Often times in Warframe our artists will do the best they can to infuse elements of the familiar into unknown or futuristic settings. The texture of metals, shape of surfaces or architectural design of a foundry speaks to us in an unusual language. We can grasp at the purpose of a ship just by exploring its interior, or guess the purpose of a factory based on the condition of its mechanics. But what happens when our artists need to bring to life something that mostly exists in the real world?

From the glacial halls and frozen caverns to the crashed ship that’s as much a base of Corpus operations as an extension of the natural environment, the Ice Planet Tileset received much praise during its reveal in Operation Cryotic Front. Now the full Tileset is available on Europa, where players can play a wide number of game modes on the frozen landscape.

Creating the Ice Planet Tileset was filled with many unique challenges, but just like every Tileset we’ve implemented it all starts with a few ideas put forth. In this case, by one of our Art Directors, Ron Davey. Ron generally will come up with a list of new ideas for level sets, each with their own backstory, potential weather types, environment, and color palette. This list of rough ideas will then get passed to each relevant department, and a general consensus will be drafted to determine which Tileset should be worked on next.

Both the Ice Planet and the Crashed Ship were two entirely separate ideas for a level design before Ron decided to merge them together based on some early concept work, and the idea really stuck.

Once the setting has been selected pre-production can begin, which means our talented concept artists can begin their work. Ron gets the ball rolling by creating an ‘art bible’-- a small document that has the backstory, basic design, mood, atmosphere, color palette and real world references for the artists to use. It’s not meant to tell each artist exactly what to do, but more as general guidelines to keep in mind while they get creative.

As concept art gets produced new ideas tend to sprout up while older ones may get tossed out. Over time as Ron and our concept artists get a better idea of how exactly the Ice Planet will be laid out a more detailed version of the ‘bible’ will be created for our other artists to use later in the production process. This version will be far more precise with a more fleshed out story covering the design of the level. Discussions on where to begin working on the Skybox will also begin at this time, a process we’ve talked a little bit about once before.

After we’ve gathered enough concept art and the ‘bible’ has been completed, it’s now time for our lead and senior artists to step in. Their main task is to start working on any technical and graphical challenges that may come up during the creation of the level. In this particular case, anything snow or ice related.

Making genuine looking snow and ice is very difficult to do, and so learning how to approach its implementation properly is pretty critical. Test levels will be made to play around with various weather iterations, and it’s at this stage that we begin to see how feasible our big concept ideas work for actual gameplay. Unforeseen issues can often come up during this phase, and being able to freely cut or add elements to the level design as we encounter problems so early in its development is a tremendous advantage.

At this point Layout Artists like Jesse Carpenter begin work on levels, with each portion of the Ice Planet Tileset delivered to them in a very ‘bare bones’ state. With a general idea of how a level is going to be laid out, it’s Jesse’s job to creatively interpret the designs passed to him and build up on it. Here they can use the references they’ve been provided alongside their imagination to help bring to life some of the sketches and examples brought together in the ‘art bible’.

Once both our design and art teams have finished close to 90% of their work on a level our lighting artist Cliff Daigle steps in. Following the same guidelines as other artists it’s Cliff’s job to make the level not only clear to navigate, but also visually more realistic. The biggest challenge for this Tileset came in the form of ice and snow, both of which react differently to light compared to most objects.

In order to give snow the transparent quality that it has in the real world some new tools needed to be implemented so that snow in game would naturally filter light. This tech makes snow in game look translucent, while other hard surfaces still maintain their usual properties -- ice on the other hand was given its own special treatment.

For more realistic ice effects Cliff used the ice itself as a source of light, skipping the usual emissive sources to instead give the illusion of light echoing through a frozen hall or the sun’s glow permeating thick frost. This shift in lighting is what gives each layer of ice that thick, realistic shimmer. With this unique approach to lighting any light shining from the ‘ice’ then falls upon the ‘snow’ and the effect is complete!

Finally there’s the skybox. Our 3D Environment Artist, Ryan Andrews has been working on it since concept, but creating the skybox is an ongoing process. As elements within the level design change from concept to creation, Ryan needs to make sure his skybox reflects those changes. The tone set by the low hanging sun in the distance helped give the surroundings a beautiful sense of natural desolation.

The skybox also captures a critical element of the storytelling process, as both the direction of the ship’s crash and battle in the distance are reinforced by the skybox’s detail. The result?

There’s a little bit of tinkering that occurs from now till release day but when all’s said and done the Tileset should be able to produce anywhere between 40-45 level variations. Level design is one of the more complex and challenging elements of Warframe’s development process, but it’s also one of the most rewarding.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at Europa’s Ice Planet environment. For us, seeing players not only appreciate a new Tileset when it comes out but also revisit older nodes just for their unique aesthetic is pretty awesome.