There’s an awesome event in the game called CORP. WARS, and among the many new features it offers, there are new costumes and a great new map – Island: Ruins. These works of art are colorful, innovative and charged with creativity. In this piece of news, we want to share some of the stories of how we ended up creating and using these assets. Check out the look from behind the curtain!
The Costumes
It all started with the costumes. All the game’s concept designers were asked to create the costume of their dreams, and they did just that. Out of all the entries, two were selected for the event as the most distinctive and original ones. Then came the long and meticulous process of making them just right.
Take a look at the whole evolutionary sequence that these cosmetics went through.
Another interesting thing: the idea of corporations, their strengths and weaknesses, and even their logos were inspired by the costumes and not the other way around. Furthermore, the art department actually came up with most of the lore for the corporations. Might seem a little strange, but this happens all the time in game development when a single outstanding creative asset becomes the driving force for a whole lot of content.
The Map
The centerpiece of the event is the Island: Ruins map that features brand-new dynamic objects and a changing battlefield landscape. The work on this location started with a special mood board, where concept artists, level designers, game designers, and environment artists gathered the references they thought would fit the bill.
Once the inspiration’s there, the concept artists start working on atmospheric sketches which are given to level designers. Level designers start off by creating white box level-design - a prototype of a map made with basic geometric forms without textures. After that, concept artists make detailed sketches based on the level geometry, and finally, the models and textures are drawn according to their artwork.
We knew that the map was about 2 equally strong forces fighting over a mysterious relic, an artifact that was discovered by a group of scientists in the ancient ruins. So the layout and features of Island: Ruins fully embody that concept — it is symmetrical, both teams are on equal footing, and has certain enigmatic elements and Easter Eggs.
You might have noticed statues of a Cat, a Rabbit, and a Serpent on the map – they’re not there by accident. They are all creatures that represent certain constellations in the sky, and there’s even a way to see the constellations themselves if you unlock the hidden Easter Egg!
Another piece of trivia – one of the level designers loves chonkers (fat photogenic cats), so we made the statue of the Cat on the map as plump as we could without breaking the game. Hope you enjoy this thicc beauty!
Of course, we worked hard on one of the main pieces of the new map - the artifact. There were several variants that were all valid, but the one that made it to the game is by far the best. Do you agree?
At first, we planned to have lava instead of water all over the place, but during testing found out that this led to too much stress and distracted too much from the actual gameplay. So, we’ll save the classic “floor is lava” for another time.
For now, that’s it. Enjoy CORP. WARS and all the eye-candy it offers, and if you want to ask us about the process of creating game assets, you can do so on social media. Just follow the links at the bottom of the page!
You're also welcome to discuss the article and chat with fellow players on our Discord channel!
