Hey all you kids out there, my name is Rita and I’m one of the artists who worked on the new Zone Tracks for the Wipeout Fury expansion pack. I’ve been asked to put together a blog post that gives some insight into their creation.

Thought Police Alert: Artistic license takes over from reason and scientific fact here, so feel free to ‘skip to the end’ if you think it all sounds like a bunch of nonsense…

1. ZONE: Intro & context

‘Zone’ is speed experienced in its purest state, with no weapons. From a poetic point of view Zone can be likened to riding an atom in a particle accelerator. The speed of the atom as it ‘rides the torus’ gets increasingly faster and faster, until ultimately it moves at such surreal speeds that it exists contiguously at all points along its path.

It becomes an omnipresent singularity along this path, a very peculiar entity with ‘mixed dimensionality.’ If we could become that little atom at that moment we would find ourselves connected to a psychedelic ‘speed-dimension.’ It would be one hell of a trip! So zone mode is all about surreal abstract geometries, and shifting landscapes of colour that create an otherworldly atmosphere.

2. Landscapes Inspired by Nature’s Fantastic Patterns

Zone has a psychedelic nature, so it was only natural to be inspired by patterns found in nature. In particular fractal phenomena and ‘humanity hugging’ psychedelic philosophies:

Fractal energy flows through everything on this planet. We see it in cloud formations, and in the majesty of epic mountain ranges: “As above so below.” It’s especially apparent in the springtime when plant forms starts to bud and bloom. Symmetries, self similarity, and branching systems are everywhere! We live in, and are all connected by a cosmic fractal-field of energy.

3. Four Sets of Geometry

There are four zone tracks, so four families of abstract shapes were created that looked/felt like they possessed a particular energy pattern. I wanted to ‘riff’ off these ‘nature patterns’ for Wipeout, so mixed them with graphic design and graffiti aesthetics in an attempt to create an otherworldly psychedelic atmosphere. Below are some of the concept shapes created for Zone 4, riffing off the patterns above:

4. Time Constraint and Technique

I was working to an extremely tight schedule. So, with such a fast turnaround I had to come up with a workflow that enabled the fast construction of objects that could be tested on the fly. I liken the resulting process to a bunch of blues & jazz musicians having an impromptu session where they hunt for different permutations on a well known jazz standard. They riff off a pattern, until that pattern becomes something else entirely, a fresh expression of something familiar. Families of shapes were ‘thrown out there’, which were then positioned alongside a tracks twists, turns and chicanes to see if they worked.

The design process was not a linear one, so it’s difficult to describe in words. Each family of shapes was triggered by the ‘vibe’ that I got from certain fractal phenomena I encountered on walks and internet surfs. Zone 4 was inspired by Cambrian creatures & fern formations. See pics above.

5. Speed Perception

When you travel deeper and deeper into the pattern of a fractal the pattern repeats its-self infinitely. It is an infinite loop, which at a very huge stretch could be likened to the enclosed loop of a track. When you travel deeper and deeper into the speeds of the zone, you enter a state of trance where you transcend reality and become like ‘that atom’ that exists contiguously at all points along its path… the pattern repeats, the pattern repeats, the pattern repeats – and “Dimensionality becomes a function of consciousness” Reference: (Ian McEwan: Solid Geometry). At these surreal speeds you become an ‘infinite loop’. A cosmic piece of fractal consciousness in a golden state of flow!

Hope you enjoy riding the zone fellow pilgrims. God-speed!

Rita

And don’t forget you can get the add-on this Thursday for $9.99, and the full game is on sale until tomorrow for $14.99!

Hi everyone! This is Zico Liu, programmer on WipEout HD; you all might remember me from the “Beat Zico” trophy. Before I talk about what I’ve been up to on the WipEout HD Fury expansion pack, I would just like to let you know that the pack will be available from PlayStation Store on Thursday, July 23rd for $9.99.

The pack will provide three new race types – Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, a redesigned menu system, a new campaign to complete as well a host of new trophies to win. Oh and let’s not forget the additional ranks for you to achieve online. We are really excited about the content and hope you enjoy all the new features.

Also, on Tuesday July 21st, we are releasing a free update to the existing game. If you boot up WipEout HD at around 5pm GMT, you will be prompted to download the update. It will add a number of new features and tweaks to menus of the game including a brand new statistics section, new redesigned ship and track select screens and some new community/online features.

Now let’s get back to what I’ve been up to since HD was originally released. I’ve been busy working on the new game modes, mostly Eliminator and Zone Battle but also a bit on Detonator.

Eliminator mode was relatively easy to get in since it was taken from WipEout Pulse but we wanted to make it even better. Someone came up with the idea of having the 180 degree flip, which allows you to flip your ship, fly backwards down the track and fire your weapons at on coming opponents, like the Quake, which I know some people missed being able to do like they could in Pulse.

We also didn’t want people doing all the hard work of reducing an opponent’s shield, to then have someone else steal the kill and you receive nothing. So rather than the straight forward kills system seen in Pulse, we have introduced a points system where you are awarded points for completing laps, inflicting damage and getting the kill. The winner is the first player to reach the target score.

Playable as both a single player game as well as online we are really pleased with the end product and hope that players will enjoy the new mode.

Zone Battle, our 8 player version of Zone mode, was a bit more difficult to get right as it went through several iterations and name changes. We started with just a one on one duel mode, which was basically a split screen version of Zone which you played until one person lost their entire shield. The initial idea of the zone bar was to speed up the other player so they go faster which hopefully meant they would crash more often and be destroyed sooner than if they were travelling slower. Unfortunately this idea didn’t really work as we had hoped and we returned to the drawing board.

As we wanted the game to be played online with up to 8 players, we had to come up with an idea that didn’t have people sitting around waiting until everyone else had been eliminated, so we introduced the idea of racing towards a target zone which meant the race would end at the same time for everyone.

With this in mind the zone bar was changed to increase your own zones so you can reach the target quicker. To add a bit of variety we wanted some obstacles on the track which is where the zone barrier idea came from.

Every time you use your zone bar to boost you leave a zone barrier on the track to try and slow down your opponents. This means that players have to constantly look out for the barriers and try to avoid them or use up their zone bar to shield themselves.

I think it turned out very well and hopefully people will enjoy playing it in the Fury expansion pack!

Other stuff that I was working on was the new ship, track and campaign cell selection screens for the new front-end, and also the HUD’s for the new modes.

Finally I hope everyone enjoys this expansion and please don’t hate me too much, it’s not really that hard to Beat Zico.

So there you have it! Be sure to check out the update on Tuesday, and watch out for the Fury add-on, coming Thursday July 23!

Hello my name is Marcus Tanner, Art Director on WipEout Fury, and I’m here today to give you a brief insight into how a WipEout environment evolves from concept art to production geometry.

A WipEout track is set in a Utopian environment populated by stunning, cutting-edge architecture enhanced by contemporary graphic design. This aesthetic is created by designing architectural forms that are influenced by abstract sculpture, structure in art and science, futuristic architecture, mecha detailing and contemporary product design.

To create the WipEout aesthetic, our concept artists use a fluid design process that involves creating abstract shapes in 3D and bouncing work around the team from artist to artist to evolve and clarify the designs. This results in bold, abstract 3D structures, which are rendered and painted over with architectural detailing and placed into the context of a WipEout environment.

These concept images use the structures as set pieces, trackside furniture, tunnels etc, and give the production team an idea of how they would look in game:

The positioning of objects in a WipEout environment is created by a design process called Dynamic Composition. The results can be likened to a piece of music providing the track with a visual melody, rhythm and harmony. This process involves sectioning the environment along the track to provide the fundamental flow of shapes that creates an interesting rhythm for the player. It includes strategically adding set pieces which provide focus for the player and then populates the track to create an enhanced game experience. The result is a dynamic environment that emphasizes the feeling of speed and movement as a result of the rhythmic pattern of structures around the track, and also focuses the players’ attention on set pieces.

WipEout Fury is all about the use of bold structural shapes which define the architectural forms. These structures are oversized so they register with the player as they accelerate past at high speed and their striking shapes become associated as icons of each track. Interlocking modular shapes & overlaid layered surfaces make best use of the lighting by allowing shadows to play over the structures, and sunlight to glint through the gaps. This gives the impression of a highly complex and richly populated environment which is enhanced by the use of hyper-real gleaming hi-tech surfaces.

That’s it from me! Keep an eye out for more information on WipEout Fury on the Blog as we countdown to release — we don’t have an exact release date for you yet, but I understand that you’ll be told as soon as we do.

Starting off a small series of posts, I’m happy to introduce some cool exclusive information about the making of the game and the Fury add-in, coming straight from Dave Glanister, WipEout Fury Ship designer on the WipEout HD development team.

Hello everyone, my name is Dave Glanister and I’m the WipEout Fury Ship designer, here to give you a little insight into how we created the look of the ships.

Our main aim for the new WipEout Fury ships was to modernize their visual look whilst keeping the DNA of each existing individual team. On previous WipEout games, a key feature for ship design was its dynamic straight edge and triangular silhouette. For PSone and PSP this key element was the best way to achieve a great design without using a huge amount of polygons.

Our approach for the Fury ships was to keep the dynamic straight edge design but add to it by dividing the ships body panels up into three main layers. This new addition to the ships allowed us to overlap, interlock and weave the main ship panels together to achieve a more complex look.

By taking this approach it allowed the designs to show gaps, grooves and negative windows of space that were in-turn filled with real time PS3 self shadows. This made the ships appear lighter and more hover like without reducing the ships scale or bulk.

To evolve the designs further we replaced the nut and bolt element to the WipEout HD ships by building clean simplified inter-locking mechanical shapes. This suggested fewer components in the ships build. Also it gave the ships a tailor-made look and also suggested that the ships parts had been created with new and advanced material.

When viewing the ship design side on, the body panels have been purposely angled forwards to help create a dynamic appearance even when stationary. As a result the ship’s profile fights against the horizontal lines of the track’s surface which helps communicate the notion of an anti-gravity spacecraft.

To help identify the Fury ships within a race we added a second layer to the cockpit. This gives the impression of extra pilot protection. Well also placed a blue emissive tint to the cockpit glass which adds energy, notion of power and focal point to the core of every ship design.

That’s it from me! Hope you enjoyed reading about what I do :) I understand that we’ll have another update for you on WipEout Fury next week by another member of the team here. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

I look forward to seeing you all online!
-Daimion