Hi there Wanderers! Today we’re going to do some light spelunking into some of Spirit Crossing’s visuals. Specifically, how we arrived at the look of the Shrineworks!
The “Shrineworks” in Spirit Crossing are monolithic industrial structures of living stone, emerging from the terrain of the Crosslands to facilitate the bond between Spirits and Humans.
As developers, it is also our “abstract” faction- a flexible visual language that can be skinned around game mechanics to create coherent and emotionally resonant layers of visual logic.
The development of Shrineworks required threading several needles simultaneously;
- Robust kit of flexible, modular parts
- Evokes mystique and awe with a sense of hidden infrastructural functionality
- Predictable climbability and grid alignment
- Adaptable to unknown gameplay needs in the future
It is also crucial to identify what Shrineworks are not:
- Not: Fabricated architecture build by an ancient culture
- Not: Whimsical Fantasy Magic
- Not: Religious Architecture
One of the most critical lenses we applied while iterating on the language of the Shrineworks was considering the Negative Space the visuals created in the worldbuilding. For example, our original pass was inspired by the incredibly large Incan stonework in Cusco, Peru.
We quickly realized while iterating through what these components looked like that we could not outrun the shadows cast by these concepts in the viewer’s mind. Temples, Courts, Castles, Gardens. Who built them? Why is it here? What is its relationship to humans or spirits?
But all of these visual implications were a distraction. We aren’t making a game about an ancient fantasy culture. We are making a game about connection. We don’t want to have to grapple with navigating this lore when trying to prototype new mechanics. And maybe most of all, where’s the weird? Where is the unexpected? How is this surprising, or memorable?
After more iteration and an increasingly deep forehead-shaped depression on my drawing tablet, a sketch extruded itself through the narrow die we had shaped for it.
Hmm! Interesting.
✅ Clear modular blocks
✅ Sense of detail and clear climbable surfaces.
✅ Tubes imply a sense of functionality and break up the otherwise square surfaces while adding organic flavor
✅ Implied faces create a sense of personality and emotional read
One of the keys to cracking the puzzle was shifting the lens from looking at base blocks not as an architectural kit of walls and windows, but almost as a second terrain kit built of solid masses. The masses could be walls, but they have the adaptability to be anything; Aqueducts to air vents, parapets to power plants, shrines to server farms!
This also began more successfully straddling the line between sci-fi and fantasy: the sci-fi offering a sense of weird yet moored, physical functionality we sought, with the fantasy offering us a sense of organic appeal and timelessness. As one artist recently remarked, it’s kind of like an alien space ship that grows out of the ground.
But the journey did not end there.
See you next time 😉
This blog was written by Justin Oaksford (Art Lead) at Spry Fox, with credits to Shaun Martin (Art Lead) and Ted Terranova (Senior 3D Artist) for their incredible work bringing the Shrineworks to life.
Wait! Before you go..
Here are a collection of beautiful Shrineworks wallpapers for you to decorate all of your devices with. 🧡
See you soon for part II!
