Donovan's Devlog

Hi I'm Donovan, I'm one of the monster artists for the game Iron Echoes: Zeniths Uprising.

 The cover image shown is a simple side view of the monster in progress.  The monster isn't complete yet, but I'm working on the scales of the creature to make it look more realistic.  It's not a lot of progress, but I'm proud of it so far.

Update 1:

The first thing I want to point out is that I am an amateur 3D modeler/artist. I am open to critique, and I am willing to learn. I’m a slow learner, but willing none the less. The second thing is that these took a bit longer than I liked so updating here has been slow. OK, now for the thought process.

The first monster is a giant fish that swims in sand, and possible water, the idea hasn’t been fully developed, but I am happy with this design none the less. The main take away with the design is the eyes, whether the player is in the dark sands, or waters I want that menacing gaze to be the first, and hopefully not last thing the player see’s. The game takes place in a post-apocalypse setting, so to me that means all logic can be suspended, but not thrown out the window. In my mind when I look at post-apocalypse type environments, I think to myself. Wouldn't it be terrifying if somehow something was underneath their feet the entire time, but the only reason they didn’t get attacked was because nothing in that moment made a loud enough sound to get its attention? This fish model was what came to mind, this creature is still in prototype phase, so I’m not done working on it.

Update 2: The Giant.

My thought process for this creature was very simple, what if at the very beginning of the apocalypse, the new horrors that emerged didn’t become a group of creatures, but became an apex predator in it’s own right, and began killing other mutants, and growing until the giant was the result of such a primal struggle? Then I decided that I just like having giant monsters to fight because of games like Buck Bumble, Shadow of the Colossus, and Dragons Dogma. The narrative reason for the giant being in the game is still on the drawing board, but I am determined to make it work. The giant in my mind is compost of living tissue, with pieces of other long destroyed creations, hence the mesh mash look. Overall I am still happy that I was able to make something even if it isn't the final product. This giant definitely needs to go back in the oven for some re-do's in design, But for now it is merely a prototype, and one I’m mostly happy with.

Update 3: The Player Character and the Stone Golem.

For the player character I took inspiration from a very unlikely place, Bomber-man. In my mind I wanted the audience to underestimate who they took control of until they saw what the player character could do. However after much discussion with my team, they felt as though the design of the player character ultimately clashed with the concept they had in mind for this game. I am ultimately showing the prototype iteration of the player character for two reasons. First reason, I’m proud of it, even though it didn’t turn out as needed. The second reason is for Idea’s on how to make it fit better into the setting.

The stone golem is truly the most simple design choice, hit the rock monster, and make it fall down. Stone golems are a simple threat with a simple solution, make it go away with enough force. I intend to work on more enemy types later down the line, but I think keeping it simple with a few creative challenges will help me improve over time.