Artwork Design

I am now working on UI and other graphic design. I will be making tiny computer screens for many models and I want the UI on all of them to be cohesive. Also, I will eventually be making a full sized tablet app that should have the same UI style. So here is the first look at the design direction.

The Crew

Here are the people that will be inhabiting my space station. At this point I'm not sure if I'll be using all of them. I don't think they will all fit in the station at one time!

It's a small tidbit, but its a nice detail: they are all finally on matching bases that will match the floor of the station. Which reminds that I haven't given a proper shout-out to the guy helping me with the laser-cutting. Bob Schrempp​ of Prawn Designs has been invaluable to getting my design from my head to reality. He takes my line art and tweaks it so that his machine is able to cut it. A lot of shops won't do the extra work he does to make sure it cuts correctly and looks the way you intend.

New Layout

After fighting for months to figure out how I was going to engineer the previous layout design into coherent laser-cut-able pieces. I decided I should make the process easier on myself and simplify the footprint. By doing this I don't have to come up with new and clever ways of doing joinery in a medium I don't fully understand yet. I'm going to go this route for at least this first version. If I learn new tricks along the way to get me to the first design, then great. Here it is, the first un-textured render of the new layout.

Prototype Walls

I've finally gotten a set of prototype walls that I'm happy with. These are cut from wood, but in the end I will probably do them out of acrylic. I painted them quickly and assembled them in the rough arrangement they will be in the final product. I now know I have the right design and scale and can ramp up production of the whole station.

Station Development

I did a full mock-up of the station in the 3D design studio Blender. This way, I can see how the walls will interact with each other, how lighting will look, and if the design I have thought of will even function in reality. Here is the latest render.

The People

In the first post I talked about how I wanted this game to be non-combat focused and multi-cultural. This has a direct impact on the miniatures I will be using. Turns out that finding figures that match these requirements was very difficult. I had to scour through hundreds of miniature sources. I got many really good figures and had to do modifications to figures that were close. I have ended up with about 30 usable characters. I think fewer than that will actually end up being in the game due to how they will fit into the plot and game play.

As of now, each player will have control of one character. Characters will have a pre-defined set of skills that are not visible to the players. Character background descriptions will contain hints as to how good they are in particular fields. There will be straight forward challenges that use obvious skills. Such as injuries that need a doctor or computer issues that need a technician. But what about more complex issues that may have multiple solutions? Like a room full of a toxic gas. Do you grab your chemist or HVAC specialist?

First looks

I'm going to begin by describing some of the basic reasoning for the existence of the station and describe some station functionality. A lot of this kind of information won't directly affect game play. What I hope to do with background information such as this is frame the setting in such a way to make it seem more real.

There and back again

Mars Station is intended to be a permanent research station with the end goal of terraforming Mars to be habitable by humans. The station is supported by a geostationary space station in orbit of Mars. Small shuttle craft are able to ferry personnel from the surface to the station and are rarely used because of the large energy expense. However, all people and material going from the station to the surface travel in drop pods. The pods descend with parachutes to slow most of the velocity with the final touchdown made softer by air jets. The pods are designed in a such a way that they can be deconstructed to use in other parts of the station. Waste is minimized as much as possible. Any thing that cannot be used on the station and determined precious is sent back to the orbiting station on the next crew rotation.

Open the pod bay doors

Station concept 3D render

The station itself was designed as modular as possible. Each section can be replaced or upgraded without disturbing the other modules. Each module, however, is dependent on power and air from engineering. A central computer cluster in engineering also controls all functions of each unit. From engineering an authorized person can adjust lighting, open doors, toggle air flow, and control any location specific equipment. These function can be overridden locally by skilled technicians in extreme circumstances.