The Art of... Distant Worlds 2
Like football management games and spreadsheets, space 4X games are not known for their visuals. Which is why, in a fit of madness, we thought we’d celebrate those of Distant Worlds 2, one of the latest and most fetching. Basking in the glory of its recent release are CodeForce developer/ designer Elliot Gibbs and Matrix Games game director Erik Rutins. To the stars!
SPACE 4X GAMES ARE RARELY NOTED FOR THEIR ART, AND IN FACT THEIR VISUAL DESIGN OFTEN WORKS AGAINST THEM. WHY IS THAT AND HOW HAVE YOU TRIED TO OVERCOME SUCH PRECONCEPTIONS? Erik Rutins: There are some very nice space 4X games out there in terms of visuals, but certainly there are also those that focus more on other areas. Also, some of the nicer ones graphically still tend to approach it from more of a “board game” view of space rather than trying to explore the scale of space or the visual nature of a truly thriving space civilization.
From top: Elliot Gibbs, developer and designer CodeForce
Erik Retkins, director at Matrix Games
Also, many players and developers in this genre tend to focus more on gameplay and features than art. In some cases, this is because the development teams are smaller than in some other game genres, so while gameplay and features are essential aspects of the game, there’s less time and effort left to spend on art. We were certainly no exception to this on the original Distant Worlds as a small team that did the best it could with a heavy focus on gameplay. Elliot Gibbs: Of course, everyone (even space 4X players) love pretty graphics, so we tried very hard to improve our offering on this front with Distant Worlds 2. When pleasing art also conveys game state then it enhances the gameplay. So simple things like city night lights at planets that progressively spread across the surface as the planet develops, or progressive battle damage or construction overlays on ships, or clear visualisations of battles.
52 | MCV/DEVELOP April 2022
HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE VISUAL DESIGN OF DW2 - WHAT WERE YOU AIMING TO ACHIEVE? EG: One big goal with DW2 was to better convey a sense of vast scale, where planets and stars are huge, and ships are relatively tiny in comparison. So we needed nice rendering for these things, but we also needed extra ‘helper’ UI to find small items. This meant good symbology for ships and bases as you zoom out to higher map levels and lots of tools and UI to easily find things in the game. Our main challenge was how to connect the rich data of a complex 4X game to the galaxy map and other visualisations in a way that made it easier for the player to maintain awareness.
WHAT INFLUENCES DID YOU DRAW FROM? ER: Sci-fi in general has an endless well of ideas and tropes. I think it’s fair to say we’ve both been influenced throughout our lives by the works of many great sci-fi authors, games, TV shows and movies. We often integrate these influences into the game in various ways, some sub-consciously, others as a respectful homage. If you’ve read it, seen it, or played it in sci-fi, probably at some point one of us has as well at some point. DW2 is much more simulationist than many other 4X games. Having a high level of detail in our simulation provides many opportunities to add gameplay features. For example, all resources and cargo actually move from extraction point to spaceports via freighter ships.
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