models. A lot of time and work went into getting from the concept to the first fully working in-game ship.
After that, the character art and animations followed, then updates to all kinds of galaxy map
In contrast the first version of DW1 had Elliot designing and writing all the code, and a single artist doing a whole lot of 2D images.
HOW DID THE VISUALS EVOLVE DURING THE PROJECT, AND DID THEY INFORM THE CORE DESIGN OF THE GAME ITSELF IN ANY WAY? ER: The first step in the visuals was establishing the look of the systems, which meant figuring out the procedural stars, planets and basic star background. We also had a prototype look for the galaxy map, which didn’t survive contact with the testers and the art team. We then started working on the ships and stations.
This process was also one of effectively creating the art pipeline for those and was very much a combination of design and art working together to figure out how to make the gameplay goals for ship combat and ship design work together with the goals for the visual look of 3D ships and stations. We had decided early on that we wanted to be able to even have a “bridge view” from an individual ship and unlike Distant Worlds 1, to allow weapons on ships to be in specific places with specific arcs. We tossed around various possible solutions to ship design based on this, but settled on a system of main models with support and component sub-meshes that would allow us to have the design bays on a ship hooked up to external visual changes in the ship model. If a player did not use a design bay, it would look like that component was never meant to be there. If they did, it would also look like it was always meant to be in place. The early concept art for ships then proceeded, with heavy involvement and help from our art director, Richard Evans and then various contract artists and modellers who helped us take those concepts to working game
art and effects and many story-based illustrations. As always, there is a bit of a positive feedback loop between design, development and art. As art starts to feed into the game, it is inspiring for both designers and developers and often leads to new creative ideas and improvements. One good example of this is the space creatures. We had some ideas of what they would be like and how they would work, but once we got the first art for them, those ideas and their design really solidified around the art. The same also happened with the first major threat, the Hive.
YOU OBVIOUSLY PLAN TO SUPPORT DW2 IN THE MONTHS AND YEARS AHEAD WITH NEW CONTENT. WHAT VISUAL TREATS MIGHT WE EXPECT TO SEE? ER: I’m sure we will keep extending the game with many new weapons and other components with their own visual effects. We will also probably add new types of planets and stars.
Further major mid- and late-game threats are very likely. Maybe megastructures? Maybe even new play modes. We currently have trailing and bridge camera modes. The logical next step would be some kind of bridge play mode for a ship or base. EG: None of this is definite or promised, but we have an internal roadmap for multiple content and feature expansions and we’re already at work on some of those, in addition to our post-release support which will consist of many free updates with fixes and improvements. We expect to support Distant Worlds 2 for many years to come.
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