Concept Development and Retrospective (LP3)

This project page provides a breakdown on how I go through the process of visual development for a project. This is a case study for Lost Planet 3 (LP3) which covers some of the things we were looking at for driving the visuals from inspiration. This retrospective also shows the steps I contributed as a lead artist on the concept development for LP3 and how I cross collaborated with other disciplines, stakeholders, and external teams on direction while directly influencing the direction of the in-game art.

This is a distilled version from a more involved ref and mood board that demonstrated the direction we wanted to head towards for the player experience.

These images were derived from many explorations on what the natural habitat environment for the Akrid can look like. The problem was to create an intriguing and dangerous world while going back and forth with our art and creative directors.

These are images that explored the human colonization (NEVEC) expedition adapting to the harsh and violent landscape of EDN3. I wanted to convey to the viewer and player that it is deadly exploring outside of your mech rig.

This was a key concept of the player hub in which you interact with narrative elements. This was the player's homebase prior to embarking on missions.

Once the directors approved of the final direction, we started to tackle key areas to build in order to test out for gameplay integrity and art. Here is main control tower we initially built and test since it is a primary hub for the player.

Here is the concept to game asset.

This is a shot showing concept to game creation. Given gameplay constraints, the artists composed the scene as close as possible to the key art.

Key art for the exterior of the main hub when you walk out to start your missions. This was a day shot, but we ended up with a night scene to save on performance and leverage more contrast lighting.

Here is the actual shot in the game. Below are early exploratory sketches to realize the construction of the downed seeder ship.

View from the game inside the cockpit of your mech.

Concept and mood concepts to provide art direction for the a derelict ship for one of the missions.

Mining drill production concept

Paintover for one of the labs based on designer graybox.

This was a compilation of concepts and layout sketches to help the designers and artists to collaborate on addressing gameplay and art metrics. This was an ambitious space for the final act of the game where a big battle took place.