Samson News

[p][/p][p]We can’t wait for you to step into the shoes of Samson, carve your own path, and experience the unforgiving city of Tyndalston for yourselves. Wishlist now and get ready. The debt starts ticking on  April 8th.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Don't forget to wishlist and join our discord for more information! [/p]

Samson looks like it'll offer the sort of dumb action fun I can't resist, and it's now locked in a full release date. Liquid Swords, the Swedish studio founded by former Just Cause and Mad Max developer Christofer Sundberg, are set to let their game about a bloke attempting to brawl and car chase his way out of crippling debt loose in early April.

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[p]Today, we sat down with Samson’s Vehicle Artist, Damian Ksiezopolski, to talk about the craft behind the cars in the game. From art direction and iteration, to how every speck of dirt helps the vehicles feel truly embedded in the city of Tyndalston.

Interested in SAMSON and its development? Wishlist the game on Steam, and join our Discord to get first-hand updates and be part of the community: https://discord.gg/xPHpQgKUwG

Which vehicle was the most challenging one to make and why?
The toughest one to make was the very first car we made, which was what we now call the Warner car. It took almost a year to get that one up and running, mostly since you’re figuring everything out as you go. In the beginning, you really don’t know what you don’t know until you’ve tried something out.

We had to create the entire pipeline from scratch for just the art of the car, to then figure out that we need to get the headlights, rear lights and internal lights right. Then, we discussed whether to create the detail through a visual illusion or by building it fully in 3D, to figure out what is cheapest for the engine to handle, and if we can re-use that asset on other cars so that we could save some time. It’s always about trying to plan for a future that is constantly shifting and moving around.

Warner Car Model

Then there was the question of deformation, how do we want to handle that? We worked closely with our graphics programmer, and he set up a new system, and then we started experimenting with that and found out what worked, and what didn’t. By the time we got to Samson’s Car, the Magnum Opus, all of these things were already figured out, so we could push on and get that done faster. It was the most fun I’ve had working with a car model, because then it’s just a matter of making it look the best it can.

Samson's car, the Magnum Opus

Did any single vehicle go through a dramatic evolution from first concept to final version?
The original car for Samson was vastly different in the beginning. It was much more of your average Joe type of car – utilitarian and practical. The shape language was very different as well, but eventually we felt like it didn't have the right feel to it - so we decided to make a new one that was much more custom to who Samson actually was. Something with more aggression and strength. \[Magnum Opus] x 2 What’s the one vehicle you’re personally most attached to — and why? Visually, it’s the Magnum Opus. It’s one of the simpler and yet more characteristic cars that we have, it just fits Samson so well, it’s truly an extension of who he is as a person. It has a rugged look, but a friendly face to it. But I also have a soft spot for the Police version of the Tonnere, it just gives me the vibe of “fuck around and find out”.

The Police Tonnere

Was there ever a moment where gameplay designers wanted something that made you, as a vehicle artist, go ‘please don’t make us do that’?
I mean, we’re like a bunch of kids, if we can get the car to go full Casino Royale, then we’re going to do it. I think for the most part we are pushing each other’s limits to what we can accomplish. If someone says “I got an idea” then we have pretty much always said “fuck yeah, let’s do it”.. And then, sometimes, production has to come in and say “no.”

In such a grounded city, how did you balance making up cars vs taking inspiration from real world cars?
It’s a tough one honestly, because you have to maintain immersion while making sure the designs don’t feel too close to the brand they’re inspired by - while still paying homage to them. So, it’s walking somewhat of a fine line. All of our cars are our own designs, but of course they’re also inspired by real ones. A lot of the details on the cars are just made to feel like the 90’s. All cars go through era changes, and most of them you can look at and go “oh that one is from the 80’s or 90’s”, and it’s usually communicated clearly through the silhouette or body shape.

How was the process of getting the cars to fit into the look/aesthetic of the city?
It took a while to get things to the level they are today. Since the city is always changing during development, that changes the parameters for the cars. Making a car can take up to six weeks to get done, so by the time you get to making a third car, the conditions of the in-game world may have changed - so you have to go back and readjust the cars you’ve already made to fit the current state of the city. I would have to sync with our Art Director and see what changes fit. For example, if the roads got an update on how much dirt is lying around, that would have to be represented on the cars. Also, all cars can’t look completely the same in terms of the amount of dirt that accumulates on the sides.

Police cars usually are a bit cleaner, but does it fit the world? So, because of factors like these, there’s a lot of back and forth between me, the Art Director and Technical Artists, because maybe next, we want to make dirt accumulate over time, making it dynamic. Finally, we have to involve programmers to do their thing once we’ve settled on what we want. All in all, making the cars fit into the city has been a long but rewarding process.

Warner Car Model

If you’re interested in the art, process, and problem-solving that goes into building Samson, there’s plenty more where this came from. Wishlist SAMSON on Steam and join our Discord to follow development and go deeper behind the scenes: https://discord.gg/xPHpQgKUwG[/p]

[p]So far, we’ve talked a lot about how Samson feels to play -- from the weight of the vehicles to the brutality of the melee combat, and we’ve also answered some of your most frequently asked questions.[/p][p]But there’s a big part of the experience we haven’t really unpacked yet: the art, the atmosphere, and the incredibly talented artists who brought Tyndalston to life. So today we sit down with Piotr Kupsc, our concept artist, to talk about Tyndalston itself -- why we see the city not just as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing character in the game.[/p][p]Interested in SAMSON and its development? Wishlist the game on Steam, and join our Discord to get first-hand updates and be part of the community: https://discord.gg/xPHpQgKUwG[/p][p]
Early player apartment concept
What was one of the toughest challenges as an artist in building the city?[/p][p]Finding a balance between visuals and gameplay has been an ongoing challenge. We are trying to make a believable city which the player can understand on a subconscious level, without breaking immersion whilst at the same time making navigating, fighting and interacting with the city fun and engaging.

Some strategies tackling the problem involved ensuring that the metrics were set in stone early on to avoid any costly rebuilds later down the line. We also prototyped early using grey boxes and test levels to feel out the size and scope of certain locations - if they worked or not; how exploration, driving, fighting would feel, which gave us confidence when jumping in and building the actual content.

Lastly, we prioritized making flexible, high quality modular building pieces which allowed us to make changes during the course of the project. If a location was too big or narratively wrong, or gameplay didn't flow, we could quickly adjust and iterate without sacrificing too much time.

Lower Bend looking toward Center Tyn[/p][p]
What are you most excited for players to experience when they explore the city themselves?
I'm looking forward to people finding the various corners where we’ve put in quite a bit of effort and love in order to make them interesting. For example, areas that people would easily miss if they simply run by. There are also some areas you can get to that require a bit of effort but are visually satisfying to see.[/p][p]
The Keyhole[/p][p]
Was there an early decision that unexpectedly shaped everything that came after?[/p][p]It was really interesting seeing how the early landmarks and roads shaped all of our city blocks. Also, how those grey city blocks with no names became full-fledged locations that people in the team got very attached to.[/p][p]We started with some very high level world building together with our narrative team, which allowed us to plot out key locations on our island based on how they would roughly work in real life. Once things were in engine, there were inconsistencies which we ironed out after multiple back and forths with narrative and level design.

Some of the larger, more important landmarks like Cobbs Square, Golds Gas station and the Ditch (see images) worked as cornerstones of our district and remained static whereas smaller, less important ones moved around. With the blocks and roads in place we applied another round of narrative to figure out unique identities and themes for them, which helped us work on the medium level content: Placing correct architecture, be it parks, industrial machinery or blighted buildings.

Lastly, with the big and the medium information in place we could work on the fine details, such as the setdressing of walls, street corners, graffiti, murals and the like which conveyed a lot of mood. Together, all of this was built on the framework of the large landmarks and roads which remained true since the early days of development.
[/p][p]Golds Gas Station[/p][p]
Were there any inspirations that really helped define the city’s look?[/p][p]We were heavily inspired by 90’s northeastern American cities such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia. There is a lot of amazing photography and footage from that time period which was invaluable to us. Seeing how areas changed with time, how places that now are parks used to be sprawling highways or how areas that look beautiful today used to be abandoned and run down.

Using such solid inspiration from history and life, we enhanced the references using our art direction pillars to achieve our look for the city: Violent, Statement and Parasitic.[/p][p]With “Violent” we wanted to show violence in the city, the grittiness, the story of how people experienced violence toward each other, but also in relation to the environment. Broken walls, blighted buildings, gangs and the like. [/p][p]“Statement” is all about creating a big splash, big bold graphical compositions that have an impact. In a lot of the references we found amazing examples in very noisy and busy environments, where there would be a huge but simple abandoned mural that covered a whole wall creating visual rest for the viewer, and at the same time telling a story of the place.[/p][p]“Parasitic” is the name for the corruption and greed we wanted to showcase. The spectrum of wealth inequality within the city from the richer neighborhoods such as the keyhole to the most blighted areas like the Ditch where our protagonist resides. Exploring the effect of gangs and law enforcement intersecting with our city.

Early Ditch concept[/p][p]
Do you remember the moment when the city finally felt “alive”?[/p][p]There was no single moment when the city felt alive, as it was a recurring feeling that kept repeating itself. At first it was when we had the full city blocked out with some cars driving along the empty streets, which in hindsight was very basic but still felt alive and epic due to the sheer scale and complexity. Second, when the first textured city blocks appeared with NPCs walking around – that gave me the same kick. There was a longer pause as more things fell into place: lighting, more world-sim, audio, more city blocks before I felt it again in playthroughs. But the feeling always comes back nowadays when I play the game and I try to do something unusual and get surprised how well the characters sometimes react to what I’m doing, how naturally they behave, sure it’s not perfect, but when everything aligns it feels like you’re transported to Tyndalston.

Cobbs Square[/p][p]
Thanks for joining us on this look behind the scenes at how Samson’s world was crafted by our art team. Stay tuned for more, and don't forget to tell us what you’d like to see more of in future development diaries - whether that's more worldbuilding, concept art, vehicle design, character art, or how they all connect.

We also posted our first video dev diary on combat and vehicles last week, don't miss that: [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Interested in SAMSON and its development? Wishlist the game on Steam, and join our Discord to get first-hand updates and be part of the community:[/p][p]https://discord.gg/xPHpQgKUwG[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]