Dark Souls: Design Works

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I hadn't expected people to say it looked like a character from Demon's Souls though. That wasn't intentional at all. Otsuka: I think it's a really unique area, I remember before travelling there I was excited to see what would happen. Miyazaki: The concept images were extremely rough. They're great for getting the design across, but when it comes to building the model and animating it, it doesn't contain nearly enough information, so we had and-out-of house artist complete the design for us. The thing that takes the longest time and needs the most communication is of course the very first image, so having this work done for you is actually a very good method. In his book, I'm sure there are a lot of rough concept images, I think is interesting to compare them to the finished images. Otsuka: Next, I'd like to talk about each of the areas in the game in a little more detail. I suppose we should start at the beginning in the Undead Asylum.

Miyazaki: I'd be delighted if that were the case! This strays from art design a little, but with the weapon upgrades we made sure that there was one upgrade path that preserves not only the weapon's name, but also the motion and timing. I wanted people to be able to continue to use their favourite weapons so I made this an option. The art of the Soulsseries blows me away. It truly is an adventurous experience, because although the style is consistent, you literally never know what you’re going to walk into next. Whether it’s a series of decadent libraries or a murky, poisonous swamp, every single area in a Soulsgame looks uniquely haunting. Miyazaki: Oh yeah, especially at the beginning. About the world, life and death, and with regards to the game world, the meaning of fire and role of the Four Kings. By talking like this with the artists I found that it not only helped them to develop their ideas, but it really helped me shape my idea of the world I wanted to create. I also tried hard not to be predictable or conservative. Of course, since we decided on a fantasy setting, we couldn't stray too far from that, but we had to be careful not to just take the easy route, or the world would become boring. I really tried hard to maintain this. Miyazaki: You may not believe me, but I always tried to maintain a certain level of refinement and elegance in all the designs. I often told the artists muddy or messy is definitely *not good*. I think this carries through the entire game, of course if you asked me to describe what this "elegance" is… well I think you just have to look at the designs and judge for yourself, but it really is one of the most important factors in everything I oversee.Of course, in cases where I had a clearer idea of what I wanted, the design process was slightly different. For example, this is going to be used in this place, to perform this function or, the area is designed in this way so it must adhere to these conditions. In cases like this I often had a clear image of how I wanted these things to look, for example the mimic and the gargoyles. But regardless of which design process was used, rather than appoint a person to take charge of each concept, I took the designs, talked them over with each of the artists and developed them in that way. -

Otsuka: Now that we've covered the maps, I'd like to ask about the NPCs. There certainly are a lot of memorable characters in the game.Nakamura: Your proximity to the darkness and the impending sense of dread and anticipation, we tried to capture all that in the design. Miyazaki: Yes, a character like that is actually very easy to fit into the game, you can essentially place him anywhere and move him about wherever you want to. Mr. Waragai took care of the design but it wasn't until he added glasses, that the character started to emerge. Miyazaki: Yes. I think she works well here, she's kind of snow-coloured after all…. But I also think the Painted World is place where someone who's being chased might go to escape, and she fits that description.

Nakamura: I heard later that Satake and Miyazaki were discussing my designs over ramen and saying how pleased they were. Miyazaki: According to the artists, it was, but I believe that if your instructions are too specific, the designs you get will be somewhat devoid of creativity, so I try to give out just the most basic, essential information before handing it over to the artists' imaginations, which inevitable eclipses my own. My initial instructions are certainly abstract. For example, when designing equipment I'd simply say "make something you can trust with your life on the battlefield", or "make something that has enchantments to protect you". I think the artists probably didn't know what I was talking about half the time. Miyazaki: Ah, I was quite rude about the first design that reached me, I apologise. Originally I asked for something like Hydrafrom Saint Seiya. I like the poignancy of that character, to have gone through such harsh training to earn his holy armour and after all that, his special ability amounts to nothing more than some claws attached to his hands. You would be pretty crestfallen, wouldn't you? We talked like that a lot, but our images for the armour didn't match, so we spent a long time working on it. Anor Londo for instance is one of the most complicated areas in the game in terms of architecture, and as the mid-way point of the game it's also a very important area, so we spent a great deal of time working on it. After ringing the bells and overcoming the traps of Sen's Fortress I really wanted to player to feel "Yes! I've made it!" I'm also a huge fan of the Gaping Dragon. It's a little different from the other dragons in the world, it's part of an ancient race of mineral based life forms, existing since long before the emergence of mankind, yet, despite its superiority over us, its time has passed, and it finds itself alone in the world, the last of its race forced to survive in any way it can. As to what triggered this change… well, the emergence of life corrupted it, it was warped by emotion and desire…Miyazaki: Yes, that can happen, but as I said before, it's really a chance to hear everyone's ideas and get us all thinking on the same wavelength. I like to encourage everyone to contribute their ideas, no matter how trivial because from those some, great ideas will emerge. For example, having characters imprisoned inside a Crystal Golem. The lead artist actually came up with that idea. While we may end up using less that 10% of these ideas I still think it's an important exercise. Of course, we could just say "you go away and think about these 20 enemies", but I prefer coming up with ideas together, having everyone contribute and develop the concept together. Although too many cooks can spoil the broth. Haha.