Deliver Us Mars - Zephyr
The Zephyr level is one of the most visually striking we did for Mars. It lends itself naturally to these awe-inspiring vistas of our planet, floating up there. Jérémy Diederich did a fantastic job with this asset, bringing together all kinds of request into a single cohesive piece.
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Deliver Us Mars is a team effort by some fantastic people:
Environment Artists: Jérémy Diederich, Felix Jansen, Tijn Kroon
Narrative 3D Artist: Anna Udding
Technical Artist: Daniel Torkar
Level design and dressing: Brian and Kevin van Schaijk
Concept artists: Anna Lubbers
Lighting: Nicholas Pålsson
Character Artists: Joyce Uijtdehaage, Isaac Momeni
Animation: Jill Slor, Daphne Zwarts
Final design of the Zephyr based on the many variations I built with game design.
In-game Zephyr floating above Earth. Geo by Jérémy Diederich.
Concept for the full launch stack, based on a Russian design.
In-game launch stack. Geo by Jérémy Diederich.
The escape pod was a very important feature for story and gameplay, so that had to be really tightly designed. Not only did Kathy have to fit properly, there is also first-person gameplay and it also had to be able to crash-land plausibly on Mars.
An earlier version of the escape pod that would function more like a plane.
Concept of how the damage to the thruster would look, adding a sense of direction and storytelling to it.
Late into development we had to redesign this interior space. Quick paintovers like this are usually enough for level design to continue.
In-game interior space.
Heavily inspired by the ISS to give some of the walls a purpose.
In-game interior space.
Pitch to gamedesign as to where to position the escape pods and how they would function. The end result is extremely similar to this idea.
A peek into the process I take when designing a complicated space with a lot of departmental crossover. 3D is your friend. It also totally looks like penguin in a suit and I'm glad I moved on from this.