New Santa Monica studio has talent to spare for bringing great AAA adventures
Since the announcement of the incorporation of The Inititave to the team Xbox game studios, many talents from other major studios have joined their ranks. Based in Santa Monica, the study directed by Darrell gallagher, which came to relaunch the Tomb Raider saga in 2013, is Microsoft’s biggest studio.
We would report new additions at the American studio of Rockstar, Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog and many other talented teams. Even Phil Spencer once played the top-secret AAAA project (defined as one of its members) alongside design director Drew Murray, who even let his daughter play at home.
Today we are going to talk about one of his employees and perhaps the most talented, Eric Persson, who has been dedicated to video games and cinema since 2011 (mainly in the Battlefield saga) and since 2016 based in Los Angeles. It handles keyframes as part of film concept art and special effects.
In your profile at Art Station We can see his work, which we saw on social networks, but today we will focus on one of his personal projects with more concepts. Shamal is the name of one of his personal projects and it would be an action adventure game set in a fantasy world set in the Middle East, inspired by franchises such as Conan, Dark Souls or Diablo.
The title even has a description of Persson himself:
The great north wind brought darkness to the world and enveloped the desert and all its inhabitants in perpetual sandstorms that lasted for months. The hunger and hunger that plagued the earth changed it forever and few managed to survive. In the shadow of the storms, he raised the dead to walk again and after the storms subsided, the ancient spirits awoke.
Destined for their lineage, the heroes of this world are able to fight the darkness. Their ancestry has shaped them to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Propelled by capacities that the world has not known since Antiquity, they take it upon themselves to banish the dark forces.
One can see majestic environments with desert landscapes, catacombs and palaces of the Middle East which are very reminiscent of Prince of Persia, but with the dark touch of the Souls saga or the Conan comics. Gigantic bosses and final skins that invite exploration typical of adventure games.
Persson also reflected on the possible enemies, like typical skeletons, had soldiers and guards with weapons that would make even the most painted legs tremble. Another nod to the Prince of Persia, who will receive a remake next year and could spark interest in these adventures again.
The hero, possible allies, main characters and non-playable characters (NPC) are also part of this project which, due to so much dedication and detail, could be the designer’s dream. A companion or protagonist, the typical merchant of objects, a shaman and a rider of the sands who would serve as transport on the beasts.
Lots of details for a personal project, which is just that and shouldn’t be taken for granted for the future, but too many characters, environments and details with information when compared to other arts conceptual artist. Like everyone else, I can’t wait to see what the Initiative has in store for us, who would be in charge of bringing these much-requested single-player adventure games to the Xbox ecosystem.
We will be attentive to the rewards of Game price 2020 in case Microsoft uses this scenario to present the Santa Monica project and the surprise jumps like last year with Series X and Hellblade 2.
