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[David]

Blog post here.

[Wyvern]

(Microgravity? Don’t worry about it.)

Magnetic boots.

I decided that the central figure looks too much like they’re holding a gun rather than holding a power tool,

Salvaging is dangerous business! Of course they're holding a gun!
Or were holding a gun, until you fixed it. :-P

Overall, interesting! I do like seeing the progress.

(That said - maybe it's not worth the effort, but what I'd want to see in-game is at least a few variations; we shouldn't have exactly the same tomb-raiding image for every salvage mission. The text of the existing Galatea Academy missions is, honestly, great for this - we've got what's essentially the same mission over and over again, but there's always enough subtle differences to make it stay interesting. Getting that much variety in the artwork is probably not worth the effort? But some variety would be very nice.)

[Evil Atlas]

I definitely support going with the lonelier version of the image. It has a much better mystery and exploration vibe. (And something about the positioning of the legs on the people carrying the box kept bothering me.)

[Goblin]

It's great to see the artistic process behind some of the artwork in the game. I wish we could have something similar regarding game mechanics too.

I actually prefer the version with the two figures in the background.

[ishiggydiggydowop]

I personally do prefer the 2-person image without the background characters for the "salvager" aesthetic. But both of them are still amazingly well done - the more populated one is probably just an average day for workers on Nomios "recycling" organs out of the Cryosanctum. 

How much time would you guesstimate it took you from the fourth take/framing, to overall finishing it? It seems like it would take a lot of hours, as someone with 0 artistic background. Even just looking at all the details and shading makes me want to go lie down.

Excited to read all the new writing, and excited to run into this art in a spooky ruin and point and the screen while shouting "DAVID!". Thanks for the write-up!

[Nick XR]

Wow.  That's so impressive!

[David]

How much time would you guesstimate it took you from the fourth take/framing, to overall finishing it? It seems like it would take a lot of hours, as someone with 0 artistic background. Even just looking at all the details and shading makes me want to go lie down.

Ah, lucky for you I've been using my time-tracker for the past two work days while doing this: about 4.5 hours of illustration time.

This might include a little time writing the blog post in which I didn't swap tasks in the tracker because I was jumping back and forth at the end, and also includes a short tangent where I polished out a bit of that close-in shot that I liked (and was going to put it in the blog post, but it'd take a couple hours to make it look really good).

Excited to read all the new writing, and excited to run into this art in a spooky ruin and point and the screen while shouting "DAVID!". Thanks for the write-up!

Oh no, shouting! But you're welcome!

(And something about the positioning of the legs on the people carrying the box kept bothering me.)

(I agree. And I didn't want to keep redrawing them, so going with the version where they're cut is even better.)

(Microgravity? Don’t worry about it.)

Magnetic boots.

*conspiratorial thumbs up*

(That said - maybe it's not worth the effort, but what I'd want to see in-game is at least a few variations; we shouldn't have exactly the same tomb-raiding image for every salvage mission. The text of the existing Galatea Academy missions is, honestly, great for this - we've got what's essentially the same mission over and over again, but there's always enough subtle differences to make it stay interesting. Getting that much variety in the artwork is probably not worth the effort? But some variety would be very nice.)

I mean. On the one hand, yeah, it'd be cool. But also, that way madness lies.

Besides the potential for having to do a lot of tedious edits, making artwork that's very very unique to situations - unless carefully deployed! - makes a certain promise about what level of fidelity to expect in content. I feel alright about giving very important missions unique art, but I'm less ok with doing the same for missions that aren't that important.

(Not that I/we are in any way consistent with this; I'm thinking of a certain sword-based lark.)

So, really, I think it's a matter of doing unique stuff for 1. important stuff, and 2. 'when the spirit takes us'. And maybe that #2 is important to keep you on your toes, so you're never quite sure what's really important...

[Nettle]

So, really, I think it's a matter of doing unique stuff for 1. important stuff, and 2. 'when the spirit takes us'. And maybe that #2 is important to keep you on your toes, so you're never quite sure what's really important...

>Reflexively taps 1, 1, 1
>Skips 6 paragraphs worth of story
Oops-a-daisy!

[Dadada]

As someone who can't even draw a stick man: Very interesting and cool stuff.
Also: I slightly prefer the more busy version with the 2 guys in the background doing their job carrying stuff.
Thumbs up!

[SteelHeart]

You know, I wonder if a take with even more people in it might not be a bad idea, and they could be used on ruins of various sizes? Perhaps more people for bigger ruins?

[TheLaughingDead]

Ahh, I love some good old-fashioned 'horror-tinged tomb raiding' 

Sometimes I'll be playing Starsector, going through the motions like I normally do, when I look at the artwork and a little detail catches my eye. Then I spend five minutes just squinting at the little piece of artwork and admiring the atmosphere/sci-fi bits and bobs/tiny details. It really adds to the experience. Seeing the process for a novel piece is cool!

I think I'm neutral on with or without the background guys. Part of the horror aesthetic is muted by the smallness of the room and the bright glowing doorway, but just seeing the piece makes me think of a temple room four times the size with a tiny blip of light and a line of coffin crates going on seemingly forever into the darkness. So it definitely carries some of that feeling of "we are very, very small."

[nathan67003]

Fell in love with Alastair Reynolds' stuff ever since the Revelation Space series. Man simply knows how to weave mystery around worldly limits (and lack thereof). We all need more fanart of his works in our lives, imo. (greatly approve of that first tag as well)

On the illustration side of things, I can appreciate both versions. With the bg characters, it's got something of a "we're busy stealing the hell out of everything" vibe to it - gives a bit more of a rushed feeling. Scavengers aren't taking their time, they're hauling the goods and hauling ass. Meanwhile, no bg chars gives a more... measured vibe. They're not simply trying to loot the place and get the hell out of dodge, they're carefully, methodically exploring something long since abandoned.

My only artistically-inclined input (I am technically an amateur after all) is that everything is well-lit. If you look throughout, you don't see any actually dark spots, every corner has some light getting there. I feel like having some - probably even just one - dark corner(s), so dark you can't actually make out anything with certainty, would add to the horror/danger part of it. It wouldn't simply be a tomb: it would be a place that is a tomb... and perhaps something else, the suggestion that you cannot fully comprehend it, that it has depths beyond sight.

[Blightor]

Just wondering if there is any kind of idea on the amount of story (narrative) content that is being aimed for?

I understand it might be hard to put a finger on, and it gets complicated by the events system, but some general idea - perhaps that's a quest/mission number, or a time estimate, or even a rough idea on how many words of written stuff?

[Histidine]

Do a version where the salvors are 'cosmic horror blobs'

[bob888w]

I personally prefer the more busy option, in most of my playthroughs I end up with hundreds or even thousands of crew members in order to run my fleets. While the setting is overall lightly grim dark, I find more realistic for a salvage operation to have multiple people on scene.