HOME | DD

Description

Done this redesign for one of the older EVE ships ( www.evegiga.com/images/Thrashe… )

Minmatar (the race in EVE this belongs to) have this duct-taped rust bucket aesthetic, so to stay in line with that (but also try to introduce some fresh elements) we’ve tried to go with the rusty-but-sturdy eastern block tank/assault helicopter feel. CCP office is in the harbour, so you can see these very rusty ships in dry-docks (I guess this is what its called?) being painted at any moment, great inspiration for this kind of stuff.

Tried to keep the overall composition and key elements of the original design, but I guess didn’t do enough of that as it didn’t fare so well with the players, they turned out to be waaaay more attached to the original than I expected, and so the reception for the new design was lukewarm at best.

So yeah I guess it was the main lesson with this ship - double-check what your audience really wants and then decide if you want to give it to them. Not sure if the answer is necessarily “yes” all the time, but I guess with commercial artwork for very established IPs it often is the case. Either way, communicating your plans to the audience as early is possible to check their reactions seems like a good idea (It helps that communication and community management seems to be one of the things CCP excels at from what I’ve seen so far). At the same time it feels like a very dangerous path that might lead to creative stagnation, so I guess there is a balance to be found between satisfying the expectations and educating your audience to be more susceptible to new stuff. I guess this particular design just wasn’t a good case for this. Lesson learned!

Description

Done this redesign for one of the older EVE ships ( www.evegiga.com/images/Thrashe… )

Minmatar (the race in EVE this belongs to) have this duct-taped rust bucket aesthetic, so to stay in line with that (but also try to introduce some fresh elements) we’ve tried to go with the rusty-but-sturdy eastern block tank/assault helicopter feel. CCP office is in the harbour, so you can see these very rusty ships in dry-docks (I guess this is what its called?) being painted at any moment, great inspiration for this kind of stuff.

Tried to keep the overall composition and key elements of the original design, but I guess didn’t do enough of that as it didn’t fare so well with the players, they turned out to be waaaay more attached to the original than I expected, and so the reception for the new design was lukewarm at best.

So yeah I guess it was the main lesson with this ship - double-check what your audience really wants and then decide if you want to give it to them. Not sure if the answer is necessarily “yes” all the time, but I guess with commercial artwork for very established IPs it often is the case. Either way, communicating your plans to the audience as early is possible to check their reactions seems like a good idea (It helps that communication and community management seems to be one of the things CCP excels at from what I’ve seen so far). At the same time it feels like a very dangerous path that might lead to creative stagnation, so I guess there is a balance to be found between satisfying the expectations and educating your audience to be more susceptible to new stuff. I guess this particular design just wasn’t a good case for this. Lesson learned!