ECHO - Character Concepts
I was the Game and Art Director on the PC/PS4 game ECHO, produced and published by the Copenhagen Studio ULTRA ULTRA - Now sadly defunct. The game shipped in the fall of 2017.
Here is a brief look at my concept work on the character(s) of ECHO.
The game is available here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/551770/ECHO/
This was the main En concept piece. We went through a lot of iterations during the process, refining the details, but it ended up fairly close. I kind of miss the jewelry in the final product, but it felt too busy.
Much of the concepting process was doing paintovers on Søren Bech's 3D mockups. Here's a look at the suit's gloves, with a wrist-brace meant to lock/interface with various tools and vehicles.
The helmet had to be able to deploy and stow itself, which was an interesting challenge. The design took the usual trip into (way too) complicated, before reeling it back into clean lines.
En's gun ended up exactly like the art, except for the wooden handle. Wood was cool, but didn't mesh with the rest of the suit.
The basic silhouette evolution of Echoes.
How would the Echo's look when they're nearly finished? These became a little too Horror, so we ended up going for a less "melted" look.
Getting a bit closer to En with this "Alien Baroque" version. The suitcase is also slowly turning into the red glass cube we now know and love.
First attempt at a protagonist for the idea that became ECHO. I still really like the overall weirdness of this suit, and the gun clicking into an aim-assist arm-brace. -I don't miss the Swiss Army Suitcase though.
This is the final character as seen on one of the game's Key Art images, rendered in Unreal. The character was made by Søren Bech.
Another Key Art render from Unreal. The character was made by Søren Bech.