November 2023 Development Blog
Greetings,
As we wrap up the year, we’ve received really great feedback on the October Dev Blog interview with our narrative writer, Tod Lancaster. Because of that positive response, we wanted to give you an inside look at our character art and the process of taking a character from concept to fruition. We asked Chris Gardula, the talented concept artist behind the characters of Xenotheria, to sit down for an interview. He’ll be taking you through his process and showcasing some of the fantastic art and design work you’ll see in Xenotheria.
In case you missed October’s blog, Ganymede Games has entered into a publishing agreement! This development brings several immediate benefits and will help us in solidifying our efforts toward a full launch in late 2024. Also featured in our October blog was our new Steam Page Trailer, which we have linked below
With that, let's jump into our interview with Chris!
Interview
Q: For our first-time interviewees, our initial question is: what was your background prior to joining Ganymede Games, and what are some of your other interests?
A: I worked at a small game company here in Australia, and studied Illustration at university. However the curriculum here was fairly limited so I was mainly "self-taught": just being a part of as many communities as I could, hanging out with people that also made art, being able to get feedback from others, doing online tutorials, mentorships, courses, stuff like that.
Apart from that, I love MMOs and ARPGs, probably my two favorite genres, and old-school FPS like Quake and Doom. I grew up with games like Diablo, Doom, Quake. I think the original Doom was probably the first game I ever "played," by that I mean I would watch my older brother play while I constantly looked over my shoulder and down my hallway for those pesky Hell Knights and Cacodemons. A couple of other random tidbits: my favorite artist is probably Zdzisław Beksiński, and I love Calvin and Hobbes. I'm a nerd, and I love to paint.
Q: Hell Knights and Cacodemons are visually stunning, so I’m not surprised they made an impression on you. I think the Runshaka in Xenotheria are equally memorable. Can you walk us through your design process for Brit and Grit?
A: Our writer, Tod, and our designer, Felipe, will work together to create a backstory for the characters, their relationship to one another, their relationship to any established groups in our game, and a moveset that is exemplary of their traits, or any kind of mechanical aspect that we want to test the player with for that particular encounter. I'll take that rich bed of information and let it cook in my noggin.
Usually I start with gathering some reference. Pinterest is my best friend. Or sometimes, if I'm feeling particularly inspired by the material, I'll start sketching right away. However, I'll consult references at any point during the process. With Brit and Grit, it started with some rough sketches, focusing more on suggestive detail and silhouettes. That was presented to the team, and I then moved to refining Grit and created the second batch of concepts based on that feedback. The second round primarily focused on working within the decided-upon silhouette and experimenting with different outfits. Once an outfit had been decided, we moved on to color palettes, and then the final rendering and formatting for animating. And it was the same process for Brit as well!
The portraits were done basically the same way. Some gestural sketches for how they'd be posed in dialogue, and once the pose was decided on, I'd go straight into rendering the in-game portrait. Throughout the rendering, I'd post updates to get feedback on if anything looks incorrect or needed to be adjusted; always good to get a fresh pair of eyes when you've been painting for several hours a day! And then, of course, the most important and frequent part of that process is the regular existential crises about my ability as an artist.
Q: Beyond broader stylistic influences like Beksiński, can you elaborate on how and where you find specific inspiration for characters, and how their personalities and motives fit into that process?
A: The first place I find inspiration is just the source material itself. Tod does an awesome job of describing all of our characters in really rich detail, so there's a great amount of information to draw from. Sometimes, there's just this random bit of information that he's put in there that I'll be reminded of during the process that can take that design and elevate it, or perhaps that little piece of information won't feed directly into the design but spark an idea that can be executed through gameplay or dialogue. And it's also just my own experiences in life, and the joy of what I've played, read, watched that I want to express in the game. Maybe Tod has written some description for a character that reminds me of something I watched, or perhaps Felipe has designed an ability that reminds me of another ability I saw in a different game, or it reminds me of a magic card, or maybe it reminds me of a bug that I saw while on a walk yesterday.
It's a deeply collaborative process, and that's what is so exciting about it. I think we all put in pieces of ourselves when we create, and so that's a huge source of motivation for me, too. I've already convinced the team a few times to put certain things into the game either in dialogue, or naming a creature that are references to funny jokes I've made among friends. Now, no one else will really get it, but it makes me giggle. I think that's kind of at the heart of it. It's not just the richness of the material, but the passion I feel from Tod, and Felipe, and everyone else also working so hard to make our game look, sound, and play as good as possible, and all the other things in my life that I love.
As for the personalities of characters like Brit and Grit, and how they fit into that process, it just goes back to getting feedback from the team. Perhaps I'll have an idea that doesn't really fit with what Tod or Felipe might have had in mind for a character, and that informs the next step of refinement, or perhaps it'll spark something new, in which case it also informs the next step of refinement!
Conclusion
Thanks Chris, for giving us some insight into the characters that make up the rich world within Xenotheria. I think your answers also prove to illustrate the love you have for your work and I hope players will see that in our characters. We are so excited to have our community along with us for this journey and cannot wait to unveil the world this team has been hard at work on!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the inside look at some of our designs and would love any feedback in our Discord. We’re looking forward to sharing more next month and in early 2024 about the release date, our publisher, and more!
- Rob
"Expect the unexpected, especially when it's inconvenient." - Norton
