Another Red Steel Interview: Artistic Director Stephane Bachelet
The last interview we featured concerning Red Steel was Hyper magazine’s with Red Steel associate producer Jean Baptiste Duval, where he talked about the game’s immersive use of the Wiimote-Nunchuck controllers and a couple of gameplay details. Well, this new interview is IGN’s with artistic director Stephane Bachelet, who gives a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Red Steel‘s visuals, as well as a handful of new screenshots to complement the goodie bag.
Bachelet reveals that what was shown at E3 was a “work in progress” – obviously the time since then was well spent on bootstrapping the graphics to the next level. “The E3 demo had to be delivered so quick that we could not take time to implement the whole graphic chart we developed. So, the E3 version’s graphics was a work in progress, just to be show-able, but not finished… Now we work on developing our complete style specific to Red Steel that will not only be a great support to the scenario and the gameplay, but also be the visual identity and signature for this new brand. We keep working a lot on the impact of the graphics and on the way the player plays as well.”
The choice to set the game in Japan defines the visual signature of Red Steel, but there is one more influence that the artistic team drew from, one which wasn’t present in the E3 demo. “We took inspiration from a completely different style where flashy colors are there, but not everywhere: 70s ‘films noirs’ such as Straw Dogs. It was interesting for us as it is a very edgy, dark atmosphere with tons of attitudes and colors: a perfect inspiration for us.”
Contrasting the vivid neon colors of urban Japan with the gritty, subdued palettes of film noir meant pushing the lighting system to make those neon lights stand out, while “de-saturating” the palette towards more colored greys. “In the end, the goal is to look old but not black and white and flashy colors add a touch of modernism. We support a lot the ‘films noirs’ side of the game, but we adapt it our way.”
Well, you know the clich?a picture’s worth more than a thousand words. In Japan, so’s a haiku. The screenshots we picked below from IGN’s gallery is both: a picture that better explains the work Bachelet and his team has done since the E3 demo, and a poetic screencap of neons fighting against the urban gloom as you, the player fight against your Yakuza enemies .(All pictures from IGN.com).
Commenting on the Wii’s graphics capabilities, Bachelet noted that the console “set a limit, in fact. That is why we started working on a stylish realistic rendering rather than on a pure photorealism treatment, with shaders and other heavy effects. The idea is to provide eye-catching scenes that are really cool and emphasize the action of the game, rather than places that highlight impressive effect, which you do not pay any attention to in the middle of the action anyway.” It does pay to stop and smell the roses – or to be accurate, take in the sights: “Note that these contrasts between shadows and colors should also help the player to progress / to be guided through the levels.”
By the looks of things Red Steel is coming together quite nicely as the countdown to its release continues.
Via IGN.com
The last interview we featured concerning Red Steel was Hyper magazine’s with Red Steel associate producer Jean Baptiste Duval, where he talked about the game’s immersive use of the Wiimote-Nunchuck controllers and a couple of gameplay details. Well, this new interview is IGN’s with artistic director Stephane Bachelet, who gives a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Red Steel‘s visuals, as well as a handful of new screenshots to complement the goodie bag.
Bachelet reveals that what was shown at E3 was a “work in progress” – obviously the time since then was well spent on bootstrapping the graphics to the next level. “The E3 demo had to be delivered so quick that we could not take time to implement the whole graphic chart we developed. So, the E3 version’s graphics was a work in progress, just to be show-able, but not finished… Now we work on developing our complete style specific to Red Steel that will not only be a great support to the scenario and the gameplay, but also be the visual identity and signature for this new brand. We keep working a lot on the impact of the graphics and on the way the player plays as well.”
The choice to set the game in Japan defines the visual signature of Red Steel, but there is one more influence that the artistic team drew from, one which wasn’t present in the E3 demo. “We took inspiration from a completely different style where flashy colors are there, but not everywhere: 70s ‘films noirs’ such as Straw Dogs. It was interesting for us as it is a very edgy, dark atmosphere with tons of attitudes and colors: a perfect inspiration for us.”
Contrasting the vivid neon colors of urban Japan with the gritty, subdued palettes of film noir meant pushing the lighting system to make those neon lights stand out, while “de-saturating” the palette towards more colored greys. “In the end, the goal is to look old but not black and white and flashy colors add a touch of modernism. We support a lot the ‘films noirs’ side of the game, but we adapt it our way.”
Well, you know the clich?a picture’s worth more than a thousand words. In Japan, so’s a haiku. The screenshots we picked below from IGN’s gallery is both: a picture that better explains the work Bachelet and his team has done since the E3 demo, and a poetic screencap of neons fighting against the urban gloom as you, the player fight against your Yakuza enemies .(All pictures from IGN.com).
Commenting on the Wii’s graphics capabilities, Bachelet noted that the console “set a limit, in fact. That is why we started working on a stylish realistic rendering rather than on a pure photorealism treatment, with shaders and other heavy effects. The idea is to provide eye-catching scenes that are really cool and emphasize the action of the game, rather than places that highlight impressive effect, which you do not pay any attention to in the middle of the action anyway.” It does pay to stop and smell the roses – or to be accurate, take in the sights: “Note that these contrasts between shadows and colors should also help the player to progress / to be guided through the levels.”
By the looks of things Red Steel is coming together quite nicely as the countdown to its release continues.
Via IGN.com
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