The second issue of the Art Direction Developer Diary has been released and Art Director Nick Ebenhoch uses the opportunity to give fans an overview of Black Prophecy's general faction and ship design. He says the team found inspiration for Black Prophecy's ships, stations and objects in "classic 1980s sci-fi movies, where models were created by hand up to the last detail." So if you're a fan of Star Wars, old Battlestar Galactica or the USS Sulaco from Alien, chances are you'll appreciate the faction design in the game.

Ebenhoch says "the level of detail is very high for stations, capital ships and fighters," but emphasizes it's important to make sure the designs look like they were made by the members of the factions. Humans, the Tyi and the Genides would all design their stations and ships differently, so the details can't be the same for each faction.

Ebenhoch says his next developer diary entry will go into detail with each of the three most important factions. Until then, you can read his current entry after the jump.

Welcome to the second issue of the Black Prophecy Developer Diary. While we still stay in the Art Direction area, I will give you a brief overview about the general faction and ship design. This part of the Art Direction Developer Diary will be a rather short one. In the next issue I will go into detail with each of the three most important factions.

The faction design
Black Prophecy is settled about 550 years in the future. The goal was to create an optically realistic repertoire of ships, stations and other objects. Our inspiration were the classic 1980s sci-fi movies, where models were created by hand up to the last detail which would not be possible anymore nowadays with regards to development schedules. Examples would be the old Battlestar Galactica movies, Star Wars or single ships like e.g. the USS Sulaco from Alien. It was of great importance to us to not overdraw the design like it happened in the TV series “Andromeda”.

The ships in Black Prophecy, be it capital ships or small fighter, rarely have really flat, clear and curved surfaces and remind of the classic Star Destroyer from Star Wars. This serves the practical purpose of a ship which only holds limited space and avoids design gimmicks. The erratic surfaces make you curious to learn more about it and give the impression of a functional system. Important elements at the right places, e.g. reactors at the stern of a ship support these impressions. In addition to this, ships and stations are built modularly and can be adjusted or extended easily at any time.

For Black Prophecy it was important to us to create a magnitude that gives the impressive feeling to fly around a kilometer large space station or capital ship with a tiny fighter. Next to the completely modeled hull surfaces, more details like e.g. window frames with rivets, tubular and cable lines can be spotted if you fly close by a station or a capital ship. This high level of detail was not achieved with high texture resolutions but by a smart texture layout and a relatively elaborate mapping.

The smaller fighters in Black Prophecy also have an impressive level of detail that strikes the eye on close approach. Many small details like tubes, cables, air ducts and rivets create an easily recognizable and functional picture even if it does not fit into a realistic space scenario in a given case. In these cases it is necessary to find out how far realism and style can be combined. Even if air ducts don’t make much sense in space, they remind of air ducts on a combat aircraft on of the radiator grill of a sports car and relay a more powerful character.

Ships and technology
While the level of detail is very high for stations, capital ships and fighters, the design differences of the playable factions are more focused on the whole picture rather than on details. Thereby it was important for us to let the design look like it was made by man.

As the presentation of each single faction would go beyond the scope of these diaries, I limit my elucidations to the Humans, the Tyi and the Genides. Even if all three share the same biological origin, they differ from each other with regards to their optical and technical appearance.

That’s it for now. In the next issue I will go into detail with the Human faction.

Stay tuned!