Hi, my name is [TWDEV] Sir Apple and I'm the Lead Artist here at Traction Wars. In the past we've shown you plenty of renders and screenshots but never really said anything about the process that we go through in creating our work. Today I'm going to give you a glimpse at some of the thinking that goes into one of my more routine tasks; the creation of one of the many statics in the game. As always though firstly I'm going to add a disclaimer and say that the images are all pre-alpha and work-in-progress.
The nature of the game means that an important part of static creation is historical accuracy. This is complicated by the many regional variations in France. Although we can copy actual 1940s buildings sometimes, we inevitably must create some of our own based on the styles found in the period. In this case I was able to dig up a good reference to use as a basis for the unique features of this particular building.
Accuracy isn't everything. In this particular case the door to the shop is a little narrow for easy entry/exit so I decided to increase it to the more usual width - bouncing off door frames is no fun in the heat of combat!
Similarly the playability, realism and good old practicality have to be weighed up to create something believable but equally something that will work well in-game. A beautifully detailed bedroom which is 100% accurate might be lovely to look at but if the player can't move around... it's useless. So it's a matter of balance, detailed but thought through so it works for the player rather than against.
I like stories, so I put them into my work. I want players to feel fully immersed in the virtual reality of the game and find glimpses of the everyday lives and events which history never tells us about. Take the damage to the roof for example.
As I imagined it the damage to the dormer window was caused by a rifle grenade dislodging an enemy who had set-up in that position. That's just my interpretation though and I hope players will come up with their own theories and ideas... as they dive through the door with bullets rattling off the walls and screaming at the top of their lungs for that god-damn artillery. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking though.
If you have liked what you have seen and would like to share your thoughts about the game or just get involved in the community you can visit our community forums as well as keeping up-to-date with current development via the social networking links below.
We are currently recruiting new team members, so if you are interested or just plain curious take a look at the recruitment page on our website to see what it takes to become one of us and how you can do it.
