Hello everyone,

I thought I’d give you an update on what the art team of FATED is working on at the moment.

On my end, I’m looking into the visuals we are missing to convey the storyline clearly in the intro scenes. The story delves into abstract concepts like death and the area between worlds. To get a better sense of timing and emotional involvement, we need to hook up a lot of things that aren’t final, and for everything that’s missing, we are using placeholders.

At this point all research is based on what is missing or could be better in-game: a lot of the ground work is covered and we can focus on fixing weaknesses. One good example is a board I’m making which lists a number of ways to turn destroyed areas into more convincing war-stricken zones. Things like burned soil patches, dead trees, charred buildings and heaps of debris.

Most of these assets are derived from things we already have – we are trying to make the most of our limited resources. They will decorate the world and emphasize drama in some parts of the story. The characters of FATED are facing hardship and destruction, so the game world needs to reflect that. Spoiler alert: you might see some dead people.

I’m also working on some textures for new asset kits that will help us dress up the environment when we get to that point. This can only happen when level design is final and meanwhile, I find myself doing many different things; patching up holes here and there so that we have a more complete sample of the experience.

As far as the rest of the team is concerned, there is a lot of animation work going on right now. Our animators Yanick Bélanger and Isabelle Fortin are modifying motion capture files and testing out facial expressions for one of the main characters. Our 3D artist Ève Mainguy is finishing up many props and producing many of the items I’m adding when reviewing the scenes. Right now, the work is planned but more flexible than usual, as we realized we needed to re-assess progress almost daily.

I also wanted to share this piece with you. We don’t know what we’ll do with it yet but it will probably serves as a design for a T-shirt or other marketing material.

I was hoping to illustrate in a whimsical way the wonder one might feel when faced with the full blown power of Ragnarök, world-changing events on which the characters have little or no control. I felt that this strong little girl in the image was the perfect character to convey this awe, courage and vulnerability. The decorative designs around the piece are meant to bring in some Viking decorative designs and the runes are derived from actual runic texts. The image inserted in the post is actually the right size if you want to use it as a desktop wallpaper.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed!

Marianne Martin / Art Director
www.fatedgame.com