I was pondering what to draw today and I thought it might be nice to take you briefly through the process I use when developing the style for Death Inc.

In three easy steps!

1. Find some reference:
We are lucky to live just around the corner from ‘Oak Hanger Cottage,’ an amazing national trust place. It was built about 100 hundred years before our game is set, but gives a good indicator of what the houses of the time would look like.

2. Draw!
The best way to really understand the details is to draw them – I went sketching this morning (freeeeeezing!!) and noticed loads of things that were really interesting. Nothing is straight, the lower windows don’t match and the proportions are really odd – I love it! Far more interesting than today’s boring houses.

3. Take away all the details apart from the important bits:
The style of Death Inc. is really simple. Exaggerate the shapes a bit and place your favourite peasant in the garden. Done! ’Oak Hanger Cottage’ will sneak into the game at some point so see if you can spot it along with a few other local buildings for all those history fans.

Tim