Bogwalker Concept Design

Bogwalker Studio is currently on hiatus.

The following images were created during the pre vis and game design stages of the first 6 months.

A world that exists outside of ours. An adjacent universe that curates itself. The Sundry may have a mind of its own, bringing things through the membrane that separates its world from ours by sheer force of will. The Sundry then assembles these flotsam and jetsam into segments, thousands of cells separated by The Veil. Inside each cell is a small pocket environment. Many of them may be familiar, but none will be “normal” as defined by our usual existences on Earth. Every environment is heightened.

Each of these cells were to function as different levels in the game, although not approached in a linear fashion. The large structures populating The Sundry throughout — dominating, Brutal, near-impenetrable, and inhabited by god knows what — are our dungeons. These are called the Bastions.

Travelling through The Sundry, risking traversal of The Veil, are our Gang. Our Player Character for the test build is Violet. Forced to lead this Gang after tragedy strikes, but reluctant to take responsibility, she’s going to have to trust herself in order to protect what she cares about.

One of the first images decided upon by the team — “this is IT!”

Space Cowboys? YES. We couldn’t resist the mix of adventure and swagger that comes with the wild west for our Gang’s inspiration, as well as many of our narrative themes. I began with more traditional western looks, then began to add more extraordinary elements and atmosphere. These themes meshed well with our tale and provided a great narrative framework for “anything can happen.” It also felt very fresh to push up against the Brutalist architecture and cold climes.

Below is Forge, the leader of the rag-tag Gang. Early on in the story he’s lost during a dangerous mission. The Gang miss his stoic guidance and father-like approach to leadership. I wanted a physically strong figure with personalized clothing. Everything in The Sundry has come from outside, so the very nature of the universe is eclectic. Forge has either collected these pieces, or arrived through The Veil kitted out in his local garb. I wanted the palette to reflect a celebratory approach to textiles and dyes.

Cowboys in the snow? YES. Genre clashes are a huge part of the fun in this game. I was inspired by the contrast that so much snow would provide.

As the Gang move through the vast Sundry, all possible environments present themselves. Quite a bit of the main story takes place in the Mezzanine, an area made of crackling ice shelves, colourful layered snow, and folklore-based clans.

Below is an initial “stab” at the NPCs found here. They are hearty, dressed as if the cold can’t touch their flesh. More important than dress was their physicality.

We explored all manner of folkloric beasts, inspired by the occult of Eastern Europe. Visual themes of bells emerged, becoming part of the combat design.

The Swine were to be used in an area of The Sundry where oil extraction was the only industry. The filth from their operations stained the ice and snow for miles.

When designing the various Clans of The Sundry, one of my favourites to write about and draw was what we termed The “Joan of Arc” Clan. Consisting of only women and girls, the clan members were stolen and not birthed. The clan would always have exactly 778 members, their holy number. Death would come often to the warring Clan, so replacement members would have to be sourced frequently, but only selected women and girls were taken, those marked by Joan from Heaven. The Clan believes that when they find The One, they can add her to their ranks, then sacrifice her, bringing their number to 777 and immediately allowing for all members to ascend to Heaven. If their numbers ever approached 777 without containing The One, members would have to be very quickly killed.

As we worked on the narrative for the game, we realized that Violet was an independent character that saw the benefits of being part of a team, but wasn’t looking for the responsibility of leadership. Violet took many forms, including her Huntress form below, her sassy anime form, and also her sultry Space Blond look.

Two more characters I was able to focus in on, Ruma The Child (green and purple) and Strange Traveller.

Ruma has spent over a generation ensconced in her pod, the vessel of all of the lost information of her people. She may have the secret of the Bastion technology. But more importantly for the Gang, she knows Forge’s secret, and why he was risking it all on their last mission.

Strange Traveller is heavily based on 60s and 70s sci fi. She is in fact black and white and can only see in those shades. She speaks French, especially when cursing. ST was pulled in through The Veil inside her ship, and she and that vessel are a package deal.

“But where do we fit the dragons?” As the studio members are all big fans of Dungeons and Dragons, growing up on a heavy supply of fantasy, we knew we’d be incorporating everyone’s favourite flying lizards. Our Space Dragons were kind and friendly, with more than a symbiotic relationship with humans, like a loving giant dog. Some were traditionally Western in design, while some were based more on canines, pangolins, or Eastern dragons.

Environmental design was approached thematically — organic versus industrial, hot versus cold. But everywhere throughout the pockets of The Sundry would be found large Brutalist-style Bastions, long abandoned by a lost race. These castles were to function as the dungeons of the game, pushing the player to understand the history of the Bastions and the Alchemy by which they were built. Most of these Bastions were falling apart. However, these structures don’t crumble or “fall” apart — their pieces actually float away, drifting ever so slowly beyond the tethers that bind their hulking blocks. They had been forged using “magic” and those spells were wearing thin.

Below left are Nordic clan dwelling concepts — organic with Viking influence. Below right are the Brutalist Bastions.

This is the Volaris-Volantus — a ship that had been sucked into the The Sundry, through The Veil, carrying its pilot, Strange Traveller. Below is the initial 3D sculpt of the ship. It has a deliberate helmet-like design.

Instead of working on a vertical slice of this game, we decided that a more satisfying proof on concept for our little endeavour would be a prologue of sorts. Below are a few examples of how we approached the scripting and storyboarding, as well as more notes about the ship.

Below are…

A environmental frame in progress. This was to be Beau’s Landing, a psychedelic western oasis at which the Gang takes a needed break, as seen in the above storyboards, frames 3.4 to 4.2.