This is the first design I've created during my mentorship time with the incredibly talented Lars Sowig! Additionally, I also learned techniques from Lars' awesome Learn Squared course. The idea is the inner unit can be kitted out for different missions such as planting an explosive on a particular site, a medical unit outfitted with tools for a revive, and lastly a radiation detection unit. The displayed concept is the explosive device. What I had in mind was that this would be a higher up killstreak reward for a military themed FPS.
This concept started out as a vague idea for some form of explosive, plantable prop the player would earn as a high tier killstreak. The overall look wasn’t dialed in at this point so I sketched many ideas. Some had promise, other’s were trash, but that’s how I found out what worked and what didn’t.
Initial reference
After fleshing out these initial ideas I found out what would be the most intriguing, fun, believable, and ultimately work the best given the style, pacing, and nature of the type of FPS I had in mind. With this said I ultimately went in the direction of designing something with a decent level of intractability and layering in the design. The idea of layers are something I wanted to implement as it communicates value and brings more intrigue once delivered. This also made for some awesome explorations in shape and silhouette change.
After sketching out these designs I ended up going with the case based design as I felt it had the most entertaining function while still grounding itself enough in the medium and seen as being relatively portable and usable. Further exploration can be seen below.
Dialing in some of the above ideas at this stage was the most fun. At this point I was actually thinking the inner palette could have different, changeable variants such as a med-kit version as well as some form of radiation detection kit. While this didn’t make it to the final concept it was a cool avenue to consider and explore. Once the overall design was mocked up I began concepting the more real look via photobashing and some light paintover for more visual clarity.
After my photobashed mockups were completed I began my 3D blocking phase to develop the actual feel, scale, and size and function of my prop.
I’m also a huge fan of world-building and brand/graphic design, so this is typically always an area I’ll spend time on so as to get to max believability and cool factor for both my designs and potential audience/player base. Pictured are some decals I designed for my world.
A closer, final look at the user manual decal and HUD design:
