Rockbeasts! We're back with the second of our Backstage Pass Dev Blogs! Today we're continuing our series looking at the art process behind Rockbeasts!
In this blog, we're taking a look at the art design of the environments and world you'll be exploring on your journey to rock stardom!
Interior Design
In our quest to create immersive and atmospheric environments, we knew that the location interiors of Rockbeasts' world needed to match the distinct style of our characters. This meant that we needed to incorporate the strong bold lines and detailed coloring found in the rest of the game's art. Initially, we considered creating simple, flat backgrounds for each location. But as the early stages of development progressed, we realized we wanted to make the environments more interactive and realistic.
To achieve this, we decided to create larger interiors for each of the buildings with camera movement, dynamic lighting, and a greater sense of depth. We transitioned to a 2.5D approach for all the interiors, which allowed us to retain the charm of the animated TV series that inspired Rockbeasts, while adding more detail and fidelity to the locations.
One of the biggest challenges was defining scale and perspective in the world. There are often many different things happening at each location - some of it story-related, some gameplay. It proved quite challenging to make sure each interior worked for every possible scenario, and with all the branching, quests, and band activities we have in Rockbeasts, it was a real challenge.
The Design Process
So how did we get here? Well, our art process begins by establishing the desired atmosphere. We aim to capture the style and feel of the 90s, drawing inspiration from iconic references of that era. Starting with a rough sketch, we ensure that each location has the necessary space and setup for the interactive elements we need it to house. We then set-out the main camera shots for the location and proceed to add details to the environment around that.
Once the line art is complete, we introduce color and shading, followed by the incorporation of light sources. The final step involves cutting layers and exporting the assets into the game engine, where additional 3D lighting is applied to enhance the overall effect. We think it's all come together nicely, but we'll let you be the judge of that
The World Outside
Moving outside now, every city in Rockbeasts is inspired by a real world location. We wanted to capture the iconic '90s vibe of each of the cities, but also wanted them to be slightly exaggerated. Sort of like a caricature. When designing building exteriors, we wanted the players to easily understand their functions, but also make them feel interesting and believable. There are a lot of different buildings in Rockbeasts - bars, record stores, college dorms and more - so it was really key to illustrate to the player what there function is through their design. To this end, we played a lot with architectural styles, neon, different sizes, and fine details to make every city, district, and building look and feel uniquely amazing!
We often started designing each building with the exterior, rather than the interior. Even if it was just a mock-up or a simple reference image, the exterior architecture and space of the building acted as the basis of the interiors. It was always useful to have that framework in place first.
Thank you for taking the time to read this Backstage Pass blog, don't forget to Wishlist Rockbeasts on Steam!
