Wayfinder
James Clarke talks to Airship Syndicate creative director Joe Madureira and his team about their concept work for upcoming RPG Wayfinder
Envisioning other worlds is a not insignificant challenge. It’s also an opportunity, of course. For their upcoming project Wayfinder, Airship Syndicate has developed a new space and place for gamers to contend with intergalactic conflict.
Our conversation begins with an exploration of what constitutes the overall design philosophy at the game studio. Brian Jones, the team’s character lead, sets the conversation in motion when he notes the first questions typically asked of a design and concept.“Is it cool? Is it engaging?” he says. “As simple as it sounds, we constantly ask ourselves these questions. If it isn’t, we go a different direction or iterate until it is. We focus on making exciting and dynamic characters and creatures that not only look great, but also expand upon the rich lore of our worlds.”
Director of brand Billy Garretsen embellishes Brian’s observation. “We hold our art to very high standards, so there is a core philosophy of quality that brings it all together,” he explains. “Both Airship Syndicate and Digital Extremes [publisher] believe in making games that value our players’ time, and we try our best to make each character as compelling to look at as they are to play. We don’t spend too much time chasing visual trends from other games on the market and really enjoy carving out our own space. We often think, ‘What would we want to play?’ and then make it.”
For all of the team’s enthusiasm, there’s also a recognition that making creative choices that work is not easy; that it always involves challenges. Of these challenges, in relation to the character design work undertaken for Wayfinder, the CEO and creative director Joe Madureira points out one specific challenge. “We started out with a broader and more traditional character creation system,” he says.
“When we pivoted to become more character focused, we did have some work to do in converting those early characters and rigs [some work had already been done on them, including animations] to be the more iconicfeeling Wayfinders like those we’ve introduced. Creatures are a bit easier, and sometimes more fun!”
SWAPPABLE ELEMENTS
That integration of systems at the studio provide the space in which to be creative, as Brian explains: “We have different systems when it comes to different types of characters and creatures, each wi
