Dark Souls: Design Works

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Miyazaki: That's right. We really had trouble with that. I've already talked about quite a few aspects of the game I'm not entirely happy with, but I'd have to say that my greatest regret is the Bed of Chaos. The artists and designers worked extremely hard and came up with some fantastic ideas, but it exposed a real problem in our production method. We had no way to find a common goal and work towards it when things went wrong. It's definitely something I want to correct in the future. Miyazaki: No, I'm joking. It wasn't intentional… Although I have no problem with it looking like mixer Taitei. I'm a fan of the series and people seem to enjoy it, too. Miyazaki: Yes, that can happen, but as I said before, it's really a chance to hear everyone's ideas and get us all thinking on the same wavelength. I like to encourage everyone to contribute their ideas, no matter how trivial because from those some, great ideas will emerge. For example, having characters imprisoned inside a Crystal Golem. The lead artist actually came up with that idea. While we may end up using less that 10% of these ideas I still think it's an important exercise. Of course, we could just say "you go away and think about these 20 enemies", but I prefer coming up with ideas together, having everyone contribute and develop the concept together. Although too many cooks can spoil the broth. Haha. Hatsuyama: I thought he'd turn into a mushroom, but I was told that it wasn't an issue, so I just went ahead and did it. Miyazaki: The Catacombs and the Tomb of the Giants have a similar atmosphere to that of Blighttown but both contain a great many more man-made objects, which meant more work for the artists. In our team, the 3D artists would sometimes be called upon to do work more akin to that of a traditional artist, because we tried to utilise their skills as much as we possible. As I said before we don't have many artists to work with and just throwing more people at something doesn't guarantee a better result.

Otsuka: Well now that we've talked about the bosses, I'd like to talk a bit about the normal enemies.Miyazaki: That's the truth, there were quite a few, when deadlines were closing in and I couldn't get a good mental image of what I wanted but we had to settle on something. Those situations were the hardest because I knew something was wrong, but couldn't express what I wanted and couldn't give a solution. That was difficult, both for me and for the artists I was working with. I suppose the Bed of Chaos is the principal example of this. Miyazaki: She joined us slightly later in the project, when we'd already finished the initial concept stage, so I had her work on those designs which had to adhere to a more rigid set of conditions. As Ms. Hatsuyama just said, the Gargoyles where one of those designs. This enemy would appear just before you rung the bell in the Bell Tower; this much was decided but I couldn't get a clear image for the creature. Originally the centipede demon from Izalith was here, but looking at the route you take through the opening stages of the game, to Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo and beyond, it didn't really fit. It's also the first large boss enemy you face so I wanted something a little more typical. So since it's a church and we have a relatively open space, we decided on gargoyles. It was one of your first designs, wasn't it, Ms. Hatsuyama?

Miyazaki: Yes, the Mimic. I wanted a mimic in the game from the very start, but mimics in other games are all the same, aren't they? The point of the enemy is to surprise people but in doesn't. I love the design but it's just been overused, so I wanted to create a imic that would surprise the player again, to go against their preconceptions… "oh this is a mimic isn't it… wait what!" That was the image I had for the enemy from the very beginning, it was designed out-of-house, but as long as it left a strong impression, it succeeded. Nakamura: I heard later that Satake and Miyazaki were discussing my designs over ramen and saying how pleased they were. Otsuka: So you had a team of one artist/designer and one 3D artist working on each area, and then it fell to you to make the final decisions?

Waragai: I suppose it does. I've always liked fantasy but it wasn't until I started working on these designs that I really began to think about how the armour was put together. Then I started thinking, "how would you construct armour for someone who was really overweight?" and this design was the result. Satake: We actually used motion capture for the pre rendered movie, but in the sections where it differed from Mr. Miyazaki's image, he would act it out himself. Such as the part where Nito opens his hand, we reshot that many times. Also the part where the maiden takes the fire, originally she just took in in her hand but Miyazaki wanted it to look more like a prayer. We reshot that part many times, too. FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game development company founded in November 1986. The company is known primarily outside Japan for being the developers of the Armored Core and Souls series, as well as Bloodborne.

Waragai: Make sure you make it really big so as soon as you open the book, BAM! I don't work in that area much myself, but designing weapons looks like a lot of fun. The Avelyn would have to be my favourite, but I also love the design of the Dragonslayer Spear. Miyazaki: Yes, Nito is in the pre-rendered intro, but it's a really intricate design so it was extremely difficult to communicate what I wanted to the animators. The character had to be cloaked in shadow, shrouded in a deathly aura, but that's not easy to get across and their first attempt wasn't what I wanted at all. Miyazaki: We wanted his clothing to look ancient, he is an old king after all. I researched a lot of old clothing but I couldn't really find anything that looked cool. Short pants for example wouldn't create the image we wanted for the character. I'm happy with the final design though. Otsuka: I think it's a really unique area, I remember before travelling there I was excited to see what would happen. Miyazaki: It's almost comical how obvious they are, but I think things like that are all part of Dark Souls' appeal. Personally I love the stone launcher, the way it endlessly fires the boulders, and the strange complex contraption build to achieve this simple action. It's things like this really add a sense of intrigue to the Dark Souls world. In terms of achieving the original design aims, I think the area works really well.Satake: Yes. From what I remember, it was originally designed as a water temple, but as work on the game progressed and the image of kindling and fire became more prominent, the water gradually dried up.

Otsuka: Next, I'd like to talk about each of the areas in the game in a little more detail. I suppose we should start at the beginning in the Undead Asylum. Miyazaki: There was a lot I wanted to fit into Anor Londo. As I mentioned before, I wanted it to feel like a reward after finishing Sen's Fortress, but I also wanted it to be an area with no clear road, to have the player walk in places that you wouldn't normally walk, such as the buttresses. Then there was also the image of the setting sun, and the way the area changes once night falls. I really like the way your eye is drawn to the different features like the revolving staircase elevator. Nakamura: The skirt-like garment he wears on his lower half, for example, represents female menstruation. An interesting thing is that I actually made his head a little bigger than usual. When Mr. Miyazaki saw it, he was delighted, saying that it made him look like a little girl and that I had to keep it. Miyazaki: This was my first time working together with Ms. Hatsuyama, so I wanted to begin designing something that was relatively orthodox, and use the opportunity to get us thinking on the same wavelength, unite our ideas of fantasy if you will. I think that was my plan… but it took quite a while to get right. Miyazaki: Not quite: we didn't have a single designer making maps, characters or equipment, but we did have separate people in charge of each of the game's areas. I believe Mr. Waragai was responsible for Anor Londo.

Miyazaki: We pursued two main avenues when designing Dark Souls: in the initial concept stages I gave each of the artists a few simple "image words" to use as a starting point and then they were free to develop these in whatever way they wished. We then took the images we liked, adjusted them where necessary and used them to begin shaping the world. For example the Gaping Dragon, Egg Carrier and Gravelord Nito all emerged during this stage and made it almost unchanged into the final game.