User blog:TheBlueRogue/Raising Dunwall: World-building in Dishonored

At this year's Game Developer's Conference, Art Director Sebastien Mitton discussed the process behind creating the city of Dishonored, Dunwall. Mitton discussed the pre-production process, which included high concept design work, visiting locations, studying urban experiences and European architecture design, and researching similar time periods.

Concept
Dishonored was orignally set in midevil Japan; some thought that Japan was not a good fit, for it was rather unfamiliar in it's history. Wanted to move the setting to London, 1666. The Black Plague, from the market's standpoint, it was a good city to work with.

London was viewed a starting point, wanted to create walled cities, a lot of characters.

Villains would be important in visual storytelling Someone to take down, how do you display that in the world?

Utilize balconies, to give merging paths Contrasts, light and shadows, rich and poor people, different color styles

Mysticism, to twist with the mood and emotions of the player, experience what is different with the player.

Preform solid research. Research on the time period, slowly shifted to the 20th century, we created a gap between the two periods and mix them to create an alternate history/science fiction type feel.

Inspirations
Canaletto

Gustave Doré

J.A. Grimshaw

H.E. Buland

Jacek Malczewski

Carl Spietzweg

Dagnan Bouveret

Focuses
Texture of the props, photography.

Legibility, be able to convey who the people in the world are clearly to the player.

Technology, move from 1666 onward, use retro-future tech, not too futuristic, how to distill the look.

Focus on the unseen: back alleys, storestronts, borrow elements of the architecture. Utilize the important of verticality.

The oppression, borrowing the element of being monitored, controlled, walled in, which is a vibe in London itself.

anoramics of the city, flavor with electricity, close your eyes guards patrolling. Top of thte hill to see

The important of hills, and how you can build your buildings around this?

By night, different tones. References to old time gadgets, mechanisms, etc early designs of mechanical machines

Iconic characters inspiration came from pirates, heavily stylized. Mugshots.