During a recent tour that El33tonline had at Sony Online Entertainment’s Austin Studio in Texas, we got a behind the scenes look at the concept art for their upcoming MMO, DC Universe Online, and learnt just how important it is in building the game to what it is today.

John Blakely, Vice President of Development at SOE, took us on a tour of the studio, giving us time to study some magnificent concept art along the way. The concept art was pasted from floor to ceiling in certain areas of the studio, as well as along the team’s cubicle walls, serving as a reminder of where they had come from and where they’re going.

Blakely explained that the DC Universe Online team worked with DC Comic’s WildStorm imprint and legendary comic book artist Jim Lee to come up with and figure out how they’re going to bring the game to life. “Everytime you make a game with the word ‘universe’ in it there’s a lot to get done and so we’ve obviously taken a long time to get here, but there is 75 years of stories and history.”

He goes on to explain that the team also has to bring these characters to life that many people have a connection to, both visually and from a story perspective, which is something that they took very seriously. So when they started that wanted to make sure that what was in their minds was a shared vision as opposed to everyone communicating and getting different images in their heads.

So it was that the team started off with the future screenshots where they sat down and focused on five or six key moments in the game. This meant that the whole team could have a look at it, so the engineers could look at it and go ‘really, you want to do what?’ and the designers could say ‘these are the types of powers we want to have in the game’ and the artists could look at the style and what kind of technology and what kind of art they’re going to have to build and the analysts could also look at it, thereby placing everyone on the same page in terms of what was expected for that.

According to Blakely, “we wanted to start there and that was our way of essentially proving through play, even though we didn’t have a game to start with.” And so these future screenshots formed the kernel of the game.

Basically the development team wanted players to feel immersed in the DC Universe, the basic premise being that they wanted to build a superhero game, a “real true superhero game that you can play with your friends online in a persistent way in a persistent world.” Blakely continued, “So moving up, feeling powerful initially and playing off that superhuman power fantasy, telling the stories that are so rich in this universe. And making sure the characters are visually updated and focused, and there’s continuity in that, and there’s a reason for you guys, heroes or villains, to be here. We all wanted to make sure that made sense and was fun at the end of the day.”

Moving back to the concept art now, the internal team worked with the WildStorm team, which was an imprint that Jim Lee founded, who had been around for a long time and had a lot of experienced comic book writers to add that sense of legitimacy. “Those guys have been telling stories visually and through words for many, many years, and we’ve been making games for the same amount of time so we wanted to work together to build it.”

There is a lot of concept art for DC Universe Online, conceptually the team has created over 20 800 images, consisting of environment images, characters images and production sketches, for over 150 characters that are iconic to the DC Universe. This took place over many, many years. The concept artists on the team then helped to work with the other artists to embellish the art and build it out as they entered production mode so we’ll see some of the drawings on the walls of the early ones and get to interact with those characters in the game.

During my hands-on time with the game the years of work this team has spent crafting both the characters and environment of DC Universe Online was plain to see. You truly do feel immersed in the universe and it’s evident that the team’s mantra of “it’s all about playing the game” and believing they had to be “fans of the product” to play the game, understand it and make sure they look at it as a player have really come to fruition. Keep an eye out for more exclusive coverage of DC Universe Online, including a hands-on preview, coming soon.

“Disclosure: I attended a DC Universe Online event hosted by Sony Online Entertainment. Sony Online Entertainment paid for my flight, hotel and meals in connection with the event.”