It's time for our final Deep Dive, a series of questions that we ask the developers at Okomotive, the creators of FAR: Lone Sails, and FAR: Changing Tides to give you a look into their minds, and thought processes behind the creation of the games.
Our last Deep Dive focussed on game direction, you can catch up here.
For our sixth installment, we're asking Don Schmocker questions about the art direction of the FAR titles.
What is the biggest influence on your art style in video games?
I’m usually more influenced by media other than games, I find a lot of inspiration in places I see in photography or visit, but I would say that the Bioshock series and Dishonored had a lasting impression with their environmental storytelling and the recent Control, and Death Stranding with their atmosphere and environment design. This question is probably more difficult to answer for me than it should. If I play a game where I particularly like the art style I often think that they already did it very well so it wouldn’t make sense to recreate it, except maybe some smaller elements and designs that I find really interesting.
Can you tell us how you worked together to finalise the art direction for the FAR games?
The process was very different for both games. For FAR: Lone Sails, the art direction was independent of the level design and storytelling. For FAR: Changing Tides, we planned the art alongside the game design, storytelling, and world-building. It should be more coherent, believable, and also have a progression throughout the game.
During development we had two artists join our team who also influenced the art style a lot and worked well within what was planned at the start, while also adding cool new ideas. I think it’s important to have some space for improvisation and to add new elements during development, as the journey for the player should be unpredictable and surprising at times.
How much of the concept art have you ended up using in the games?
Most of them. I recently looked at the old concept art again and was surprised by how much of it we have recreated in the game. Of course, there are some assets that went through a lot of iterations, like the ship or Toe, but in general, we have more assets and environments than we made concept art for. This probably has to do with our team size and that I did most of the concept art and assets at the beginning of both projects. This meant that it didn’t go through a large selection process and I only made concept art when I had trouble coming up with a design, or if it was a more complex asset. That approach has its pros and cons. It’s definitely quite fast but it could also be very useful to make even a rough concept artwork first, which could save time later in the process.
What is the process of going from 2D concept art to 3D game art?
In our case, it’s not that big of a step because the game is played mostly from one viewpoint. So assets and environments could have an optimal view angle, which was the one we made concept art for. Most assets are used at several locations in the game but from a different angle or in a different combination. In those cases, we could show the less attractive, less eye-catching sides of the assets, as they should better blend in with the background. One thing that certainly was difficult is to adapt the painterly art style of the concept art in the 3D assets. On one side we had to hand paint the textures but also had to fit the assets well into the game scene, so they don’t look too detailed when they’re far in the background.
After FAR: Lone Sails, how have the different environments affected the art in FAR: Changing Tides?
The water played a huge role when designing the environments, even though it doesn’t look that way at first glance. We wanted to have a variety of landscapes and also environmental storytelling which meant that the ship had to drive close to land or some swimming objects most of the time. We also wanted to give the background more importance and depth, so the environments are designed to depict more natural landscapes that work in three dimensions.
The underwater environments were another entirely different world that had to be designed as well. We had to focus our work on some specific underwater areas the player will likely see but we also couldn’t neglect the vast space in between those, in case the player wants to dive.
When designing the environments in FAR: Lone Sails and FAR: changing Tides, what was your process in adding elements into the design?
In FAR: Changing Tides, the player is driving with the ship, slowly but steadily, and is mostly focused on the ship and maintaining it. This was a big factor when designing the environments other than just the visual appeal. There are interesting scenes or structures in the background in regular intervals, they can tell a bit about the world, tease the next area or lead the player below water. Those things had to be sparse enough so the player has time to notice them but frequent enough that the background still stays important. Also, objects further away are visible for a longer time but are less obvious. The rest of the environment should support the focus areas and not overpower them.
Another new challenge was to lead the player below water when there’s something of interest. To achieve this we put objects on the water gradually closer to the ship until there’s a buoy with a chain or something vertical the player can follow downwards.
With FAR: Changing Tides being a companion title, how did you continue on the world-building elements of the game?
I really enjoy working on world-building, maybe more than I have to. For both titles, the world-building and the environmental storytelling are very connected. We ask ourselves what information can be visually communicated well and can also help develop the story further. This information could be for example in what kind of world the player is travelling, how old the buildings are or how devastating an event was. Because it’s important to learn about all this from the start and have enough chances to pick up on the story thread, we wanted to tell a new story in FAR: Changing Tides which required its own world-building. Not only that but there are several threads that start at different points in the game and continue to develop throughout the playthrough.
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