[Background Blog] Astatos CG Production Design

Hey all, Compymono here!

As a part of my design work on our games, I also help out with coordinating the planning for our CG illustrations so today I wanted to give a little look at how one of the upcoming illustrations for the video game version of Astatos comes together.

Each illustration in the game stems from a different requirement. Usually either story, the user interface, or for marketing. In this case we're starting with one of the first illustrations scene in the story mode of Astatos.

In the case of Story mode, occasionally scenes will require specific illustrations to convey things that can't be done with backgrounds and sprites. In the case here, we wanted to depict the contents of a storybook read by the protagonist at the beginning of the game in a dramatic way.

In order to convey the requirements of the illustration to the artist I usually like to put together a little document that goes over it.

This document starts with the technical requirements the artist needs to work within. In this case, the story mode has a specific aspect ratio and minimum resolution we need for the game asset.

Next we get into the nitty-gritty of the design brief where I lay out the rough idea of what we need, along with some references. I also provided the script for the scene where this artwork is displayed, but I'm leaving that out here since it's minor spoilers.  (Excuse the rushed sketch 👏)

Once this is given to the artist, (in this case Mamaduo) we get some rough concepts back on their take of the scene.

As you can see Mamaduo provided two takes on the brief. One following the sketch provided, and another following the references. At this point we decided to go with the second concept and develop that further, while combining the crown mage from the first concept.

Throughout the process the artist provides us with their process and there's usually a bunch of back and forth between the art director and other team members. While this is a really simple illustration, sometimes a single illustration can take over a week of work to complete and goes through multiple revisions and corrections once it's complete! (Usually by our awesome art director on the project, Totem!)

But once that's all done, we can import the illustration into the formats needed for the game and we're good to go.

Hope you enjoyed this little look into the production process! Look forward to seeing lots more awesome artwork from the game once the first build is released!

- Studio Klondike