Here at Ottoman headquarters, we’re quite fond of the work that’s gone into crafting the “medina” environment—if you scroll up, it’s right there behind the logo. But it is, in the end, just a low-poly mockup of the real thing. The final version is still quite a ways away.

The earliest prototypes

The initial designs for the medina were drawn up by Dimitri Avramoglou back in 2008. His concepts were later converted into a blocky 3D model which we’ve been using for pre-visualization and tests. As you can see in the image below, the medina features buildings only where the camera can see them.

Architectural upgrades

Now that we’re nearing the end of our pre-vis phase, the medina is due for an overhaul. The first step: a library of detailed building designs with which to populate the medina. Some of Tom Woode’s concepts are shown below.

To ensure that these new buildings are laid out as realistically as possible, art director Matt Evans is developing a heavily researched map of the walled city for the modelers to build upon, complete with streets, archways and marketplaces.

It’s an impressive start to what is sure to be a massive undertaking.

I don’t normally like to post unfinished work here, but these new Scarab mecha “shin guard” designs by Sandi Dolšak are too eye-catching not to share. Although loosely based on the 2D concept art, Sandi has added an extra toe, surface plating and some aggressive-looking toe protectors.

This model is really shaping up nicely.