Dragon Age: The Veilguard art book pages, under a cut due to spoilers:
This sequential series was another way to explore the story structure that was solidifying. It relates the story of Rook, who returns to her ship to find the Inquisitor waiting and expecting a report. Rook tells of the Necropolis mission being interrupted by Solas. Making uneasy alliances. Going undercover with the Qunari, rising in the ranks, and then betraying them to Tevinter. Finally heading to Weisshaupt, stopping the Wardens from making a huge mistake, and ultimately joining them and slaying an Archdemon.
The Dumat
The ship idea was coalescing. The name Dumat was pulling ahead (named for the first Archdemon). We were on Frostbite, so we knew we could probably borrow some of that awesome ocean tech from Battlefield!
One problem was that thematically, boats didn't quite line up with the spy theme. They're too easy to spot and attack. But you know what's not easy to spot? Submarines. The idea was completely insane... so we had to try it.
This brought up the challenge of anachronism. Submarines don't fit in fantasy games. Obviously. But what if we found a way?
The first attempts were to make a submersible boat. Something that looked mostly like a boat but could plausibly dive under the surface.
The more we researched and referenced submarine mechanics, the more nautical they became. Subs are incredibly sophisticated marvels of engineering, but the more we referenced them, the more we strained the believably of our fantasy world.
Top: Submarines provide the element of surprise. It was fun to explore how to exit and enter the ship for each mission.
Bottom: Sneaking past Qunari dreadnought fleets and giving fishermen nightmares.
We thought it would be fascinating to have a mysterious prisoner in your brig. Do you let him out?
Dragon Sub
To make a submarine that fit into our world, we tried to make it look more like a sea monster. We had already named it after the dragon Dumat, so it felt like a natural fit.
We tried to disguise the sub as a natural creature, making it look more like a dragon or a sea monster.
Dumat cutaway. We wanted the interior of the Dumat, built in Tevinter, to feel luxurious and mysterious.
Top: To help give a voice to the Dumat, we explored having a captain and an engineer. They had been shelved, along with their experimental vessel, for decades. We even explored them having an unrequited love story.
Bottom: We designed a mystery engine that the engineer had to feed seemingly random objects into in order to keep it running. Ten dried lavender flowers, five quail's eggs, three brass belt buckels, etc... It would have served as a way to offer up some light fetch quests: "While you're out, could you pick up ten giant spider fangs?"
Underwater Mansion
The direction that started to feel the most correct was the underwater mansion on the back of a creature. It was much more mysterious and appropriate to the fantasy genre. It still gave us the awesome underwater vistas, but we weren't limited to the claustrophobic restrictions inherent to submarines.
We explored having a giant golem or a colossal sea creature carry the Dumat mansion.
The mansion on the back of a giant... something that you would only catch small glimpses of. Is it a giant sea monster? A colossal construct?
Covert Commandos
"Covert commandos" was our answer to the "fantasy spy" theme. Rather than slipping into the rogue mindset that that implies, it left room for warriors to smash things and mages to light things up with fireballs. We tried to imagine what the high adventure of covert commandos might look like. It was a lot of fun to explore different team-ups between classes and factions. How do they solve problems differently?
Bottom left: Going undercover with a trading caravan to make a map.
Bottom right: Escaping a dragon on griffon back.
Top: A heist becomes a rescue.
Center left: Evading guards in the Undercity.
Center right: Three brave warriors hold the gap while civilians escape.
Bottom: Everyone is on edge when an Antivan Crow enters the room.
Top: Switcheroo at the prisoner exchange.
Bottom: The party holds a chokepoint.
Top: Complicated ecosystems.
Center: Sneaking through the streets of Minrathous.
Bottom: Scoundrels flee when the Crows come to town.
Top: Steal some uniforms and bluff your way past a guard.
Bottom left: A high-speed aravel chase.
Bottom right: The team using its skills to outwith some bandits.
Bottom left: Clearing a roadblock.
Bottom right: Sabotage down at the docks.
Killing time until the monsters show up.
Top right: Discovering the griffon sanctuary.
Left: Just five more seconds!
Bottom right: End of the line.
Early NPCs
The early stages of character design are exciting. Writers and artists will develop simple sketches or descriptions to start filling up the blank canvas. We start simple. If a character works as a thumbnail sketch, they'll work when blown up to full size. It's a great way to keep an eye on shape and color, to make sure they all stand out from one another (an important element on the battlefield). We explore NPCs throughout the duration of a project. They change constantly as we discover more about the project and have new problems to solve.
Top left: An early idea for Cole to act as a compassionate voice for Solas.
Bottom left: Some characters are strong right out of the gate and change very little, like Emmrich here. We won't know until the project nears completion.
Bottom right: It's always fun to bring old characters into newer games. In this case, explored Sten from Origins as a dreadnought captain.
From where we left off in Inquisition and Trespasser, we knew Solas would be a central figure. We wanted to show Solas having cast off his hermit disguise. He was never flashy, but he was calculating and intentional, so we gave him the ancient elven god equivalent of a business suit.
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In the early stages it helps to explore simple expressions of each character. It forces us to exaggerate, focus on fewer details, and really emphasise what matters most. Eventually we can start getting more specific, but this is a valuable stage not to skip over.
Top: Early sketches of Ghilan'nain and her experiments emerging from the sea.
Center: A dwarf and her construct friend.
Bottom: In earlier drafts, Solas had a partner who could play bad cop to Solas's good cop.
Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain were the two remaining elven gods. From the beginning of the project we were excited about a double Blight.
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Bottom left: Ghilan'nain is the mother of the halla, goddess of monsters.
Bottom right: Elgar'nan is the god of vengeance and the sun, fire and shadow. The eclipse motif made sense very early on.
An early version of the party meets up in a private booth at the Blue Blood club.
Google Books preview pages Part One
Google Books preview pages Part Two
BioWare art: Matt Rhodes, Ramil Sunga, Albert Urmanov, Christopher Scoles, Nick Thornborrow, Steve Klit
Volta art: Gui Guimaraes, Stéphanie Bouchard, Akim Kaliberda, Alejandro Olmedo, Alexey Zaryuta, Julien Carrasco, Maksim Marenkov, Marianne Martin, Mariia Istomina, Marion Kivits, Matti Marttinen, Mélanie Bourgeois, Pablo Hurtado De Mendoza, Rael Lyra, Rodrigo Ramos, Thomas Schaffer, Tiago Sousa, Tristan Kang, Vladimir Mokry, Yintion J, Joseph Meehan, Stefan Atanasov, Julien Carrasco
Additional art: Marc Holmes, Thomas Scholes
