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For Sable, developing an evocative art style comes first

In an interview with Forbes posted earlier today, Shedworks' Gregorios Kythreotis discusses the aesthetic design of Sable, an upcoming open world exploration game set in a stylized desert.

Game Developer, Staff

June 26, 2018

1 Min Read
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"We didn’t just start on the art and retroactively make up a game to fit the style."

- Developer of Sable Gregorios Kythreotis on the process of developing an art style for the game.

In an interview with Forbes posted earlier today, Shedworks' Gregorios Kythreotis discusses the aesthetic design of Sable, an upcoming open world exploration game set in a stylized desert. 

Kythreotis has tweeted mesmerizing gifs throughout the game's development, offering glimpses into the process of iterating features like vehicle movement or tweaking shaders.

The unique art style of Sable has generated attention, and when asked if it was established before gameplay in order to complement the graphics, Kythreotis says that the decision came from wanting to evoke emotions.

"We knew that if we didn’t find a way of making something evocative artistically then the experience we wanted to create would be significantly more difficult," he explains. "We did, however, first come up with the essence of what we wanted to make people feel before we started any work." 

this world may be big and lonely, but the designer relied on his architectural studies to fill it with structures that feel like they could be inhabited. He notes that the spaces should not only work as levels, but as inhabitable spaces as well.

"I try to think about a potential client or inhabitant and build a structure or place based on the requirements of the people and the context," Kythreotis adds.

"We’ll also attempt to create a world in which there is a certain degree of faith placed in the spaces themselves being interesting and compelling enough to spend time in and navigating."

Be sure to check out the entire interview over at Forbes, it's definitely worth a read. 

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