Soulframe Journal Video Offers Players Insight Into The Creation Of The First Trailer And Detail Animal Companion Plans

Today, Digital Extremes dropped a new piece of concept art for the upcoming MMO Soulframe. It’s kind of an alternative piece to what eventually became the first trailer ever shown for the game and an interesting look at how things could have been different. To go along with that piece, the company also shared a short video discussing the role of concept art in video game creation. Writer/Programmer Steve Sinclair spoke with Soulframe’s Creative Director Geoff Crookes and Associate Art Director Rosa Lee to get some insight.

The devs answer questions about the role of concept art, both at the beginning of a new project and while working on established projects like Warframe. They talk about how it allows them to bring an idea together and how part of that process is eliminating some concepts in order to refine things.

They also discuss the process of creating concept art, specifically beginning the process and what they do to finish it up. The interesting part here is that when a piece is done, Lee then has to check and make sure it fits the vibe they were going for. This rolls into discussing the piece dropped today, which was an earlier piece of concept art that was later replaced with the moose we’ve all seen. The piece, titled “Outcast” is intentionally bleak. While that held up, it didn’t give the same sense of hope as the artwork that they later went with.

In both pieces, players see sparrows. It turns out the bird serves a purpose, both metaphorically and as part of gameplay. It will be a companion and a guide to help players through the game.