Dark Souls: Design Works

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Miyazaki: Everyone really loves it. There are a couple of people who also draw mechs, but I think it would be very difficult to work with someone who didn't like fantasy. It would be hard to communicate some of the more fantasy based-ideas.

I got this for the bf last year [and I got him #2 for v-day so expect that soon as well] and read this because I knew I was also going to be getting the second. Satake: I was responsible for the design. It was actually based on a very old sketch. I was trying to create something strange and unique, like the Great Race of Yathfrom Lovecraft'smythos, or something with many eyes, on springs. There was a period where I was created a lot of designs around these themes, and it was one of these sketches that formed the basis for this particular design. I'd been wanting to do something with it for a long time now so I'm glad we were able to use it in the game. Miyazaki: There was one more thing I wanted to achieve with Anor Londo; the last game I directed, Demon's Souls, was based in the early middle ages so it was extremely difficult to gather reference materials for the area designs. Dark Souls is based in a later time period so with Anor Londo, I saw a chance to create an area that felt more cohesive and full of the kind of detail that we couldn't achieve in Demon's Souls.That pose actually carries some significance for me: in Demon's Souls that was a holy sign. When I presented the game to the rest of the company, I showed them the pose and one of the higher-ups told me that it just wasn't cool enough. Of course, I told him I'd get rid of it, but I secretly kept it for later… so naturally, with this game, I was determined to use it. Miyazaki: This is actually how most of the areas were constructed. The map design was really what dictated everything else, once we determined what needed to happen in each area we would immediately draw up a rough map, then once the basic layout of the area was decided, we'd work on the finer details. Through the rough map I was able to communicate the requirements, structure and appearance of an area to the artists, and have them develop those ideas through collaborating with one another. I'm never satisfied with design works that simply follows the design brief so I often requested that the artists and designers add some of their own ideas. I believe that these ideas can enrich the area, if not the entire game, although this can lead to more work of course.

Miyazaki: Yes, they are, but I don't think they are related, they're simply vessels which hold the embers. Miyazaki: It may sound strange, but it's quite common for the tutorial to be the last thing to be integrated. It's much easier to design it once you know what needs to be communicated, and found the best to explain it to the player. I remember saying that the Undead Asylum should take Dark Souls' dark fantasy aesthetic and just distill that to it's purest essence. We began with the image of a gloomy basement cell and the stone architecture and also incorporated that cold, sad atmosphere I mentioned previously. Once we decided on this direction, the area came together fairly easily. In many ways, it fell directly in the center of designs we had been working on up until that point…Otsuka: Earlier we were talking about Crossbreed Pricilla, but are there any other characters whose role changed dramatically as development progressed? Anyway, onto the designs we created in-house, what do you think of them? Personally, I really like the simplicity of the Sunlight Shield. I hadn't expected people to say it looked like a character from Demon's Souls though. That wasn't intentional at all. Miyazaki: Yes, a character like that is actually very easy to fit into the game, you can essentially place him anywhere and move him about wherever you want to. Mr. Waragai took care of the design but it wasn't until he added glasses, that the character started to emerge.

In 2009, they released Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3, which brought them international exposure. Its spiritual successor, Dark Souls, was released in 2011. In March 2014, Dark Souls II, was released, while Dark Souls III was released in 2016.[8] A title inspired by the Souls series, Bloodborne, was released in March 2015. The Souls series, along with Bloodborne, received widespread critical acclaim, as well as strong sales domestically and internationally.[9][10][11] They have also received a number of awards, primarily those for the role-playing genre, including multiple "RPG of the Year" and Game of the Year awards.[12][13][14][15] Since release, Dark Souls and Bloodborne have been cited by many publications to be among the greatest games of all time. Otsuka: Next, I'd like to talk about each of the areas in the game in a little more detail. I suppose we should start at the beginning in the Undead Asylum. Not to mention, it was somewhat disappointing to note you can find far more comprehensive concept images of characters like Knight Artorias online than you may find inside this book, images that showcase the different parts of his outfit in their entirety rather than only the final, full look. Perhaps they figured it'd give the book a much cleaner look. Which I wasn't expecting, purchasing a book titled "Design Works". I expected concept art in its entire, sketchy, doodle-ish gorgeousness.FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game development company founded in November 1986. The company is known primarily outside Japan for being the developers of the Armored Core and Souls series, as well as Bloodborne. These ideas, the moon and purity also carry with them something feminine, in fact, they obsess over the image of a maiden dancing in front of the moon and strive to capture this beauty. The Brass Armour's appearance and indeed, the appearance of Gwyndolin himself can be attributed to this. Miyazaki: That's right! That's exactly how I tried to explain it to the artist, but he had no idea what I was talking about… I really felt the generation gap when that happened. Armour of Favour I suppose you could also add to that the image of the ancient dragons. These themes, along with utilising the artists' personal styles, formed the basis of the Dark Souls design principle. In contrast to most art teams, we didn't have our artists concentrating on a specific section, instead all the artists contributed to all areas.