Destiny 2: The Final Shape – game art 10 years in the making

Destiny 2: The Final Shape is the culmination of 10 years of art, game design and an ambitious vision to create a universe rich in lore, action and epic, draw-dropping vistas. This multiplayer shooter from Bungie – the same video game studio that created Xbox’s original killer app, Halo – is one of the best free games to play right now, so anyone can step into the role of Guardian and start blasting on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Destiny 2’s depiction of space is less of the unyielding void of hard sci-fi and more of an abstract, weird and wonderful backdrop. It’s a science fantasy universe that keeps you coming back, and will eventually pique your interest in its paid expansions. These include the evocatively titled and critically acclaimed The Witch Queen in 2022, and more recently 2023’s Lightfall. Both are chapters in the overarching Light and Darkness Saga, with the closing verse, The Final Shape, just released.

“I think balance comes to mind as one of the more poetic challenges the world art team had to tackle all through this release,” Durbin says, “We naturally need to balance the frame from a composition perspective, but also from a navigational composition perspective [that will help to guide] players through spaces. […] But also, we’re trying to really tell a lot of narrative- story in these environments. And so there’s a lot [to] balance when it comes to how much information [we’re] trying to show on screen to the player at once.”

All of these landmarks represent the Guardians’ memories, accompanying the player on this new, strange journey – call it a full circle moment. It’s hard not to hear something that echoes like a metaphor for the creative process when Durbin elaborates, “[We’re trying] to convey the sense that these memories are like, intentionally being extracted, sliced, catalogued, and […] that sense of ‘how are these things going to come together on the other side?’”

Unlike Dorothy, Guardians can’t simply dump cold water on their enemies. It’s a big, bad galaxy out there and bringing it to life requires an ongoing conversation across creative departments at Bungie. Eric Elton, the 3D character lead on the bosses and combatants team, explains how an ongoing inter-departmental conversation throughout concepting and beyond is essential to the creative process at Bungie.

“Purposefully very simple and blocky, because we’re at the stage where we’re just getting the first pass of it; we just want to get something in the game, so that we can react to it.” Elton explains. He later goes on to add, “Gameplay is super important. So we’ll always prioritise that – not at the expense of art, but making sure that the gameplay feels right [is key]. And then the art can fill in the rest of that story.”

“[He] did an awesome job, [taking] this really different kind of approach to a screech, [and] an animal that can open its mouth. [It’s] sort of this weird kind of Pyramidean, Witness-looking shape that can screech in a way that’s unexpected and exciting,” Elton enthuses, “So once we saw this, we were really excited […] we went back to the rigging team and said, ‘Hey, can we change it so that we can open it this way where it’s this triple layer kind of mouth thing?’ And so there’s always this iteration, there’s always this give and take with the process of ‘Hey, we’ve got this other idea. Can we do this?’ ‘Yeah, let’s try it out. Let’s get it in game, let’s see how this feels.’”

The Husk is designed to get in the player’s face, so how do you fight it? Presented in the concept art are two options and gameplay outcomes. Players can either target the Husk’s weak point in the belly of the beast, causing the armour to erupt into a mass of roots reminiscent of the defeated silhouette of a boss from an earlier expansion, Calus. Or players can destroy that hefty armour, freeing a pilot creature known as a Geist that then gives chase.

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Destiny 2: The Final Shape – game art 10 years in the making

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Destiny 2: The Final Shape – game art 10 years in the making

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Other Articles

Wilson Artists Jeff Bell and Dee Dee Oliver will be the focus of the Barton Art Galleries’ Opening Exhibition on Sept. 5th

Fine arts fair in downtown Indianapolis to ‘bring creatives together’ – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana Traffic

Fine arts fair in downtown Indianapolis to ‘bring creatives together’ – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana Traffic

Wilson Artists Jeff Bell and Dee Dee Oliver will be the focus of the Barton Art Galleries’ Opening Exhibition on Sept. 5th

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