I was the lead artist on the iPhone game, Twisted Abyss. It was my responsibility to set the visual style and tone of the game, as well as create all the original concept graphics and illustrations for the first game demo. I worked on this project for several months creating the official logo, UI, HUD design, opening intro movie, icons, character designs, in-game character portraits, vehicle textures, and more.

UI/Menu Design

I’m a huge fan of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, so I knew rivets were going to end up being a major part of the design. Another inspiration was The Abyss and the original Sea Base Alpha from The Living Seas pavilion of Epcot; I wanted to convey the same sense of nautical depth, technological advance and slight otherworldly-ness with the style and look of the game. The textured metal look was vital to setting a sense of stylized realism and structure. “Advanced” technology was represented with glowing HUD elements, radars, and selection screens.

Vehicle Designs

The premise of the game involved deep underwater warfare featuring bio-mechanical underwater vehicles, each based on a sea creature. The vehicles were originally designed by another artist at the company before he switched to another project. Based on his original b&w rough concepts, I developed the coloring, textures, and details as shown below. I also painted the vehicle textures for the game models.

Models by Corey Smith

Character Design

Since the vehicles were based on sea creatures, we wanted the pilots to reflect that heritage in the design. I created a relationship between pilot and vehicle by using similar color schemes and stylistic design elements.