Gravity Rush‘s art director has released a new concept video that shows the early stages of the game’s development.
On the PS Blog, Gravity Rush Art Director Yoshiaki Yamaguchi first discusses the game’s Bande Dessinee-influenced art style:
Gravity Rush incorporates the theme of Bande Dessinee (BD), a popular Franco-Belgian comic book art style. There are various types of BD style and they can be perceived in many ways. We first approached an element of BD we thought would fit well into the pre-existing game art. One of the differences between realistic expression and schematic expression represented by BD is that BD exaggerates the information that author wants to convey to the audience. By doing so, it conveys more of the accurate information that the author wants to be recognized.
While considering the gravity mechanic in the game, we brainstormed with these elements in mind. If a player can move around freely, the level should not only be big horizontally, but also vertically. Therefore, we designed the city with multiple levels of layers and structures.
Additionally, the line drawing method was used to exaggerate buildings and allow them to be more easily recognized. We also enhanced the color of the sky in order to give additional sensory information to the players.
The direction we chose to use for the game’s graphics conveys the necessary information with exaggeration that matches the player’s sensation. Taking that into consideration, we also wanted to use line drawings, the characteristic of BD and the simulation of beautiful air effects. I think the broader the game art expression becomes, the more interactive a game becomes.
Yamaguchi released a piece of concept art that shows the city in Gravity Rush, which can be seen below. He also released a concept trailer for the game from 2008, which was shown at GDC 2012 and shows the early stages of the game’s development. The concept trailer can be seen below as well.
To view the concept trailer, click on the video below:
To view the concept art, see the image below:
Gravity Rush will be released exclusively for PlayStation Vita on June 12th.
What do you think about the concept trailer? Let us know in the comments below!
