Jan 19, 2018
Tim White cover art for Star Hammer by Christopher Rowley, 1987.
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Tim White cover art for Star Hammer by Christopher Rowley, 1987.
Star Hammer: the Vanguard Prophecy Action Sci-Fi Strategy has never been so thrilling and exciting. In Star Hammer you control your space fleet against the attacks of the Nautilids. Do you think you can outsmart and defeat the invaders?
TIM WHITE - art for Star Hammer by Christopher Rowley - 1987 Century Books – https://www.pinterest.com/pin/206321226658553191/
Oh hey, people are trying to move this magical hammer only a specific superhero can wield. This well-dressed man with a fabulous goatee is trying to use a technological glove to improve his lifting strength, which doesn’t actually make a lot of sense when you think about it but it’s a good visual. What a creative idea this is.
Okay, maybe it’s a purposeful reference and I’m being cheap and unfair. It is a superhero comic after all. But I’m keeping an eye on Starhammer now, let’s see how this plays out.
Comic Creator You Should Know: J.N. Monk
Comic Creator You Should Know: J.N. Monk
Name: J.N. Monk Company: StarTeamGO! Job Title & Description: I’m the head writer/editor for StarTeamGO! We’re a team of storytellers that make an ongoing all-ages superhero comic for Hiveworks called StarHammer . I write/edit the scripts for the comic. I then work with all the members of the team to make sure everything gets done. Jamie: How long have you been working in the industry/involved…
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Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy is coming to iPad!
Like the title says. We are looking for beta testers. You can sign up here : http://slitherine.com/beta_test/shvp_ipad
The Art of Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy - Part 1.
In part one of this two-part post, Art Director Anthony Carriero discusses the inspiration and approach he took in designing the Coalition Navy ships and stations for Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy
Ideation
A sweet piece of alliteration I have always had a fancy for is “Form follows function”.
This little phrase has stuck with me as a key factor in designing things which do not exist but could feasibly be made with the correct technology, materials and constraints.
The practical application of “Form follows function” in designing for games or film is a common one to ensure whatever you put up on the screen can be identified for its purpose and intent, and not so far out that the audience or players see it as too unrealistic, or even worse, cannot associate with it.
Saying all that, reality can be a little boring sometimes, so a hint of “over the top” or stylisation is often in order. After all, we are designing for entertainment, not NASA. This general rule was applied to the design of the human ships and the nautilids.
The Inspiration
From the beginning I had an idea of the feel of the ships I wanted in the game. This may sound strange to some but it started with a clear vision of a material surface.
A worn metal surface with access panels, lights, rivets, scratched paint and a healthy dose of engine emission grease and burn marks.
This material surface would have to work for war-scarred hulking steel behemoths, sleek battle damaged fighters and flying automated coffins with lasers.
Given these requirements, I referenced a lot of World War Two Naval vessels and construction and excavation vehicles.
These vessels and vehicles had it all, war paint, large turrets, riveted hulls, diesel grease and most importantly for the audience; a recognisable and imposing presence - that and the fact that these ships had to be repeatedly manufactured on a budget and a stable design, an important factor I tried to imply in the design of the Star Hammer ships
The Design Influence.
A lot of great artists and designers have produced work in the Sci-fi genre, but two of my favourites were my first port of call for inspiration when I initially started work on the project; Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie.
These names should be recognisable to Star Wars , Battlestar Galactica, Aliens and Blade Runner fans.
Their handling of geometric forms at a large scale with recognisable purpose is nothing less than mastery of design.
I deconstructed their approach to function and aesthetics in concepting most of the human ships. Of course the end product is original and for the majority represents my own personal style, but I like to think of the final designs as a sort of humble salute of gratitude for the work they have done for the industry and the genre.
Two good examples of their influence in the game are the Kraken Dreadnought; with its large cylindrical drone bay and the space station Delta Mark 3; with its vertical aspect and intersecting shapes.
The Execution
A ship starts its life with a purpose and design description. From there I create thumbnail sketches to get a sense of the ships scale and complexity of shape. Once I land on a shape I like, I develop it further.
Next comes a more refined 2d concept art piece. Digitally painted and detailed, this showcases the complete form, paneling and key features.
Around half of the more complex ships and stations in Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy, I rapidly built into 3d concepts.
From there I could make very fast design changes and paint over the renders from different angles to really nail the design and get a better sense of how lighting affects the hull and general form. This was also much faster than manually rendering out 2d concepts from different angles.
The final stage is to send the designs and models off to our 3d modeller/texture artist; Mark Smith, who did a great job of creating the final 3D models and textures to sign off stage and exported them for use in the game engine.
For a more in depth look at this end of the art pipeline , check out our previous post on art process here
Coming soon: Part 2 of the Art of Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy. The post will focus on the design and creation of the games main enemy Units; The Nautilids.
Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy will be available via Steam, Slitherine and Matrix Games on June 4th 2015.
Flares!
It's been almost two weeks since Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy was exhibited at the awesome Perth Games Festival. Since then, we've been hard at work improving the game and getting closer to a beta.
One example of a change is the new damage system. Instead of having a single value representing the "health" of your ships, there is now a game mechanic whereby individual ship sub-systems can be damaged and taken offline. So for example, you might loose a laser cannon, or your missile launcher, meaning you'll have to adapt your strategy to win the battle. Of course, you can always deploy your repairbots to fix the damage - unless your repairbot system goes offline. Then you'll be in real trouble!
Now that all of the 3D art has been completed, we are also turning our attention to adding visual polish to make the game look as good as we can make it. For example, this is a corvette:
It looks nice enough, but something is missing...engine flares!
By adding flare effects to the engines, they look like fully functional engines that will get you where you need to go. They also help to make ships more visible from a distance. In a space-based game where the "maps" are quite large, visibility can be a problem. Not any more.
Major credit goes to Anthony Carriero, the Art Director on this game, who is doing a great job adding these types of detail.