MONEYSHOT

2011  |  Art Director  |  Rainbow/THQ  |  PS3 & XBox 360

We had a game concept from the studio we thought had some legs, an idea that the player steers a bullet through a set of obstacles. The time would be slowed to pace where that split second journey would last a couple of minutes.

A typical scene from Saints Row 3

We partnered with the Saints Row 3 game to develop the concept in their universe using some of the art assets, including the star character assassin ‘Cypher’ from the evil Ultor company. The game would be a compliment to the franchise, but not fully integrated in the main release.

The experience was split between two styles of environment, a secret futuristic subterranean gun range with holographic elements, and city environments where you swerve to avoid obstacles as much as you target others.

The game designers and art team worked on creating frozen moments in the world that the bullet passes by, all of which would be recapped after completing the level. The player would see secondary target opportunities by for example, knocking a gun out of the hand of a mugger just at the right time.

For the holographic environment, this was the practice ground for the shooter.

The main characters, the bullets, would have different handling characteristics. I designed a set of specialty time warping projectiles based on cutting edge military look.

I wanted to capitalize on the unique setting and speed, to represent the magic world of high speed cameras. The trail behind the bullet was to be a refracted wake, like the hypersonic ones that form around catures of bullets or fighter jets.

I also developed a visual icon set to match the bullets. The player would be able to relate the characteristics to the icons for easy recognition.

For the in-game UI, it was a mix between a missile tracking/fighter jet display and the elements from Saint Row. Icons were big colorful and bold, while the telemetry was displayed like a HUD.

Some screenshots of the almost finalized product. The game never saw a general release despite the buzz about the game. It was a fun exercise regardless, it really showed off the diversity and ability of our studio to work with different style of game.