Time for another update, everyone. We’ll be reverting back to these written blog updates for the next few weeks since the video version is taking more time than we thought it would to do. We’ll keep the video coming because we are getting close to having some cool things we can show, we just won’t be putting it out as frequently.
As you can imagine, given Astrobase’s focus on character-driven stories, we are spending a lot of time nailing down their appearance.
We’re scouring through a wealth of reference material to find the right way to convey the universe’s harshness. Resource scarcity is the rule, not the exception, so everyone has to make due with rugged, utilitarian clothing that can fulfill a number of roles.
Thankfully, there’s no scarcity when it comes to sources of inspiration. We’re considering everything from Moebius to to the iconic Rebel troopers, valiant defenders of the Tantive IV (trust me, cargo pants are going to be huge on Deneb this year) and everything in between.
We’re also spoiled rotten with a ton of great ideas coming out of the real world. We live in a time where the weird and wonderful of science fiction is having a hard time keeping up to good ol’ fashioned science and engineering. Witness this crazy Swedish inflatable bike helmet:
And even NASA is serving up some retro-futuristic fodder for us to ponder with their biosuit:
All this to say, that these images, and many like them, are spawning lots of concepts. Developing a shared picture of where we want to go takes a lot of discussion, and no small amount of sketching to ensure we can agree with what the game’s inhabitants will look like. This is particularly true with Daniel, our artist, being located light years away on the planet moon Sweden VII. It doesn’t matter how great our ideas are, if we can’t pare them down and convey them in such a way that Daniel can use the information to shape the character’s appearance, all we are doing is screaming in the void.
Right now, we’re leaning towards utilitarian coveralls for the enlisted and NCO members of the Astrobase crew. This is but one of many concepts that we’re tossing around, so there could still be plenty of changes. In this case, we’re channeling aspects of the NASA space program, fighter flight suits, and modern combat uniforms. Don’t set up us the bomb if later on they don’t appear as shown here.
The characters’ appearances will be modular, and you’ll be able to see the gear they’re wearing and what they’re equipped with just by looking at them.
We also want to allow you to modify their color schemes, so you won’t be stuck with the standard redshirt = security model. You will be able to define colors for major astrobase functions, and the character’s clothing will match the duty divisions to which they are assigned.