I joined the KSP2 team 9 months before its Early Access release and contributed to 12 updates until the studio was shut down. My time with the team was spent collaborating with other discipline leads and directors, advocating for the art team, and being a visual “eye” for the artists in order to beautify various areas of the game.
I had to coordinate an already-established art team of 13 individual contributors and build trust, provide mentorship, team building, and direction to new and in-flight features across all artistic disciplines, including graphics engineering. I was integral to our recruitment and hiring processes, both for KSP2 and our unannounced 2nd title. Outside of art, I was also heavily involved in studio planning as a member of senior leadership and helped to promote KSP2 in interviews, demos, conventions, and at press events.
My goals when joining were to learn the game, get to know the artists, and positively impact every visual discipline. Below is a breakdown of several of my contributions as Art Director to each of the art departments:
Environment Art
Each of the 16 celestial bodies from KSP1 got a visual facelift and gameplay overhaul for KSP2. There are no loading screens during flight between celestial bodies and all of the terrain is fully spherical, containing various biomes and landing puzzles that have different visual indications. Celestial bodies needed to look good at every distance, from in orbit down to the terrain (or ocean).
It was also important for us that each of the celestial bodies be represented solemnly and seriously, so as to offset the goofy and cartoonish nature of the Kerbals themselves. There is a Japanese comedy style called “Manzai” involving two performers that bounce jokes back and forth; one of them is eccentric while the other one is serious, and the humor comes from the interplay between the two. During my time on KSP2, it was my goal to understand and maintain the balance between our serious celestial bodies and the eccentric Kerbals.
Above is a recording of the GDC 2023 talk that I organized called Houston, we have a Planet: the Spherical Terrain of Kerbal Space Program 2
Celestial Bodies
Terrain
Discoverables
To stay true to KSP1 players’ love of Easter Eggs and give them rewards for exploration, I worked with our Creative Director Nate Simpson and our Design Director Shana Markham on a series of 36 Discoverable points of interest that would be scattered across the celestial bodies. These Discoverables tie into the Science-gathering gameplay loop and are all based on real life geological phenomena.
I researched and pitched the idea of these Discoverables to my fellow Directors, gathered reference images, generated concept art for our Environment team to execute on, and supervised their production throughout Early Access. The below images are screenshots of work done by our Senior Environment Artist Brandon Orden and our Principal Environment Artist Sung Campbell:
KSC
The Kerbal Space Center is the base of operations for the Kerbals on their homeworld, Kerbin. It is loosely based off of the Kennedy Space Center, and there were several areas that needed my attention when I joined the team. I worked with Principal Environment Artist Sung Campbell, Senior 3D Modeler Matt Reynolds, and Senior Technical Artist Jon Cioletti in order to update the KSC’s nighttime lighting, populate the KSC with foliage, and finish out the boat dock and launch point.
Kerbals
Kerbals are the iconic titular characters of KSP2 and in many ways are abstract representations of the indomitable human spirit; hurtling themselves into space despite the risks and lack of parachutes. The Kerbals got a redesign in KSP2 to refine their proportions and increase their amount of species variation while still retaining their iconic characteristics. Myself and the team had a lot of respect for them, given their goofiness and charm in the face of daunting odds.
Cosmetics
I oversaw the creation of dozens of Kerbal cosmetics including hair styles, facial hair, makeup, and accessories that would increase the variety of randomly generated Kerbals. Kerbal names are also randomly generated, but structured so that if two players roll a “Bobbert Kerman” in their games, the two Bobberts would look the same and have the same stats. With this, we hoped that certain RNG Kerbals would gain a community reputation for themselves, but above all hoped that players would find their pilot uniquely endearing even if on a collision course to certain doom.
Contributions to the Kerbals were made by 3D Modeler Alexander Martin, 3D Modeler Pablo Ollervides Unda, Community Marketing Artist Mattew Poppe, and Senior Animator Paul Zimmerman.
All Kerbal animations (as well as all other 3D animations) were done by the indomitable Paul Zimmerman, who needed little direction.
Dr. Keri Kerman
I also oversaw the creation of Keri, our new Mission Control quest-giver NPC. She is loosely based on Mary Jackson, NASA’s first black woman engineer, of Hidden Figures fame. Keri was pitched by our Senior Game Designer Sydney Adams, and brought to life by Senior 3D Modeler Jonathan Cooper, Senior 2D Artist Raf Calonzo, Senior Animator Paul Zimmerman, and myself.
Tech Art and VFX
Most of the lighting in KSP2 comes from sunlight either filtered through an atmosphere or directly from the system’s parent star, Kerbol. When it came to lighting and material questions, I operated as the “eye” for the team and upheld a high quality bar. I regularly met with and collaborated closely with our Graphics Engineers, Tech Artists, and VFX Artists to ensure that the orbital simulation was not causing strange visuals or infringing on player UX.
Lighting
Below are some shots of KSP2’s atmospheric scattering, nighttime lighting, lens flare, and planetshine. I worked primarily with Senior Technical Artist Jon Cioletti and our Graphics Engineer III Ghassen Lamar to set standards for these areas of the game and make sure that moment to moment gameplay was not being adversely affected.
VAB
The Vehicle Assembly Building is arguably where players will spend most of their in-game time building multi-stage rockets, planes, SSTOs, and other inventive crafts. Initial versions of the VAB’s interior were far too dark due to accurately simulating lighting conditions and cyclical time of day changes. I worked closely with our Senior Tech Artist Jon Cioletti to adjust the lighting within the VAB to increase both legibility and mood by infusing the scene with dynamic colors. Because of KSP’s legacy, I wanted us to lean into the reverence of spaceflight and choose colors that would set a meditative or contemplative tone for players.
VFX
Given that KSP2 is a simulation, all engine and vehicle effects are determined based on fuel type and atmospheric pressure by our Senior VFX Artist Aaron Lundquist and our Lead Artist Mike Sawicki. Due to the scientific nature of our VFX, little art direction was needed and I primarily sanity checked the experts.
UI
Our goals for KSP2’s UI when I joined the team were twofold; visual unification and ease of use. My plan for Early Access was to unify several disparate UI schema used throughout the game in order to create a more cohesive experience for the UX and visuals. I consider UI/UX to be connective tissue between the Design and Art departments, as it is a metatextual visual guide that ideally should help players in a non-obstructive way.
UI Elements
I worked closely with Senior UX Designer Colton Marshall and Technical UI Designer Jordan Schusler to improve and unify elements of the UI. We looked to the Flight HUD as the golden truth, and pulled the VAB, Mission Control, and various apps in-line with our design goals.
Marketing Art
In addition to my work on KSP2 and our unannounced 2nd game, I was also the primary liaison between the Art department and our Marketing department. My role was to organize and oversee the artists on our team who generated our Keyart images and to give feedback to our Marketing artists as they created trailers, keyart cutdowns, social media assets, and additional promotional artworks.
Keyart
I worked with the Art and Marketing teams to create keyart for both our Early Access release and our For Science! major update. I coordinated production and provided direction to the Art team as well as collected and integrated feedback from Marketing.
Contributors to our Keyart images include Creative Director Nate Simpson, Senior 3D Modeler Jonathan Cooper, Senior 2D Artist Raf Calonzo, Senior Animator Paul Zimmerman, Senior VFX Artist Aaron Lundquist, and Writer Jim Peck.
Early Access Release:
For Science! Major Update:
Trailers
I provided feedback and consulted on all trailers released during my tenure at Intercept Games. A personal favorite of mine is our release trailer:
Vehicles
I worked closely with Senior Product Owner Chris Adderley, Lead Artist Mike Sawicki, Creative Director Nate Simpson, and our 3D team to oversee the production of vehicle parts and team color designations. As Adderley was also our Mechanical Designer and had a wealth of experience modding and modeling, my role with the Part-ists during our Exploration and Science updates was oversight and final signoff.
While I was able to contribute Concept Art for a variety of Colonial parts meant for our Colonies major update, Intercept Games was unfortunately shut down before we were able to complete production. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Art team at Intercept Games, and was humbled by their knowledge and willingness to allow me to lead and collaborate with them.
Thank you to everyone who played KSP2