By: Dominic Jones
In celebration of Star Wars Day the team at DICE, who are currently hard at work on the upcoming video game Star Wars: Battlefront which is slated for a November 17th release date, gave fans a behind the scenes look at the development of the look of the planet Sullust. It was announced back at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim that the game would give fans their first official look at the canon version of the planet Sullust. An in-depth article detailing the various design steps was posted over at EA's official Star Wars website, here are some highlights.
The team described the orinigal description given to the concept artists,
"When referring to the direction, the concept artist stated, “With black sharp rocks, huge land shifts, red lava, turquoise lakes, and white smoke…everything to make it really colorful yet imposing and threatening.” It took a while to nail down the specifics but once completed, the team presented the design and direction to Lucasfilm. Working in collaboration with the teams at Lucasfilm, it was decided that this visual design would be a perfect look for the planet Sullust, mentioned but not seen in Return of the Jedi."
The crew then used Iceland as a basis to design the planet,
Close to Sweden, Iceland proved to be a unique and ideal location
which in multiple areas looked like another planet. Andrew Hamilton,
Lead Environment Artist, and members from the team at DICE set out to
study and capture the desolate Icelandic environment mentioning, “it’s
very barren in a beautiful way. It hints at all the features in our
concept and all the content we needed to gather…all the materials, rock
shapes and even the lava.”
When the team returned to Stockholm with reference footage, Petter
Skold, Senior Level Artist and Planet Owner of Sullust, set out to bring
the planet to life. “We used the source material that we gathered from
Iceland to shift and bend to the design detailed in our concepts, which
was very fun and difficult process,” said the Senior Level Artist. While
difficult, this process has paid off allowing Petter and the rest of
the team to create an iconic planet we are very proud of. On the
process, Skold stated, “this was different than content captured from
locations of Endor, Hoth and Tatooine which could be used right away.”
And finally, we get confirmation that there will be 12 multiplayer maps included in Star Wars: Battlefront,
"Of the 12 multiplayer maps in Star Wars Battlefront (there are even more locations when you include the Star Wars Battlefront
Missions), some feel immediately familiar — such as the lush forests of
Endor or the tundra of Hoth that allow you to re-live your favorite
moments from the films. Some of the maps support our epic modes like
Walker Assault, while others are tailored to more intimate, close
quarters combat. Our goal is to bring a variety of battle fantasies to
life, with map design catering to the modes that will play out on those
maps. Above all, we want you to create new memories of your own in new
places you've never seen before."
The amount of work and detail that has gone into the development of Battlefront is amazing, and I can't wait to pick up the game this November.
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