SDCC 2016: Adventuring With ‘Sea Of Thieves: Art Of Adventure’!

Last week Rare arrived to Comic Con in style, and while they didn’t bring a demo of their highly anticipated pirate adventure Sea of Thieves, they brought plenty of other great stuff. One of these being the Sea of Thieves: Art of Adventure panel. Executive Producer Joe Neate hosted the panel along with Peter Hentze, Adam Park, and Ryan Stevenson, all of which had some excellent pirate names.

The presentation began pretty simple. Rare talked about their history about their love for pirates and how they reference them in almost every game that they’ve made. They also talked bout how excited they were to finally be working on SOT as it’s their dream game they’ve always wanted to make.

After that, they let art director Ryan Stevenson take the wheel as he began to talk about the art style of the game and the decisions they made with it. One of them is that they wanted to have an art style that looks good, but can also be easily be distinguished. One of the examples given was that a certain screenshot from the game was blurred out, but still just as easily recognized as the clear version of it. This was referred to as separation through color and tone.

They then moved on to talk about how important detail is and how everything in the game has a story. One of the biggest things they went for was making it so that nothing looked new or polished. They wanted everything to look used. This method was what they described as the wonky method. They then gave a couple of examples like how if you look at the ship’s floorboards they’ll appear uneven, creaky, and even broken. This help gives the feeling that everything you encounter in the game is pre existing and has a long backstory to it.

Next, they went on to show just how much detail they want to put on their character models. They went on to talk about how they start off with a simple base model for their characters and gradually add more detail as the designs progress. They also gave us a quick peek at mer people. They showed off a quick merman model who gradually got more and more disfigured and morphed. Could it be possible that you’ll be able to turn into these creatures? Only time will tell.

One of the last things  the team showed was ship customization. In the final game, there’ll be tons of boats of plenty of shapes and sizes. Not only that, but most things, even down to the crest plate of the ship can be changed. as an example, they showed off a couple  of crests that referenced Joanna Dark, and a certain beloved duo consisting of a bear and bird.

Finally, the panel concluded when the team gave everyone a free figurine of a character known simply as the Pirate Lord, the coolest part being that it can also glow in the dark. Why can it glow in the dark you ask? BECAUSE HE’S A GHOOOOOOOST! That’s right!, Rare revealed that there will indeed be ghost pirates in the game, but in what form is still to be seen.

All in all, it was a great panel full of un and surprises, and while Sea of Thieves still doesn’t have a release date, I’m more hype for this game than ever before. Sea of Thieves currently has no release date, but is planning a closed beta for Xbox One sometime in the future. Stay tuned to geekscape.net for more info and even an interview with Executive Producer Joe Neate!