On Starsiege Raiders, the environment and gameplay teams needed a jump pad that could launch players high into the air and allow individuals or teams to reposition across the map. The environment art team was extremely busy creating building assets for the general map, so the morning I saw the request, I quickly concepted an idea inspired by the design language of our existing Cybrid (bad guy) ships.

The team loved the concept, so I collaborated with Kosit Jarusipan, our lead environment artist, to review the workflow and requirements for creating and using trim sheets. I then developed a mid-poly mesh that adhered to those specifications. I sketched the plan and layout for a trim sheet that was later reused in other areas of our Tribes project. Afterward, I created the mesh, collisions, and UVs for the trim sheet and imported the model into the engine.

Starsiege Raiders was planned to be an extraction shooter featuring both PvP and PvE elements, fitting into the classic Earthsiege/Starsiege storyline of rogue AIs taking over Earth and threatening humanity. I was deeply invested in the concept and gameplay, so in my free time, I designed and created a visual proposal to integrate the story and environment art into a cohesive vision. Players would drop into real-world locations set in the future, such as Atlanta mega malls, Dunwoody suburbs, and Iowa farmlands. Each area would showcase the marks of Cybrid activity, repurposing our world into their own.

With our skilled team of programmers and designers, and considering our reliance on procedural tools and techniques, I believed this pivot would enhance player immersion while leveraging our growing library of assets to create something new and unique. Using Blender, Krita, and Photoshop, I worked on this proposal despite time constraints and the rapid pace of development (the project had been made in a little under a year from start to finish). To expedite the process for larger ideas, I used MidJourney as a starting point for some concepts and then painted over those images to refine them into my vision.

Ultimately, management decided to stick with fully procedural and random environments to meet our short development timelines. However, I’m proud of the work I accomplished and the thought I put into the proposal.