Alba – Marco Luna

Alba

A windmill, slowly turning into the breeze.

01. THE BOOK

The first in the Open World Adventure series.

One of the first to leave the vault years after an event that caused the end of the world as we know it. All your actions have effect on your story and your character, taking RPG elements to make a full immersive open world adventure book.

Alba is a reimagined ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style book for adults, where players act as a scouting party in a post-apocalyptic version of Scotland. At the start of each chapter players decide where to head on a map of possible locations. New decisions and choices unlock different parts of the map and returning to locations leads to different stories being discovered.

It feels odd to wake up on solid ground.

02. STORY

In third decade of the 21st century the earth was consumed by war and strife. As sea levels continued to rise the largest refugee crisis the world has ever seen sparked widespread panic. The ever-dwindling essential resources were jealousy hoarded by states desperate to protect their own interests. In 2032 the first nuclear bombs fell over North America, and within a year the global order collapsed under a maelstrom of chaos and ruin.

The year is 2138. What remained of the old world has fallen away, replaced by a loose collection of warlords and tribes, all vying for control of the crumbling remains of what remains. The earth is a hostile place, and no one knows for sure how many remain. Deadly beasts stalk the lands. Enormous fires burn perpetually across the globe. River and streams run sour with the dust and fallout of an extended war.

You were born, as your family was, inside the seed vault. Your entire life you have been surrounded by the safety of the steel walls that encases the last hope for humanity. Many, like you, have lived their entire lives beneath the surface of Svalbard, sheltered from the outside world.

Seems like this will all work just fine.

03. END GAME ILLUSTRATIONS

As the player explores more of the map they find themselves pressing further on into the interior of the country. As the story unfolds they feed information back to the seed vault, who relay them orders. Some of these orders begin challenging the player’s innate sense of morality. Eventually the players find themselves siding with a faction to decide the fate of the land. They may continue with the seed vault’s plans to colonise the land, or join a faction in fighting them.

03.1. THE LOST ENDINGS

05. LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

After finishing the main chapters and endings illustrations I was commisioned to make a couple of conceptual artworks that could depict a general overview of Alba. The idea for the first one is having a portrait of the player's character, hiding particualr features and keeping it as an annonymous traveler.

The second shows the two main transport mediums, the boat and the hot air balloon, unifying them as one as a cycle that can restart the journey with a new playthrough.

The outside world is messy, and overgrown and beautiful.

Don't be
afraid of the
Old World.

07_STICKERS AND MAP

You keep walking,
into the darkness
and into freedom.

07_CREDITS

Author
H.L. Truslove

Illustrator
Marco Luna

Editor
Linda Canton

Designer
Liam Relph

Rose Atkinson
Assistant Editor

Lawrence Rowe
Video Producer

Producer
Peter Blenkharn

Kaysi Foster
Community Managment

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FREE

All my illustration and writing work is free of AI. I'm a firm believer that using AI platforms, datasets and neuronal networks to reduce, replace or assist human creativity in a creativity-based work is lazy and unethical. Support the genuine human thought.

Read my stance regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence in my creative and executional process here.