Early in its development cycle, n-Space was quietly working on Heroes of Ruin without Square Enix. The developer shopped around for a publisher and struck a deal with Square Enix’s London Studio. Like most titles, developers have to send ideas and art for approval. The publisher sends back suggestions, if necessary, and the two parties discuss the direction of the game.
Square Enix decided to touch up n-Space’s art and they hired Adi Granov who created covers for Captain America and X-Men volumes to do it. “This work was done by Adi Granov that Square [Enix] had hired to do artwork. We set up all of the initial art and internally created the character classes. All of that goes through an approval process where we send it to Square and they offer their input,” Chris Bromby, art director at n-Space, said in a Siliconera interview.
“This is a different artist’s interpretation of what we have in game, a very talented artist,” Tim Schwalk, producer at n-Space, added. This piece of key art showcases the four classes in the Nintendo 3DS game – the Savage, Vindicator, Gunslinger, and Alchitech. Of course, the characters look different in game and I asked Bromby about the transition from concept art to 3D models.
“One of the challenges working with the 3DS is the screen real estate. You can’t take a realistically proportioned character and convey them on the screen as well. We have a slightly stylized look to the game just because the proportions need to be exaggerated so they can be readable on the screen. That’s where we worked with Square to come up with a good look for our game,” Bromby explained.
Heroes of Ruin will be available early next year.
