Project: Nova - Art Direction (concepts)
Nova is an unannounced project I art directed that was "shelved" after a year of development. The game was intended to be a Massively Multiplayer Battle Arena where hundreds of players would control their heroes leading an armies of thousands of npcs into war. The game took place in an barbaric world where the ruins of mysterious technology is slowly taking over the land. These concepts were created by Sergey Naygel, Chris Madden, and Kory Hubble. 2D animation by Anton Bogaty.
This image was created to capture the tone and style of Nova. I wanted it to be very graphic and bold with a ton of edge.
Another tone piece. This one depicts the heros rocketing into battle from the sky (a method for players to spawn in).
We liked that image so much we did a quick animation to really sell the impact.
This was out first mock-up of what the game may look like showing off the mass number of npcs you'd lead and battle with.
Map of the world concept. I wanted to keep everything as angular as possible.
Another feel piece of heroes about to take on a giant army.
Another feel piece showing off the character's abilities.
Although simple, this concept really hit on the feel of heroes winning in battle.
We had a mandate to push the number of players and npcs in this game and this concept shows how ridiculous it could get.
We wanted color to have a huge part in identifying different teams. Given the massive number of characters on screen, it had to be clear which side you were on.
Initial exploration of heroes. I like starting with strong silhouettes, especially with the need for instant recognition by players swarmed by hundreds of characters.
Once we found a silhouette we liked, we would flesh it out with a bit more detail before taking it to a final concept.
Sometimes we would do quick animations to sell the attitude of the characters before investing in 3D assets.
Our first hero, Branka. I wanted to push against tropes as much as possible. this is a 50 year old warrior woman who is a tank.
This is Fox, a quick and nible dps hero.
Ash was out first caster. Inspired by Rafiki in the Lion King.
Minions were the npc characters of this world. We planned many types and each had to have a unique read. They also needed to stand out from the heroes.
I liked the idea of all of the minions having masks. It help sell the fiction that thousands of the same character would be on screen. It made them more iconic and added to their tribal feel.
This was the first concept of the enemies of the world, The Daxx. You would fight these while battling other players. I wanted them to feel super advanced and out of place in this world. This was a drone.
The Sentinel is another Daxx character. The look of the Daxx was inspired by 3D fractals with an onyx finish.
This big guy shows that the Daxx were actually living creatures that are being consumed by a virus. We wanted him to feel a bit tortured.
The environments were also intended to have that "edge" the characters did. I felt like this was a unique look compared to the other MOBAs on the market.
we even had to figure out how plants and grass might have the same angular feel.