Unit 1 (Robots):
The Robot was designed with one key piece of inspiration old 90’s PCs, this was to create a subconscious link to the a simpler time for technology so despite them being artificially intelligent robots.
A key aspect in the games concept would be evoking emotions from the player but we knew we didn’t want to overcomplicate the model and design of the robot so instead of having a lot of features on the robot like a mouth an eyebrows which is how a human would show expressions we needed to make sure it could be portrayed via body language
When actually making the robots we had a lot of fun making all the small bits and bobs on the robots to make the character believable that they aren’t just a few limbs on a body, small things like the antenna or the fan on the back makes the final model so much more believable for an immersive experience.
Sanmiittai:
This group of enemies would be the opposing force to the player, hunting them down and wanting to destroy the robots. This meant when designing them we had to make sure visually they looked threatening and unlike the robots.
We ended up with finished concepts where they had a flair of military about them and we decided to lean into it.
When creating Sanmittai, there was a fine line between making any generic soldier and a grunt from a crazy private corporation with its own military power. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from this through their techy fashion based design. A lot of the design choices behind them stem from modern day fashion with fashion designers such as Yohji Yamamoto leading it with his wacky dark designs. Alongside this, futuristic tech look that we wanted to portray with them was achieved through their unique helmet and baton designs, overall Sanmittai grabs aspects a varied array of research and I think we nailed the look we intended with them.
The creation of the Sanmiittai was very unique as it had a set unlike any other from this project as we needed to have realistic clothes that sat on the model correctly so this required an extra step in making this character.
Once we finalised on the design we knew it was a successful design as when put together they looked like a group of militant extremists perfectly matching the initial design goals.
Taskalo:
In early stages of development we decided we would need some other creatures to make the island feel like a real environment with an actual eco system. This meant designing a creature that would match the desolate island and mostly aquatic environment. so we settled on a floating jellyfish-ese creature.
further into development we realised that despite their abnormal aesthetic they actually created a calming vibe to the areas that the player would be exploring creating a great balance to the hostile enemy characters on the map, making the visual design match the mechanical role they will hold as a passive character.
