The Making of The Cryptogram
At Ex Populus, there is a high bar when designing games, directing art and producing content of any kind. Recently Ex Populus shared the Cryptogram with it’s beloved community. In this post — we thought we’d bring you “behind the scenes” to learn more about the creation and production of the Cryptogram.
Initially when exploring a new concept its a great practice to explore a wide variety of potential shapes and ideas. In this case we were working with a 3rd party studio we often collaborate with (Calabash) — but under the direction of Mark Harris the creative co-founder of Ex Populus.
The idea of the Cryptogram is an “encrypted lootbox” that would combine elements of both technology and magic in a cosmic environment. Below are the results of the initial exploration:
Once we all agreed that the final concept above was the most promising to pursue — the team made a very simple 3D version of the cube as a proof of concept. As you can see, the first pass on 3D is very simple and lacks the energy effects and “unstable feeling” that you get when looking at the concept art.
One of the main pieces of feedback from Mark Harris was that the standard cube shape was probably too simple. He asked the team at Calabash to explore a Dodecahedron shape. As you can see below, it was a great step forward for the work-in-progress.
In the next pass, the team focused much more on the details on the surface of the model and focused on refining the magic-symbol-meets-technology concept of the previous iteration.
There were a number of subsequent iterations — each one bringing it closer to its final form. As you can see below, making even one high quality asset for a game takes teams of people, exploration, mistakes and plenty of iteration. There are more assets in production in the Ex Populus studio right now that we can’t wait to share with you!
