Early SotA Character Concept Art

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by dloubet, Dec 31, 2014.

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  1. dloubet

    dloubet Avatar

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    Here's the first in a series of early character concept pieces I did for Shroud of the Avatar. This was posted to my patrons a week ago, so I you want to see these early, visit www.patreon.com/denisloubet and consider becoming a patron.
    As you can see, the early concept of SotA had a heavy steampunk influence. Lots of leather and brass, lots of straps and pockets. I think it would have made for a distinctive game. Would you have played this character?
    [​IMG]
    Denis Loubet
    www.denisloubet.com
     
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  2. Sir Frank

    Sir Frank Master of the Mint

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    I would have played the hell out of that game!
     
  3. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    I think I need to sign up for your patreon.

    It was wonderful meeting you at HoBLotH. The Steampunk design reminds me of the criminally underrated game, Arcanum.

    http://www.gog.com/game/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura
     
  4. dloubet

    dloubet Avatar

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    Thanks guys! :-D

    I'll be posting more as they appear. Is this the right forum to post them?
     
  5. Maka

    Maka Avatar

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    I'm not a huge steampunk fan, so I'm not sure this would have drawn my money. I can however appreciate the wonderful art you've created. :)
     
  6. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

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    Denis, I like this picture. It is great and I have nothing against steampunk - but not for SotA please ;-) I have read BotA and I know why and whence some technically aspects came from. But I would not like it, if SotA would become more steampunkish as it currently is.


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  7. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

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    I so much loved the world of Arcanum. And at the time it reminded me much of the Ultimas. It had the dual scale map, the companions, recipes and lots of tongue in cheek stuff.

    Old time fan here. You remember the Cardboard Heroes IIRC you made in the early 80s?
    It was not until much later I realized the Ultima covers and the Cardboard Heroes was made by the same guy.
     
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  8. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    I think he means that he developed steampunk artwork based upon an earlier concept of SotA. The current version of SotA is not steampunk. Richard has been saying since he finished Ultima IX that a potential sequel would jump far ahead in the future and have more technology. However, it seems he dialed back that idea a bit to what we see in SotA.

    I think it is fascinating that this world has radio waves and electricity, except it isn't electricity to them. It is etheric energy. The moon towers are powered by the moon. Yet they haven't invented gunpowder. In one of the in game book submissions I wrote, I address this a bit. An Avatar from Earth tries to create electricity and finds that things simply work differently in this world.
     
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  9. CaptainJackSparrow

    CaptainJackSparrow Avatar

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    Captain Jack watched an old video related to this topic a short time ago. It seems that it was actually Richard's orig ideas and desire to have this stuff in Shroud.

    Captain Jack would place a wager on this, and that wold be that he bets that if he goes back to the beginning of the forum and checks he will see all of you Ultima purists sling your mud at that idea which then lead us to where we are today. With another sword and shield chicken soup rpg. There are other sword and shield games that changed to a punk theme once upon a time, and do you know what happened? They became wildly popular. Even girls started playing games!

    Shroud of the Avatar was more exciting once upon a time. The concept art is great, the names of items and possibilities suggested by the technology are also very interesting. But no, Ultima fans have taken us from hand held rail guns to iron swords, from infrared vision assisted headgear to iron helmets. Captain Jack shakes his head.

    Do you see Captain Jack holding a sword in his avatar picture? Nope. The concept art and early direction of the game had it played out not only would have lead Captain Jack to this project much sooner, it would see him also drop a lot more money into it.
     
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  10. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

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    Sir Cabirus think that SotA was announced as a spiritual sucessor of Ultma 1 - 9 and UO. But maybe the time will come and Lord British will design a spiritual sucessor of Martian Dreams also. Sir Cabirus smiles. It is not too bad to be an Ultima purist he thinks ;-)


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  11. dloubet

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    Fear not, Sir Cabrius, enderandrew is correct in saying that these concepts were shelved in times gone by. But I will have fun showing The SotA That Could Have Been. Whether it evokes excitement or ennui is, of course, up to the reader!

    But please post these pictures around as you see fit, and let the people know where they come from, for if enough SotA fans become my patrons, they will be the ones that own me, and thereby reap the reward of much SotA artwork! ;-)

    Until then, thank you for all the kind words!

    Below are a couple of early pieces I released to announce my SotA concept art reveal.

    www.patreon.com/denisloubet

    [​IMG]
     
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  12. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

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    I love your artwork very much Denis and I think I will become a patron as soon as I'm back from vacation :)


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  13. stile

    stile Avatar

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    Back before Shroud, there was a concept for a MMO style game that would be a mobile game, that would have a heavy steampunk feel.

    Richard referred to it as something else.

    Plans seemed to have changed (thankfully.. I think as a mobile i wouldnt be here), and it became SotA.
     
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  14. dloubet

    dloubet Avatar

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    Thank you! I need all the help I can get! :)

    I think -- I hope -- that it's the holidays that have jammed my Patreon effort. I need more! ;-)
    It's also hard to explain that patrons can set a monthly ceiling on their funding so as not to exceed their budget. You only contribute as much as you want.

    www.denisloubet.com
    www.patreon.com/denisloubet
     
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  15. dloubet

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    And I am glad they abandoned the mobile idea.
    Part of the plan I understood was to have the rural areas be more like Ultima, but the urban centers be more steampunk. That would have been an interesting mixture.
     
  16. dloubet

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    Early Shroud of the Avatar farmer concept art. I started with research on actual Victorian farmer fashion, and went from there. I was going for a slightly more "innocent" look, harkening to fantasy of the previous century. It's the kind of innocence that gave us the look of the characters in The Wizard of Oz.
    My patrons at www.patreon.com/denisloubet have the early female Farmer concept illustration, which you'll get to see next Sunday.
    [​IMG]
    Denis Loubet
     
  17. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

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    I've been one of Denis' Patreon backers since (I believe) the first day he put his site up. I have 8 (?) pieces of character art done by him through his Draw My Character effort, and 3 more in queue pending them bubbling up to the top. I know that The Mad Hermit and Sir Frank also have characters drawn by Denis, as they use them here for their avatars and in their signatures.
    I've been a fan since the early days of Steve Jackson Games, and Origin Systems. I whole heartedly endorse the support of this man and his art for the contributions he's made to gaming, both computer and table top over the decades... It also doesn't hurt that he's * good.

    Here are a few...

    My oldest roleplaying character... You'll recognize the name :)
    [​IMG]

    My current character run in the same world as Rufus... a 'second generation' campaign:
    [​IMG]

    A Star Wars character... He had Atrocious stats, but was a really fun character to play:
    [​IMG]

    And, one of my other favorite characters... The character was meant to look like a real-world friend of mine. When I uploaded the image to Facebook the first time, Facebook asked if I wanted to tag the image as the person that it was supposed to look like. That's a pretty good indication to me that Denis got it right:
    [​IMG]

    *edited for language - Koldar
     
  18. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

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    Done - altough still on holyday :)


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  19. Myrcello

    Myrcello Avatar

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    I think the main error many have is that spiritual does not mean copy paste.
    The graphic and time period of a game is not the spirit for me, it is just the frame the game takes place.

    Some might not be able to follow my thinking. But you can make a spiritual successor of a medieval game that plays in a total different time frame or even style.

    A spiritual successor could have also been created in a Gothic World, a science fiction world, a Steam Punk World or even in our current time.

    Try to think Highlander ( Part 1) - The feeling and spirit of the movie was not bound to medieval. The movie jumps form one time period to another, but it still is a consistent story, style and atmosphere all instantly are able to attach to Highlander. ( Forget the other parts of the movie)


    Like TheMadHermit told me just short ago, i think we Old Ultima Fans need to jump out of our Comfort Zone how we imagine a game to give the new magic a chance.

    And back to topic of OP - wonderful Art and wonderful Idea to be able to become a Patron!
     
  20. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    I agree, in much the same way that Bioshock is a spiritual successor to System Shock in a different setting.
     
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