Corruption artist talks about the game's environments

2008-06-04 05:07:52 pm

Anywhere, everywhere

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1683180

Very interesting read, imo. Some great descriptions for the statues, metroids, and whatnot.

Thread title:

nate

2008-06-04 06:34:42 pm

wow, awesome link with awesome pics. thanks man.

Bugsey

2008-06-04 07:13:04 pm

Annoying

I clicked on the link and saw a pic of Samus. When I moved the mouse over it, it said "android" 7_7. Other than that, it was pretty cool.

tomatobob

2008-06-04 07:18:31 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Nice read. I kinda wish that they'd gone through with his idea to put several kinds of metroids in the game.

RT-55J

2008-06-04 07:28:01 pm

Armor Guardian

Beonarri

2008-06-05 03:47:45 pm

Heh, I love that site.
Andrew Jones, the concept artist for Metroid Prime is an original member.
(I post there too. :D )

SABERinBLUE

2008-06-05 06:00:44 pm

Cook of the Sea

Quote from Bugsey:

I clicked on the link and saw a pic of Samus. When I moved the mouse over it, it said "android" 7_7. Other than that, it was pretty cool.

That's Andrew Jones's handle on that site.

Beonarri

2008-06-06 03:50:37 pm

Quote from Bugsey:

I clicked on the link and saw a pic of Samus. When I moved the mouse over it, it said "android" 7_7. Other than that, it was pretty cool.

If you clicked the pic you would've gotten more info.

ryu

2008-06-12 09:41:10 am

Too bad he didn't explain why skytown looks as boring as it does. :|

Beonarri

2008-06-13 07:01:15 pm

Quote from Ryu:

Too bad he didn't explain why skytown looks as boring as it does. :|

WUT?

How was Sky Town boring?

arkarian

2008-06-13 10:13:48 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from Beonarri:

How was Sky Town boring?

In nearly every way— nothing further than that needs to be explained. It's pretty much the entire reason I don't like Corruption very much.

SkippyJr

2008-06-14 04:15:14 pm

Its very cool that a new guy got to work on so many large and dynamic (and cool) rooms. I figured that he'd be on access hall duty for the most part.

It is refreshing to hear that environmental artists get to design and build their rooms from the ground up. Besides shared obects and textures, how do they make sure that adjacent rooms don't have jarring style differences? The modelers cannot start with zero direction - they need to know the purpose of the room, what items it may hold, the expected player state and nearest goal - so what is their starting point?

His rooms are the only ones I can think of (outside of the one with the Prime husk) that have a visual throughback to a previous game (and all where greatly appreciated!). Why did the seated Chozo statue (the one with Spiderball) have elbows in and knees out? Did it look better than doing it the original way? It is nifty that his updated Korba creature was also used by Ben Sprout in one of his rooms. It must suck that the first really slow opening doors players encounter are to his Bryyo Generator Halls.

If there are any updates for a Player's Choice version, here are some small fixuns:
In the damaged east hallway on Norion, the wires by the broken glass can dissapear if you get too close (from the electrified floor side). The Skytown save station solar system has a moon which disappears.

And, as always, just what the heck are the artists up to after the concept stages?

So many questions and never any answers.

Its very cool that a new guy got to work on so many large and dynamic (and cool) rooms.  I figured that he'd be on access hall duty for the most part.

It is refreshing to hear that environmental artists get to design and build their rooms from the ground up.  Besides shared obects and textures, how do they make sure that adjacent rooms don't have jarring style differences?  The modelers cannot start with zero direction - they need to know the purpose of the room, what items it may hold, the expected player state and nearest goal - so what is their starting point?

His rooms are the only ones I can think of (outside of the one with the Prime husk) that have a visual throughback to a previous game (and all where greatly appreciated!).  Why did the seated Chozo statue (the one with Spiderball)  have elbows in and knees out?  Did it look better than doing it the original way?  It is nifty that his updated Korba creature was also used by Ben Sprout in one of his rooms.  It must suck that the first really slow opening doors players encounter are to his Bryyo Generator Halls.

If there are any updates for a Player's Choice version, here are some small fixuns:
In the damaged east hallway on Norion, the wires by the broken glass can dissapear if you get too close (from the electrified floor side).  The Skytown save station solar system has a moon which disappears.

And, as always, just what the heck are the artists up to after the concept stages?

So many questions and never any answers.

MoogleEmperor

2008-06-14 05:45:49 pm

Quote from Arkarian:

Quote from Beonarri:

How was Sky Town boring?

In nearly every way— nothing further than that needs to be explained. It's pretty much the entire reason I don't like Corruption very much.

If it's so obvious, shouldn't it be easy to explain why it's boring? Boring is a judgment, not a description.
Skytown was one of my favorite places in Corruption; the ambiance was excellent, and I really like the music. It's one of the few places in a Metroid game that managed to feel genuinely alien. It wasn't especially colorful, but that isn't always required. I also just like the idea of being above the clouds.
Feeling like you're actually on alien planets is one of the things that Corruption has on the other Primes if you ask me. In the original, everything other than the Impact Core and the lower reaches of the Phazon Mines felt perfectly Earthly. Dark Aether felt somewhat alien, but it was far too purple, and the weak music and lack of actual threat ruined the ambiance.

[quote="Arkarian"]
[quote="Beonarri"]
How was Sky Town boring?
[/quote]

In nearly every way— nothing further than that needs to be explained. It's pretty much the entire reason I don't like Corruption very much.
[/quote]

If it's so obvious, shouldn't it be easy to explain why it's boring? Boring is a judgment, not a description.
Skytown was one of my favorite places in Corruption; the ambiance was excellent, and I really like the music. It's one of the few places in a Metroid game that managed to feel genuinely alien. It wasn't especially colorful, but that isn't always required. I also just like the idea of being above the clouds.
Feeling like you're actually on alien planets is one of the things that Corruption has on the other Primes if you ask me. In the original, everything other than the Impact Core and the lower reaches of the Phazon Mines felt perfectly Earthly. Dark Aether felt somewhat alien, but it was far too purple, and the weak music and lack of actual threat ruined the ambiance.

arkarian

2008-06-14 06:02:39 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from MoogleEmperor:

Quote from Arkarian:

Quote from Beonarri:

How was Sky Town boring?

In nearly every way— nothing further than that needs to be explained. It's pretty much the entire reason I don't like Corruption very much.

If it's so obvious, shouldn't it be easy to explain why it's boring? Boring is a judgment, not a description.

Didn't say it was obvious, just that it was boring [to me] in nearly every way, so nothing else needs to be explained. It's just boring. Very plain, bland, and repetitive.

Beonarri

2008-06-16 04:28:46 pm

I could understand if you said Norion was boring, because it's all light grey space tubes. But, Skyworld at least had a sense of design to it...even if the ziplines were annoying.

arkarian

2008-06-16 05:02:14 pm

red chamber dream

Well Norion was also short and made sense to be that boring— you're in a government building, after all. With Sky Town they could have done so much better.

rekameohs

2008-06-16 07:46:31 pm

Anywhere, everywhere

I understand someone saying that west skytown is bland, but east skytown is pretty awesome. Too bad west is the one that got the cool music.

Beonarri

2008-06-21 01:30:51 pm

Skytown had the scariest part of the game.
Walking past caged Metroids, then opening the cages.

Azure

2008-06-21 02:08:46 pm

Pi-Face

Indeed. First you notice the disintegrating bodies, and anyone who's played Super Metroid will realize that means there's Metroids coming up. Then you slowly walk past an entire laboratory filled with them, hoping they don't break out... and to get the next upgrade, you have to shut off the power. One of the coolest parts of the entire game.
(Then you notice the Metroids can dodge the Ice Missiles like it's nothing, and you have that "Oh crap, now what do I do?" moment. Too bad you can just spam the beam button and kill them easily though. ^_^)

Bugsey

2008-07-28 06:22:26 pm

Annoying

Quote from Azure:

Indeed. First you notice the disintegrating bodies, and anyone who's played Super Metroid will realize that means there's Metroids coming up. Then you slowly walk past an entire laboratory filled with them, hoping they don't break out... and to get the next upgrade, you have to shut off the power. One of the coolest parts of the entire game.

Other than the part where you have to pull out the energy cell and the Metroids themselves, that was probably the most pridictable part of the game.