As mentioned in previous blogs, rapid game prototyping allows for flexibility and quick iteration in order to create the most exciting experience for the player. In this blog we will focus on the other side of the coin, the visual one. Here’s the final concept for the Forbidden Core, and our process for getting there.

Everything starts with game play and design. The main goal is to entertain the player with an exciting game, anything else is secondary. The role of concept art is to take a great design, and emphasize it, using basic cinematic tools - shapes, volumes, light, textures, special FX - and turn it into a preview of what the area will look like once it goes through a full production cycle. It also allows validating, and predigesting any issues Production Art might encounter while creating assets. It is more economical to restart/modify a painting, than toss out a month of production…

For the Forbidden Core zone, let’s start with what Design provided us with: a great level to play through, and the twisted fiction behind it. Those two elements are the two feet on which concept art can stand up: the play-through validates the overall scale of the area, and the description gives us an emotion.

The mood, as it was described to us, should convey to the player various emotions including fear, darkness and gigantic scale. The fiction describes a station that is used to mine a strange energy, hidden at the core of a giant asteroid. Using screenshots of the grayworld environment to paint over, we start by deciding the overall colors. We begin with a simple complementary color base of red and green – this ensures the core will stand out, and will be easily recognized by the player. If the overall background is warm, the center being green should make it stand out in an obvious way. The decisions are about making it clear that an amazing power was necessary to split an asteroid in half.

Now, the fun part is to turn the burger-like basic geometry into a rugged, broken asteroid. Aggressive shapes should stand out, creating nice silhouettes with the background and areas on which light will easily project. Even though we work for a 3 dimensional world, our medium is 2 dimensional, so silhouettes are very important.

At that point getting into details is not necessary but, more importantly, we are looking for a good contrast and overall masses. I start adding light cracks, to make sure that if the player goes into areas that are not game play intensive, there will still be things interesting to fly around.

Since the original grayworld image was at proper scale, I know right away that the station used for ground PVP is going to be tiny as opposed to the massive scale of the asteroid. This actually creates great drama, and I emphasize it with pipes coming out of the station, which at this distance look like tiny wires.

To make sure the player is not going to be lost in the numerous floating asteroids, a remnant of the shockwave which split the asteroid in half is added. This creates a geometrical object in the level, which helps tremendously in defining perspective when flying in a 3D environment.

At that point, I discuss the look with the other concept artists on the team, before I validate it for review with the other team directors. Peer review is very important when trying to get better, and helps defining the overall look of a game.

A validation session with programmers and 3D artists ensures the concept won’t need major redesign before it goes into production. It also helps define what technical issues might be faced while building the level.

All in all, concepting can be extremely valuable when it comes to optimizing a production process. Up next, technology will show us how its all put together …

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Blackstar, Concept Team Blogs, Developer Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.