Sacrifice project

Well, I've been working on some environmental concept art for an Unreal mod called "Sacrifice." The overall concept, as well as the Game Design Doc (which includes the story, characters, level diagram, art asset list, level/puzzle descriptions, scripts, art references, et al.) were created by Daniel Cazan. In a nutshell, the story is this: a Death-worshipping alien race descended on a remote Eastern European monastery built on powerful lay-lines, setting a trap that will open a gateway to the realm of Death itself. This trap involved building a mysterious black dome around the monastery, with internal walls dividing the structure into three "pie wedge" sections; individual entrances lead into each of the three sections. Eventually, the dome-shrouded structure was discovered by local hikers and the military was called in to investigate. The military sends teams into each of three entrances, which simultaneously shut, trapping each of the teams inside. The player's character is the leader of (Green) Squad 1.

As in Gears of War (i.e., the Kryll), the player will discover that being surrounded by darkness is a bad thing. One example is the sunken Library of the monastery. The stairs on either side of the room lead only to darkness and death; only by jumping across the tops of the bookcases (and, thus, remaining in the hazy glow of the alien lights) will the player be able to traverse the room.

The first image that the player will see is the--hopefully--awe-inspiring view of the monastery facade surrounded by the alien dome. The pale, artificial light has caused the foliage to wither and many of the structures are crumbling from neglect. Creepy alien devices cover parts of the building in an aesthetic that is Star Trek's Borg crossed with the mechanisms in Event Horizon (e.g., "heavy metallic, spikey, alien look").

Both of these images basically started as pencil drawings which I scanned and colored using Photoshop. I'm still getting my feet wet regarding the use of color, but I'm fairly pleased with how these images turned out.