The bestiary presented in the previous Devlog is the final result of our concept work. However, before the final versions were made, we went through the entire process. Today, as announced, we will present to you the process of creating a monster with the example of one of them - Shildar.
How were they made?
As you already know, ideas appear at the beginning of the creation. Lots of ideas! Some turned out to be too difficult to implement, and some were less demanding. Flying, glowing, with the ability of teleportation... There were many ideas. We rejected some of them by the method of elimination and compromises. We focused on further implementation of ideas that suited the most to the overall concept of Rin's World, as well as those that were feasible for us.
Shildar was supposed to be a monster requiring some tactics from the player during the fight. We wanted to make him immune to attacks. But we thought of giving him a weak spot that would make him vulnerable. We decided to cover this spot with his front legs, which by default were his shield but also became its weapon.
References
These ideas about creatures became our basis for the first concept arts. The initial assumptions allowed us to set the direction, mood, and specific features of the monsters that we could translate into their design. We also used various reference images that let us illustrate these visions even better.
First concepts
All these guidelines were the foundation for further design. Artist, prepare! Brushes and pencils in motion!
First concept arts
Adjustments
We had the first designs. At this stage, we decided to assess the visual adequacy of the original concept. We also focused on refining its appearance to suit the monster’s planned abilities and started working on minor corrections.
Selected concept art - further works
The Shildar’s design has been pimped out, but we have kept the powerful front legs and glowing weak spot. You can see its final look in the picture below.
Adaptation
Just like in the case of vegetation, we use several variants of the appearance. Monsters look different in each of the locations in the game. Shildar only appears in one of them, but we have adjusted it nonetheless and fitted its appearance to the terrain it prowls.
Next week we will tell you more about the technical aspects of creating animations and their implementation in the game.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
See you later!
