Hey cultists,
The month of November has brought us all a little closer to the final product we’re gunning for. As far as guns go, we have an absolute plethora of weapons we’re excited to show off this month as well as all the work our staff are putting into these weapons.
The Pipeline
The pipeline starts with our Creative Director, Jackson, and our Lead Artist, Flynn, who both conceptualise and tinker with ideas for the Reaver’s arsenal.
The pair begin the process by visiting the content sheet and discussing what kind of weapon we want to make and hashing out the fundamentals of said weapon. What role does it fill within the players' arsenal? What gun archetype does it fit best into? How do we want this weapon to feel in the player's hand? Answering these questions helps us inform the visual design of the weapon to create a cohesive and unique feel for each gun. From there we consolidate these design notes into a brief for our weapon artist Scott where we collect visual reference from real world antique weapons and take aspects from various designs that we think fit the vibe of the gun we want to create. Scott will then take the brief and start working on 3D concepts which we will iterate on until we land on a design we are happy with. Throughout this process we constantly bring the work in progress weapon into the game engine to make sure it is feeling good in the hands of the player.
From there Scott takes over with modeling and texturing these designs to fit into the world of Blood Reaver,
“We really wanted the guns in Blood Reaver to encapsulate the gothic, dark fantasy aesthetic of the setting. With blade-like edges, flowing curves and sharp spikes, we hoped to give them the intimidating aura of a demon hunter’s weapon of choice whilst also featuring some more elegant, baroque elements to give them a sense of beauty and regality.
Many of the visual elements of these guns were inspired by medieval weapons, armour and even old, gothic cathedrals.
We largely avoided referencing modern firearms when designing our guns and instead looked at much older weaponry from the early 19th century. We hoped the antiquated technology of that time would help make our guns feel more grounded in a pre-industrial, fantastical world.” ~Scott
and finally our Technical Artist Ben spends his hours making the model come to life in the engine, once the weapons are handed to Ben, he looks into the main moving parts like magazines, slides, triggers, hammers, etc. Ben will rig these parts using joints and controls allowing us to move them in animations. When rigging he’s thinking about what moving parts the player will see? How do they move? How easy is it for the animator to move while animating? Does the gun have any special features, if so Ben will add in extra joints and attributes for that gun. He’s also thinking about what's still to come such as VFX in game, what those are going to look like and how they will feel. Throughout this process Ben will work very closely with Scott and Flynn to make sure the gun is easy to animate and looks and feels the way it's meant to.
Results
All of this work from the team comes together to make showcases like this possible, you can feel the aura coming off these bad boys.
Next Time On Blood Reaver
That’s everything in our tank this month! It’s been an eventful year but we’re facing the holiday season and we’re excited to spend time with friends and family and of course, The Cult. We’ve got more to show and reveal (enough to fight over the topic of this month’s update) so stay tuned and look for more news coming your way.
See you next month Reavers (plays Baha Men).
**Disclaimer: Blood Reaver is still in production, designs and weapons may appear altered, different, missing or subject to change upon release.