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DLC area concept art | Deathbound
DLC area concept art made for “Accepted by Death’, Deathbound‘s boss rush downloadable content. In 2023 I joined Trialforge to work as a prop and environment concept artist. It is a pleasure to share those. ♥
This is the ‘Path to Death’, a snow-themed hub in which you’ll find a deeper part of the Church of Death lore. Gameplay-wise, you can use portals to face the game’s bosses as new challenges. All pillars and most buildings have a mausoleum motif in which parts of the structure are made with bones and remains.
I was responsible for concepting this area from scratch, then funneling those explorations onto thorough callouts and prop sheets the 3D team would use to create this area. I’d venture back and forth between Blender and the drawing boards for these, then provide rough 3D sketches to the Environment team so they could test and adjust the prop sizes in-engine before modeling the final designs.
An engine view of the finished Grief’s Pathway, and a gorgeous Death statue. ♥
Initial exploration
At first we’d discuss how to present this area — a spiraling tower? Floating isles? We decided in favor of the floating isles as these were a recurring theme in the game already.First explorations — an illustration showing portals circling a floating isle.
Path to Death Entrance Concept and shots
This is an area you visit soon after entering the DLC.In-game view of the DLC’s entrance.Entrance’s exterior shots.Another shot, with the caged souls, beautiful northern lights and other visual effects, made by Bruno Belício.
Death Statue Central Area
Ingame view of the central area and its pillars. The large Death Statue concepts came from Lucas Souza, our character artist, while the modeling for the mountains, large buildings, giant crystals, isle and 3D direction in general came from our lead, Gabriel Abner.The Pathway’s central area, with a large Death statue. It’s initially locked, and after completing the boss rush you’re able to access the hub’s final area.Isometric view of the central area.Top view of the central area.Death statue props concept art. The Church of Death’s holy symbol is the “Catena” at the top of the scale. We entertained the idea of making it assemble as its full form only when the scale was horizontal and balanced. If the scale tilted, the Catena would split.Death’s Golden plate calloutThe central area’s inner room.The central area has a small room you’ll pass through before entering the final path.Central area sketches. It had more Caryatids and crow statues at the back.
Pathway’s Final Area
Front view of the Pathway’s last area.Grief’s arena entrance concept art. This is the pathway’s last area, and beyond this path lies the final boss arena.More sketches and views we’d use to discuss props, level design and architecture.Initial explorations for the final area.
Death Caryatids
Initial explorations of the Death Caryatids that hold the final area structures. Death Caryatid statue final concepts. Guilherme Rocha made an incredible work modeling those.
Door Concepts
Initial explorations for the DLC area doors, from more geometric and angular to Gigeresque organic designs.Central area door concept.Final area door concept. Those were based on the Pantheon’s bronze doors, with the DLC boss design and the Catena serving as decoration.
More DLC Prop sheets and callouts
Ingame view of the portalsThese are among my fav designs for the DLC. They’re portals you use to face the bosses. Brazier concept art with a callout showing its base.Essence cage concepts with callouts for materials, details and scale information.Initial exploration of the pillars that would decorate the Pathway. Those were narrowed down to only a few designs.Window scale, details and materials.Wall details, scale, and materials.Concept art of a stone column.These props were created and modeled by Natane Scarpi. I was responsible for making paintovers to define their materials.An asset we briefly considered to use as decoration.
Path to Death Gif process
A gif compilation showing the DLC’s Pathway from initial explorations to its final engine shot. Thanks and enjoy!
Team
This list far from covers all Deathbound contributors, it has only team members I’d contact often when creating those concepts. There are more team members listed in my Artstation Deathbound posts.
Gabriel Abner, our 3D lead, who modeled the large architectural and natural items, such as the volcano and isles. He has mentored me a lot on how to prepare concepts for 3D pipelines.
Yago Souza, the concept artist responsible for the final boss arena. He is also specialized in hard-surface and lighting.
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