How The Last Autumn, On the Edge, and The Rifts changed the visual identity of Frostpunk

Frostpunk, a city-building survival sim from 11-Bit Studios, is launching three expansions on the Xbox Store today, July 21st. When we thought about additional content, we set ourselves two goals. To extend the lore, as we put a lot of emphasis on the narrative side of the game and provide new game mechanics. This approach made all extensions not only distinguishable from the basic game, but also from each other.

The cracks adds a new map for endless mode and bridges, a new type of construction to collect resources scarred across islands. On the edge In narrative terms, the events after the Great Storm follow from the end of the basic game. Here the players are alone on the mission to build and maintain an outpost far outside the city. There’s no generator, and while the ability to extract resources from a recently discovered military warehouse seems worth the risk, you’re completely at the mercy of New London. And what could happen if you do not comply with all of their demands?

But the most complex extension is The last fall. It felt like turning the table over as we were playing around with the core visual elements of the base game. Green leaves replaced white snow, and since we never imagined it Frostpunk without them, it turned out to be more difficult than just changing the weather.

In our team, we make games in which art is used to reinforce the design message. in the Frostpunk, The art design was used to create that gritty, unforgiving, and palpable desolation that echoes through the events we portray. Lights and color palettes, stylized parts of the user interface, particles or even architectural forms – all of these served this purpose. Royal and steel blue tones dominate Frostpunks Palette, and all colors are cold and bleached. Each morning in the game’s daily cycle serves as a glimmer of hope, so we’ve made it a little different and uplifting. But then it comes to minus 60 degrees and everything is hopelessly normal again. Meanwhile, dark splashes of UI in the Book of Laws or on screens at story events that may resemble coal, which is ultimately the game’s main resource, emphasized the somber tones. And details like dirt on the buildings, frozen edges of the screen, sharp shards floating in the air turned out to be very useful in keeping the mood.

Each of these aspects had to work together in harmony, combined, and they did it in Frostpunk. Therefore make the decision The last fall a prequel story where players oversee the construction of the generator from the main game was such a big leap into something completely different. Being snowy is like steampunk right next to it, Frostpunks core visual identity. Players see the screenshots of the game and instantly recognize them, and we wanted to drop that ingredient. At least for part of The last fall History, as winter is an imminent threat and at some point tender snowdrops begin to strike.

As I mentioned before, we never imagined ourselves to be “green” during the main game development. Frostpunk, but tweaking the palette was only a minor task. Most importantly, the entire environment, all 2D illustrations in the game, and all buildings had to be adapted to their “fall” versions. Rethought, so to speak. In fact, the weather changes in the game are based on delicate and complex smoke and mirror tricks. Conditions change in storms, but even so, we still move in winter. Because of this, clearing the snow, which perhaps wasn’t a big deal, required quite a bit of work. Just like making it reappear, since we know what the result will be and have to deal with it.

In summary, Frostpunk was created by many custom systems and overall is not as flexible as we would like it to be. Take roofs, for example. Red roofs are nicely cut off from the overall picture and green terrain, but in the base game we had no roofs at all in building models as they were all covered in snow. Besides the snowdrifts, we didn’t have many types of terrain either, because we just didn’t need them. Also new building types like the dock for ships coming ashore and as the main resource source in The last fall, had to be true to the art style and visual structure of the game. And being close to an already established visual identity does not mean limiting creativity. Knowing your gaming limits can be even more stimulating. That happened during The last fall Development, and we consider it a great achievement for the art department at 11 Bit Studios.

All three Frostpunk Extensions are available now for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S. The last fall, On the edge, and The cracks are available individually or as a bundle with the Season Pass.