2. Creating Horror and Immersion with the Art of Dead Space (which could be canceled any minute) Ian Milham Dead Space Art Director

4. Lullabye Trailer

5. Outline Where we started Horror vs. Sci-Fi What We Did –Color and Lighting –User Interface –Environment Design –Player Character –Weapon Design –Enemies What Went Right / What Went Wrong Work-in-Progress Examples Q&A

6. DEAD SPACE GOALS (JAN ‘06) Create new survival horror franchise (not a lot of competition compared to market, EA had none) 85 Metacritic Don’t get cancelled and screw up new I.P. green lights for others

7. LET’S NOT GET FANCY Risk tolerance already maxed out before starting: New IP vs. Simpsons, Lord of the Rings, Godfather Small Team Almost No engine when we started Stylization works against horror

8. HORROR VS. SCI-FI ACTION HORROR (Little Competition) Slow Movement, Exploration Less Combat, More Lethal Environmental Storytelling More Mystery Fragile Everyman Player SCI-FI ACTION (Tons of Competition) Fast Movement Frequent Combat, Less Lethal Action Storytelling More Explicit Superheroic Ass Kicker ALWAYS EMPHASIZE HORROR!

9. keys to horror art direction Accessible, Believable, and Relatable Games already a step behind film “reality” Not too many logic leaps required Easy to relate to Keep magic tech to a minimum (No Lasers or force fields) Immersive Once we’ve got them, don’t let go Don’t remind them it’s just a game Must Move Away from Sci-Fi Action!

10. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting User Interface Environment Design Player Character Weapon Design Enemies

11. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” COLOR AND LIGHTING User Interface Environment Design Player Character Weapon Design Enemies

12. COLOR AND LIGHTING

13. DAVID FINCHER

14. Ambient Texture Only

15. + Ambient Occlusion

16. + Lights

17. + Shadows

18. + VFX Light Source Textures

19. + VFX / Bloom/ FSAA

20. + Color Look-Up

24. Using color to show progress and build emotion

28. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting USER INTERFACE Environment Design Player Character Weapon Design Enemies

29. WHY WE HAVE NO HUD

30. Typical game HUD elements were found to work against horror. It killed our believability and immersion. WHY WE HAVE NO HUD Scary! Not Scary!

31. No World Interface

32. First Round

33. Added Door Halos

34. Added Directional Signs

39. WIN!

41. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting User Interface ENVIRONMENT DESIGN Player Character Weapon Design Enemies

55. NEIGHBORHOOD LOOKS IndustrialPublicClean

56. INDUSTRIAL

57. PUBLIC

58. CLEAN

62. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting User Interface Environment Design PLAYER CHARACTER Weapon Design Enemies

67. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting User Interface Environment Design Player Character WEAPON DESIGN Enemies

71. RIGHT, SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH “ACCESSIBLE, BELIEVABLE, RELATABLE, and IMMERSIVE” Color and Lighting User Interface Environment Design Player Character Weapon Design ENEMIES

77. Outline Where we started Horror vs. Sci-Fi What We Did –Color and Lighting –User Interface –Environment Design –Player Character –Weapon Design –Enemies WHAT WENT RIGHT/WHAT WENT WRONG Work-in-Progress Examples / Q&A

78. RIGHT: PUSHED INTERNAL PR HARD

79. RIGHT: 3D CONCEPT ART

81. RIGHT: DID LESS, POLISHED MORE Polish and Presentation highest scoring aspects of DS Controlled what problems we tackled We cut off rendering features early. –Relatively modest rendering (no HDR, basic shading) –Artists had final tools early, learned them well We cut off content early –Engineering Alpha 4/18 –Content Alpha 5/31 –Content Lock 7/31 (No A or B bugs) –Audio Lock After Everyone else (huge win) –Ship 10/14 Tons of Focus Grouping, time to properly respond

82. WORK IN PROGRESS EXAMPLES / Q&A Dismemberment Prototype (Spring 2006) Xbox Whitebox Capture (Summer 2006) Pregnant Necromorph Pre-Viz (Winter 2007) Lurker Necromorph Pre-Viz (Winter 2007) Leaper Necromorph Pre-Viz (Winter 2007) Infector Necromorph Pre-Viz (Winter 2007) Grabber Necromorph Pre-Viz (Winter 2007) Greenlight Demo Capture (Spring 2007) Thanks!