Ah, Concord. Sony’s $100m PS5 flop was one of the biggest calamities in recent gaming history – some say the worst since Atari’s E.T. in 1982. The game was taken offline in September after just two weeks due to poor sales.
A lot of blame was put on Concord’s character design (I thought the problem was more likely the $40 price tag for a live service game that had little to set it apart from free-to-play titles like Overwatch). Whatever the reason, it seems a shame seeing now some of the early concept artwork that was created to inspire the game’s developers (see our pick of the best game engines for your own work).
Over on Instagram and ArtStation profile, the artist Derek Jones has posted Concord concept art that he worked on as far back back in 2018 when the art tasks were still very open and about providing worldbuilding and vibe inspiration rather than designs applicable to gameplay.
“For this early work, I would usually get a single sentence or even just a couple words from the narrative team to use as a starting point, then draw whatever came to mind,” he writes on Instagram. “Very cool experience at that time to have a job that was this open-ended. Constantly hitting the reset button and trying something new with each image.”
Some pieces show that early on the game was conceived with a stylised sci-fi influence with retro touches, while Derek notes that he also tried out a more linework-oriented process and a dirty factory vibe at one point.
Derek has also posted early graphic design work for the game, including alien scroll designs depicting the various lifeforms that were meant to be displayed at small scale around the environment and schematics for laboratory operations.
Seeing this work today feels bittersweet. There are some inspiring ideas for incredible-looking worlds, and it seems a shame they were never fully developed – and that six years later the game would meet such an untimely demise. What do you think? Do you see the potential for Concord to have been a success? Let us know in the comments section below.
For more inspiration and tips for your own art, see our recent post on concept art fundamentals and our deep dive into how to design ships and vehicles for concept art.
