Making of the Herald Part 1
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9133793-making-of-the-herald-part-1
The Iconian Heralds came from the idea that Iconia had at least two native sentient species. One of them is what we today call Iconians, highly evolved both physically and mentally. And then there was a less evolved race now known simply as the Heralds that serves as personal bodyguards and servants for the Iconians. Keeping that in mind when we started creating the Heralds, we didn’t want to stray too far away from what we already know about the Iconians and their physiology. Iconians have slender bodies, three-fingered hands and most notably, an elongated face with three pairs of eyes instead of the usual single pair that most known Star Trek aliens bear. The Heralds have similar physical attributes to the Iconians, as if they are to the Iconians what apes are to humans.
“Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.”
-Rod Serling
All Iconian technology comes from the premise that eventually any advanced enough tech would be too much for most people to understand. For a layman, it might as well be magic.
In the Kardashev scale, Iconians are a type-two civilization, capable of harnessing the full power of a star. Everything about both Iconians and Heralds seems out of place in Star Trek, as it should be. The universe is infinite, and so is the possibility that a race like the Iconians and/or Heralds might exist. For us, a race like that might as well be a race of gods. One can only imagine their logic and societies (if those even apply) and we can be sure it won’t fit any preconception we have today about what alien societies might look like.
Based in several culture behaviors here on planet Earth, we extrapolated that the Heralds would want to look as much possible as the Iconians, whom they revere as gods, but so much that they looked pretentious. Here on Earth, several pre-Columbian civilizations tried very hard to mimic the look of their gods in their attire, even to the point of modifying the shape of their skull. Herald armor borrows heavily from the look and feel of their ships. Long and heavy lines
indicate a cold logic, a heavy sense of functionality and pure purpose.
Like in portrayals of angels and other divine beings, the Heralds “dress for the occasion.” When they go to a place, they want to impress and overwhelm. They know they have advanced technology and try as hard as possible to hide it in plain sight. Their weapons and armors look deceivingly low tech so they can display their real power later on. I see this race relying heavily in theatrics to reinforce their “magical nature” to what they consider lesser races.
The Heralds also draw heavily from human archetypes and folklore in their main characteristics and abilities. In this case, you see the warlock (captain), the demon (lieutenant), the ghost (construct) and the behemoth (commander). Everything about the Heralds was done to make sure their dark intentions were revealed right away.
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Hector Ortiz
Concept Artist
Making of the Herald Part 2
The design of the Heralds was made by a number of talented people all collaborating together. It was a team effort from both the design and art departments. The Heralds are a species that serve the Iconians more closely than other servitor races. The Heralds were distinct from the Iconians, but similar to them at the same time. While they also had the six eyes, they were supposed to be an entirely different species than the Iconians. The challenge was then to make a unique looking race, while still being easily associated (visually) to the Iconians.
In the early discussions, we thought of the Heralds as not only a servitor race, but a race that actually worshipped the Iconians. The Iconians were so few, and yet so advanced, that the Heralds thought of them as deities. Indeed, the Iconian technology was so far ahead of anything else that whatever they passed down to the Heralds would be almost “magical.” With this in mind, we envisioned the Heralds not using traditional sci-fi tropes such as ray-guns, and instead using weapons and gear more akin to “magic.” So instead of a phaser assault weapon, the Heralds could use weapons such as a staff with a glowing orb; or a mace that does massive melee damage; yet these weapons would be able to attack at range. The Heralds were to be a contrast of visual style and technology compared to anything else in the game.
Are the Heralds made of flesh and bone? Were they like the Iconians, whose bodies seem to pulse with dark energy? Since the Iconians would be less frequently seen, we wanted their presence to be projected by the Heralds. As a result, we wanted the Heralds to convey the dark and scary nature of the Iconians whenever the player fought them. They pulsate with the same dark energy aura, and they use some of the same attacks (visually) as the Iconians. Since the Iconians use gateway technology, the Heralds have some of the same abilities to travel quickly across distances – even during combat.
One of our talented Senior Character Artists, Joe Jing, took our initial designs and brought them to fruition. He took the dark and scary nature of the Iconians and successfully brought them into the Heralds. Joe did a great job in making an exceptional enemy group that conveyed the darkness of their Iconian masters, yet still looked distinct in their own right. We hope our players will be challenged and yet enjoy fighting these new enemies.
Ian Castaneda
Lead Character Artist
Bringing a concept to life as actual game assets is often a challenge. There is a great deal of translation involved.
Additionally, everything in game development is on a schedule, and it is usually a tight one.
Examining the concepts, you can see similar characteristics across each character, even though they are wearing unique uniforms. We didn’t have the time to make a unique head-to-toe costume for each, so we had to be clever about sharing a lot of the costume elements and only make a couple truly unique pieces for each character.
A key to making the actual game characters in this case was focusing on key elements and overall impressions from the concept. Take a look at the color group shot concept; look at each character. Now, without looking at the image, what stood out? There’s a lean floating guy with coat tails or skirt, one is a huge dude in heavy armor, an energy robot, and a toned guy with horns. Lots of metal and techy bits, reds, oranges, purples. You may even think it resembles a specific sci-fi character you’ve seen in movies, comics, games, etc.
These are the fundamentals of what makes the characters stand out and now you can begin to break down the crucial specific details and begin the first pass at the game assets.
We often begin with proxy costumes. The design team is usually doing their work simultaneously to the work on the art team. They need to see costumes that look close to the final product to check for scale, readability, etc. One of benefits of any of Cryptic’s games is the characters are built on an immensely versatile system of interchangeable parts and body scaling. So we put together temporary outfits mainly reusing costume parts that already exist giving us a great start very early on.
Jumping ahead to the final render you can see many shared pieces. Even the shoulder pads are essentially the same across three of the characters just rotated or scaled differently. At the same time, there are enough unique looking elements on each to make them feel very distinct. Weapons also feature a key role in accentuating the characteristics of each character. The end result accomplishes the visual goals set forth in the original design and concept in a practical way for STO’s character system and schedule.
Joe Jing
Senior Character Artist
A lot of great artists were involved in making the heralds. I hope you have fun fighting against them. See you in game.
Samuel “Swallrus” Wall
Art Lead
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