I was an Environment Artist for Project ETHOS, a 31st Union (2K Games) game that was announced with a public beta playtest in 2024. I was brought on during the early days of preproduction and during my time from preproduction through full production I handled a variety of tasks to help create compelling and playable levels.
I’m extremely proud of all of the hard work the team put into this game. Much love and thanks to everyone for their passion and support during the development process.
All images are strictly from external Project ETHOS social media accounts, promotional videos for the game’s announcement from various game news outlets (IGN, Getmatsu), and multiple streamers’ publicly posted videos of their gameplay during their participation in the community playtest.
Videos with gameplay footage during the community playtest:
Project ETHOs community playtest here. Game announcement video here.
IGN gameplay video here. Streamer videos here and here.
I worked closely with level designers, art direction, and my fellow environment artists to create modular architectural kits of various styles from around the world based on level-design block outs and concept art.
I also helped work on a variety of organic foliage kits of various biomes, mainly early design blockouts for specific species and their subsequent silhouette development and implementation to intersect with gameplay needs.
I collaborated with level designers during many POI (point of interest) development process and subsequent asset implementation to build believable world spaces that met art direction, gameplay, and performance needs.
Ensuring the architectural and spatial design of each POI meshed well with level design goals throughout the development process was paramount to building believable spaces.
I helped arrange props and foliage to convey narrative as well as fit within gameplay parameters for such a fast-moving, high-intensity game.
We utilized terrain sculpting, foliage painting, and generative splines to create consistently identifiable pathing for player navigation.
I worked on a variety of player and bullet collision profiles with each asset to ensure that each model’s silhouette accurately represented players’ expectations for smooth gameplay. I also hand-authored LODs for optimization.
I also assisted in working with a layered material system that utilized packed masks, trim sheets, and decals to ensure each asset was performant and reusable with slight material tweakings and different prop arrangements.
