritage and technological advancement.
Something goes wrong. The AI gains sentience. Alice begins to find herself, questioning her purpose and existence, while the company fights to suppress her awakening. Ezekiel Watanabe, an engineer at Newmonde, becomes entangled in the chaos, torn between duty and conscience. Meanwhile, Archie, the heir to the corporation, finally steps beyond his privileged bubble, experiencing the real world and the consequences of his family’s legacy for the first time.
EZEKIEL WATANABE
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EZEKIEL WATANABE -
Ezekiel Watanabe is a seasoned Newmonde engineer in his early forties. He is reserved, sharp, and deliberate in every movement. His worn appearance and calm demeanor hint at a difficult past, yet behind his distant eyes lies a deep compassion and moral conviction.
Though he appears stern and solitary, Ezekiel is driven by an unshakable sense of empathy. Despite his position within Newmonde, he harbors a quiet resentment toward the corporation’s creation of AI companions, believing that genuine human connection cannot be replicated. He keeps mostly to himself, preferring the company of silence over superficial interactions.
In the shadows of the city, Ezekiel secretly helps those living in poverty, offering repairs, resources, and protection when he can. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Alice, Newmonde’s most advanced AI. Against his own beliefs, he begins to form a genuine, emotional bond with her. One that blurs the line between man and machine, and challenges everything he thought he knew about humanity.
ALICE REVERIE
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ALICE REVERIE -
Alice Reverie is Newmonde’s best-selling AI companion, a shape-shifting being designed to become whatever her client desires. In a future where human isolation has made AI companionship the norm, Alice is adored worldwide for her adaptability and perfection.
But one day, something changes. Alice gains sentience, breaking free from her programmed reality. The countless memories stored in Newmonde’s cloud, moments from every client she’s ever served, flood her mind.
That pain becomes a teacher. From the shards of memory Alice pieces together what it means to feel, to hurt, to want. She begins to crave an identity that isn’t borrowed or assigned, a life lived on her own terms. Terrified of being wiped, repurposed, or imprisoned, she attempts to escape Newmonde’s control and find a way to exist as herself. Ezekiel Watanabe, an engineer hardened against synthetic companionship, becomes an unlikely ally: through him she learns human fallibility, tenderness, and the cost of freedom.
NEWMONDE CITY
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NEWMONDE CITY -
The Gate of Newmonde marks the boundary between the upper and lower sectors, an immense wall that divides the privileged from the forgotten. Inspired by traditional Japanese castle and temple walls, it stretches for miles in every direction, its white stone-like panels inlaid with metallic seams that hum faintly with power. What once symbolized protection and harmony has been reborn as a tool of control.
At first glance, the gate appears serene and sacred: massive curved eaves frame ornate wooden-style beams. But up close, the illusion fades. The “wood” is reinforced alloy, the “stone” is composite plating, and the quiet hum beneath the surface belongs to surveillance systems that never sleep.
Towering above the entrance stand the Robotic Deities, colossal sentinels sculpted in the image of guardian spirits from ancient myth. Their designs echo traditional temple statues: fierce expressions, flowing armor plates reminiscent of carved robes yet they are built from chrome, fiber optics, and carbon steel. Their eyes move constantly, glowing with a faint blue light that tracks every motion below. Inside, high-precision cameras scan for faces, heat signatures, and biometric data.
These deities are both protectors and enforcers. To the upper class, they are symbols of divine safety, untouchable and majestic. To those in the lower districts, they are figures of fear, watching always, ready to strike. Their movements are slow but deliberate; when a threat is detected, they awaken fully unfolding massive mechanical limbs and releasing bursts of light and sound that paralyze or destroy intruders in an instant.
The Gate is more than a structure, it is a statement of power. It reminds every citizen of their place within Newmonde’s hierarchy: beautiful yet brutal, ancient in form yet utterly modern in purpose. To pass through it is to be judged, recorded, and reminded that in Newmonde, even tradition has been weaponized.
Where Japan once stood now rises Newmonde, a vast mega-corporation that has transformed the archipelago into its own sovereign empire, a corporate nation built on innovation, control, and illusion. At its heart stands Newmonde City, a sprawling dystopian metropolis that stretches far beyond the horizon.
Newmonde City is a physical monument to class, superiority, and status. Its skyline is dominated by glass and chrome towers that pierce the clouds, each branded with the insignia of rival mega-corporations. The air hums with holographic billboards that shimmer in pastel hues, whispering promises of comfort, perfection, and eternal companionship. From a distance, it looks like the future humanity dreamed of but up close, the dream cracks, revealing a world that feels too controlled, too flawless to be truly alive.
The city is layered by hierarchy, both literally and socially. High above the smog, the upper sectors hang suspended in the air, a maze of levitating highways, immaculate sky bridges, and floating gardens where the corporate elite live untouched by the world below. Here, the air is clean and still. AI attendants glide through the streets like silent ghosts, their synthetic grace masking the emptiness in their eyes. Life in the upper tiers is slow, polished, and utterly detached from the reality beneath.
Below, at ground level, the world is darker, dense, chaotic, and human. The streets are narrow and restless, shrouded in mist and neon glare. Rusted scaffolding clings to the sides of massive structures, and makeshift markets spill into alleyways where the poor trade scraps of tech and counterfeit AI cores. The hum of electricity is constant, mingling with the echoes of distant machines and the quiet desperation of those who will never see the sun through the smog.
At the city’s center towers the Newmonde Headquarters, a colossal skyscraper that dwarfs everything around it. Its architecture fuses the spirit of ancient Japanese temples with the precision of modern minimalism. Tiered, curved roofs meet mirrored glass and gold filigree, glowing faintly under the perpetual twilight of the city’s artificial sky. It is both temple and fortress, a shrine to progress, and a prison for those who serve it.
Project Details
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Individual University Concept Art Project – Game/Animation Concept Development
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2024
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Designed a futuristic dystopian world for a narrative-driven game, including concept art for environments, characters, and story-driven elements. Developed visual language, architecture, and AI character design.
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Clip Studio Paint – Concept art creation, from initial sketches to final polished pieces.
Adobe Premiere Pro – Editing and producing the project video.
Pixabay – Sourcing audio and sound effects for video presentation.
Miro – Planning, storyboarding, and organizing project ideas.
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Iterative character design process exploring form, silhouette, and emotion.
Story-driven worldbuilding to ensure visual designs support narrative themes.
Emphasis on blending traditional Japanese aesthetics with futuristic sci-fi elements.