New Kane's Wrath Interview - Never Before Seen Art

[Sonic 296]

Just a few days ago a new developer interview appeared on the on the Official Kane's Wrath XBox 360 Site. The interview is with Associate Art Director Mike Colonnese, covering the unit creation process, how to react to changes in art and how to become a modeller. Also featured is some never before seen concept art of unused units. Here is some of the interview....

 

1. What is the first thing you do to start the process of creating the art for a unit?

Usually I begin by spending some time interviewing the designers, asking what the basic function of the unit is. What is its approximate size, scale and cost relative to other units? From there we discuss its personality. What kind of impression do we want to make on the player when they first see it on the battlefield? Is it fast, stealthy, powerful? What’s its history and why does this faction need it in the combat chain? When we’ve covered all the functional bits, we now have some driving logic for what the unit may look like. I try to keep this very wide open in the early stages, just allowing everyone to spill out any fun or ridiculous ideas they may have. With all this information, I will finally sit down, some place quiet hopefully, and just start sketching out ideas for what the new unit may look like. I am also trying to find new and interesting forms that also fulfill the units functional needs/limitations at this point.

 

2. What are some of the complications that usually come up?

No matter how well we plan, there is always some re-design that will occur along the way. Either we find out the game engine can’t successfully accomplish what we want to do, or story/game balance requires the units functionality to be altered. Being able to adapt quickly to these challenges is actually part of the fun, if you have the right attitude.

Check out the full interview right here.

[Luk3us 63]

Awh, cool, a Nod hover bike!

[Gben 20]

Ha - the attack trike was for Kane when he was just a baby dictator and just started learning to drive!