A while back we took a look at the development of our capsule art. This first article (which you can read
here) looked at the latter concept stages, when we were honing in on what would be our final capsule art that you see on the game's Steam page:
In that post we mentioned our early images for this process, and how some were very cool but ultimately gave the wrong impression of the game, which is why we moved away from them.
Well strap yourself in, because we're going to take a look at them now :)
Before we dive in, a quick recap on what we wanted people to feel when they look at our capsule art (in no particular order):
- This game looks cool
- It looks professional
- It looks like a game where you shoot
- It gives the impression of being sci-fi
- This stood out when I saw it on a random Steam page
- I want to learn more!
- (We also had a technical requirement; that they worked in both portrait and landscape formats)
This should help frame why the following images didn't make the final grade!
In the early stages of concepting, you take the brief and create a lot of fast and loose variations - this is the art-based equivalent of chucking a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks! Several interesting ideas can come from this process, and you cherry-pick the elements you like to develop further.
These images felt a little too close to other games for us to progress:
On the left, the guns forming angel-like wings was akin to the first Gears of War cover, while on the right it had a very Doom-like vibe (this one was a real personal fave, and very hard to dismiss!)
Next up are playing around with some variations on enemies, players and deployables:
Both have an interesting composition, but neither worked immediately well in landscape format. The left image clearly showed the protagonists and antagonists, while on the right shows more of a chaotic snap of gameplay; the player, a co-op buddy and deployables defending a broken doorway against encroaching enemies. This was cool, but hard to parse.
The images below focus on some of the prominent mechanics in gameplay:
The left image has a SENTRY looking back at a damaged core (what the player is defending in some levels). The right image shows the venting gameplay mechanic. Both didn't feel right for the sort of game we were making though, feeling more suited to the survival horror genre.
These images revolve around another aspect of the game: the pods a SENTRY uses to enter levels:
Again, both of these were cool images in their own right, but didn't convey the other elements of the game that we wanted. You can see some inspiration from the Olly Moss film posters creep into the images :)
We also used this clean and simple design for the next two concepts:
Again, these were cool but didn't clearly communicate all of the aspects we needed to.
These final two show the player character front and centre, while also showing some enemies:
At various points we wanted to include enemies to help reinforce the sci-fi and combat elements of the game - and while we moved away from these specific designs, you can see aspects of them in our final capsule art - for example, the up-close view of the SENTRY visor, a strong-posed character with stark, simple colours.
If you want to see how we progressed from these types of images into the next stage of development, you can read all about it
here.
Let us know what you think of these early concepts! And if you've read this far, you must surely be interested in the game enough for me to shamelessly plug Wishlisting it ;)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1252680/SENTRY/
Thanks,
Gary
