Fracked - The Slopes
The world of Fracked is an interconnected series of biomes, linked by multiple routes across the mountainside. The introduction of our version of VR skiing delivers the Bond-like rush of flying downhill avoiding obstacles, whilst engaging in moving combat from all directions. Moving at speed and across large distances presents its own problems when creating playspaces, as careful consideration has to be given to view distances, as well as prop and scenery detail.
The routes were carefully planned and storyboards were used to highlight important beats and plan set pieces.
Many paintings were produced to get the look right for the snow's relationship with the rocky mountains and surfaces. The contrasting shapes became more angular and aggressive as development evolved.
The routes and surrounding wilderness were sculpted in ZBrush. Initially rounded, naturalistic approaches were re-sculpted to give more aggressive, stylised shaping that matched with the game's comic book look.
The wilderness itself is actually greyscale, receiving all of its vibrant colour from hyper stylised time of day lighting. The action takes place over a single day and the colouring over that time is wildly different and beautiful.
More work from the 2D and design departments planning the ski routes down the mountainside.
Man-made props made the routes more interesting to navigate. These had to be simple shapes as you'd be flying past these at high speed, with little time to stop and admire the scenery. These buildings used brutalist architectural references.
Early painting of a mountainside industrial complex
Paintovers of the mountainside, picking out vibrant coloured lighting, simplified tree props, and jagged, contrasting snow/rock shapes.
The enemy has thoughtfully provided watchtowers with highly explosive tanks of gas attached to them! It would be a shame if they were to blow up somehow...
Bringing it all together - an ingame screenshot of a pitched battle with skidoos, hurtling down the mountainside, bathed in yellow light.
Storyboard sequences - hundreds of these images were produced over the course of development and were an invaluable tool. This is one of the main duties of the 2D department on most games.
An abandoned set of images for a ski chase set in the alternate dimension, as seen in the oil rig finale.