Three mechs that resemble metal dragonflies storm a beach suffused in a bloody light. Rusted detritus decorate the beach, relics of wars long since ended.

Landfall at the Rust Coast

I wanted to participate in MechJam this year, but unfortunately my personal schedule and naturally slow pace of work meant that I never got very far with my entry. I decided to make the most of the mech model that I had created and set up a render of it in a scene, as a sort of concept art for what I want to do with my game idea.

The mech designs and story for the game, and thus thus image, are taken from the character “Wraith” that I am currently playing in a Beam Saber campaign.

Backstory

The Superlative Houses of Astarac had scarcely held a foothold on the once-lost Earth for a century before they decided that they needed an experimental unit to break the stalemate between the five Great Powers. The result was Null Squadron, a mechanised fighting force comprised of cyborg pilots and their Dragonfly war machines.

The pilots of Null Squadron were chosen from the likes of prisoners, vagrants, and orphans; or in other words, human debris who would not be missed. The process to augment the pilots’ bodies to interface directly with their Dragonflies was brutal, and many subjects did not survive long enough to see their first sortie. These physical alterations were combined with intense mental conditioning, aimed to instill in the pilots the idea that they were no more than processors for their fighting machines, ultiamtely disposable and certainly no longer human.

However, the human spirit proved strong in the end. During a mission that involved all seven surviving pilots, six of their number would desert the Superlative in favour of striking out on their own, leaving only Null-13 (callsign “Wraith”) for whom the conditioning had been most successful.

The experiment considered a failure, the Superlative quietly dismantled the initiative and integrated Null-13 into a smaller unit under the supervision of a lesser noble.

Scene breakdown

Dragonfly models

The dragonfly models are rigged, ready for use in Godot. This is the first time that I have properly set up a model skeleton, and I must say that it makes posing them a lot easier!

Claw type Dragonfly - Null-13 “Wraith”

The claw type Dragonfly has very large booster rockets and plasma spear weapons on each leg.

The texture for the claw type dragonfly.

Cannon type Dragonfly - Null-05 “Shade”

The cannon type Dragonfly has very large booster rockets and a long range plasma cannon.

The texture for the cannon claw type dragonfly.

Wing type Dragonfly - Null-11 “Lich”

The wing type Dragonfly has wing shaped boosters that allow for limited flight and dual short range plasma cannons.

The texture for the wing type dragonfly.

Dragonfly wireframe

The wireframe of my model of the Dragonfly.

Environment

Alternate view of the whole scene, sans background.

Another alternate view of the whole scene, sans background.

This is the atlas that I created to texture the environment, including the special effects. I used sprytile to apply the atlas, which is the program I am familiar with back from my time modding a low poly racing game.

The texture for the scene elements.

Environment wireframe

The wireframe of the whole scene.