Let me slowly check and share some updates about Ex Populus for you!
This is the June 2022 news:
At Ex Populus, whether designing games, directing art, or producing any form of content, we have a very high standard. Recently, Ex Populus shared Cryptogram with its beloved community. In this post, we would like to take you "behind the scenes" to learn more about the creation and production process of Cryptogram.
Itâs always good practice to explore a variety of possible shapes and ideas when initially exploring a new concept. In this case, we worked with a third party studio we often collaborate with, Calabash, but under the guidance of Ex Populusâ creative co-founder Mark Harris.
The idea for Cryptogram is a "crypto loot box" that combines elements of technology and magic in a cosmic setting. Here are the results of that initial exploration:
Once we all agreed that the final concept above was the most promising, the team made a very simple 3D version of the cube as a proof of concept. As you can see, this first attempt at 3D was very simplistic and lacked the energy effects and "wobbly feel" seen in the concept art.
One of the main pieces of feedback from Mark Harris was that the standard cube shape might be too simple. He asked the Calabash team to explore a dodecahedron shape. As shown below, this is a big improvement over the work in progress.
In the next attempt, the team paid more attention to the details of the model's surface and focused on refining the magical symbols and technical concepts from the previous iteration.
It went through multiple iterations, each time bringing it closer to its final form. As you can see below, making even one high-quality asset for a game requires team effort, exploration, mistakes, and lots of iterations. Ex Populus Studios has many more assets currently in production, and we canât wait to share them with you!
