a feature in FarmVille 2 requires a ton of research, planning and
collaboration from numerous departments within the studio. This week, we
had the opportunity to sit down with Jerry, FarmVille 2’s Senior
Concept artist, to discuss the creative process behind the Highland Cow and the Yogurt Creamery.
Jerry explains below how the FarmVille 2 Art Team took the Yogurt Creamery from an idea to a stunning new addition to the game.
Highland Cow
“For
the Highland Cow animal, we wanted to capture the heavy coat and
attitude we noticed in our reference images. Native to Scotland, this
slow-moving, laid back cow had a lot of hair, but not a care in the
world. A shaggy haircut channeling the 90’s Seattle grunge scene and
overlapped chunks of fur brought us to our adult cow design in-game.
When addressing the baby version, giving her a haircut and keeping a
chunky look was the goal. Since the Highland Cow was a reward animal for
the Yogurt Creamery, there was a definite need to give the players
something special for all of their hard work.”
Baby Highland Cow concept art.
Yogurt Creamery
“The Yogurt Creamery, which was originally called the “Dairy Station”,
was set up to be a big new feature for dairy animals in FarmVille 2.
Looking
at barns in New England and older rustic stone and
wood structures, we wanted to create something that felt inviting and
harkened back to farms from an earlier time. Above all else, we wanted
it to be easy on the eyes and be fun to interact with.
Starting off with
some rough ideas, we explored what might work best for this feature. A
big goal was to make the building’s gameplay elements make visual sense on the
board. Once the milk drops fly into the vat and activate the building, the belt
and wooden mixer barrel start up and start creating the yogurt mix.
While the
building is in progress, the avatar can even come by and test out the batch.
Keeping in line with the Hen House harvest state, we wanted the finished yogurt
crate to pop out of the doors and be highly visible with the yellow visual effects glow.
It was great to see this go from a rough sketch phase all the way to our
talented modeling and animation teams, and finally, into the game for everyone
to play!”
image illustrates the various build states of the Yogurt Creamery with
notes from the artist about how they invisioned the feature animating in
game.
The image above is a “storyboard” of the Yogurt Creamery, explaning the various animations and interactions of the feature.
We
hope you enjoyed this look into the FarmVille 2 Studio, and our
favorite Furry-Moo. Please stay tuned for more exclusive FarmVille 2
showcases!
