In honor of finding another fan of Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome, and the reminder of its name leading me to download it on Steam and play it for the first time in ages, I wanted to make some fan art. After some pondering of what it should be, I decided to make two custom victims!
On the left is The Dancer, a young girl that dreamed of nothing more than to join her dream dance academy and become famous around the world. That is until the day she was rejected from that very school, and found herself lost and wandering through life, pondering what the meaning of it even was anymore. Sadly for her, Oscar came to answer that question.
On the right is The Muse, my personal favorite. This young lad was not depicted in this opera-style finery due to wealth or high-class birth, for in fact in life, this young man was found much more often in a straight jacket than a tuxedo jacket, spending many of his years locked away in an asylum. When he, by some stroke of luck, managed to escape, he not only sought out Oscar, but -willingly- offered himself as art. For this, he has been eternally graced in attire befitting a nobleman, and a cheerful, unhinged smile greeting those beyond his tank.
This character is Oscar from Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome
I had so much fun sketching different poses for this character. Though I did had difficulty with drawing the mask and picking the color palette for this one 🙂
So for the longest time, I could not access the Behind-the-Scenes video from the Developers on the official Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome game (at least, on the version from the Steam store.) But thankfully, someone on YouTube uploaded it.
I’m obsessed with how the writers + crew describe Oscar’s character and motivations - it all makes sense, and adds onto a lot of the theory/speculations I have about him. He’s one of my favorite all-time villains for being so thoroughly well-written, and the TVTropes page for this game even talks about Oscar subverting a lot of villain archetypes.
My favorite part is when the interviewer asks the writer if he sympathizes with Oscar, and this is the immediate answer:
I totally forgot about this but my obsession with old notebooks filled with notes and clues taped in was UNREAL when I was playing those hidden object games as a kid, the three most iconic ones I played were
Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story
Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose
and Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome
look at this shit and tell me u dont want this notebook ?!
“The whole world lies. A man once told me: “Oscar, show them your face, they’ll love you for yourself!” Lies! This is a world of hypocritical masks but the one who wears a real mask survives!”
At last, I wanted to finish this Inktober with a drawing of one of my favourite characters of all time who comes from a little game sadly not well known.
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome is a wonderful puzzle game with an AMAZING story. Please, check it out! Oscar, the antagonist, is just the best!