Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch has written the third part of his Art Direction Developer Diary, and this one focuses on the design of the human faction. In case you missed it, the second part discussed general faction and ship design.

The diary entry provides a lot of detail on the design aspects surrounding humans in the game, from the faction logo to space ships and stations. For example, the logo's art represents the Earth, Sun, Saturn, and other planets in our solar system. Keep reading after the jump for the full entry, as well as an image of the human emblem.

The faction logo

The faction logo used by the Humans to date is based on the emblem of NASA’s successor that launched the first colony ships towards Mars 550 years ago. This emblem did not receive much attention for quite a while as the factions at that time had their own logos during the later colony conflicts. The logo received recent relevance as a sign of resistance and Humanity’s origin through the coalition of the Humans in their fight against the new dominating races, the Tyi and the Genides.

While the blue Earth represents the origin, the outer golden rings outline the sun. The vertical silver rings are the planetary rings of Saturn in whose vicinity the farthest Terran outpost was located at that time. The eight small stars display the number of planets in our solar system, except for Pluto which is no longer defined as a planet. The embedded date, 2145, describes the introduction of the new Common Era, Exon.

The space ships and stations

Similar to the stations and space ships, the logo is meant to appear classical without the use of any kinds of aerodynamic forms or other beautifying interferences. The design of the space stations borrows from the design of the International Space Station (ISS), which consists of many different modules and connection corridors. Beside the design aspect, such a modular system allows the assembly of unlimited variants of a space station.

The surface structures are kept modest to not distract from the Human theme by using wicked structures. Throughout Black Prophecy’s story, the Humans have always been hindered in their progress and so always fall back to simple, established systems. Therefore there are no specific form rules but just the stylistic modesty that characterizes the overall picture of the human faction.

Elements like wings have only been used as style elements in single cases as they don’t serve any kind of aerodynamic purpose as with an airplane but are rather used as weapon carriers. The color of the ion drive technology is green as this color appears less threatening which suits the human situation as a suppressed species. This color wasn’t used throughout all elements as the overall picture otherwise would have become too monotonous. All glowing areas have been colored in a neutral white while windows received a slight blue cast. Altogether we have selected colors that can also be found on buildings in human cities.

The human space fighter that was already shown in the gameplay trailer is kept very simple in its form as it wasn’t originally meant for combat operations. Classic details that support the space scenario quite well are short wings as weapon carriers, as well as the engines that relate to classic airplane turbines. To illustrate the technology of each faction in detail, I would like to direct your attention to the space fighter cockpits. Though all cockpits underlie the same basic conception, each one has its own faction specific touch which shows by the coloring, the instrument setup and other accessories.

The human design is again based on the clear, simple line with knobs, switches, controllers and cable harnesses along the cockpit braces. The cockpit itself is riveted and welded and decorated with additional design elements like an emergency oxygen tank and a radio device. It appears tidied up quite much and offers the pilot a full panoramic view, just with the most important instruments at the central brace. All further instruments are placed beyond the field of vision. The cockpit windows are consciously kept dirty to give them more significance. Decent contortions at the window rims, producing a light refraction, intensify this picture. An additional interesting effect that occurs due to this is the dirt at the windows getting scattered diffusely and therefore brightening up the glass at these spots.

The only human capital ships, the colony ships, are designed very space-saving as they are made for journeys over several generations and have to offer appropriate space. We refrained from any kind of gimmickry and gave clear priority to the practical use. A box-like construction is the optimal solution as it offers maximum capacity next to the cylindrical form. Like any other capital ships, the colony ship is set up modularly, can be varied in length and living containers can be easily exchanged with other types. Like the space fighter, the engines are formed cylindrically. The placement of additional accessories like e.g. radar antennas break up the otherwise very box-like look a bit.

The space stations are, like the ISS, designed less compact but more projecting. The combination of the main modules and the corridor modules allows the creation of ribcage-like stations. Hangars for smaller transporters and fighters, as well as docking devices for capital ships complete the overall picture.

Again you can find the approach to generate a classical picture without causing too much similarity to already known stations. The main modules are kept very industrial with their braces and ducts, while other modules, like e.g. the living and administration modules rather have calm and flat surfaces and windows. As with all other factions, the Human space stations also have storage facilities for all three available resources. The form of these facilities is based on the substances that have to be stored.

That’s it for part three of my Art Direction Developer Diary. In the next part we will have a closer look at the Tyi faction with their more technical design approach.

Stay tuned!