Character Design from Idea to Concept: Rick and his Ravagers

Hash Rush has three competing factions. Our art team has been working hard on each of these, and today we have great news to share: We have completed the design work on the space pirates faction. Their official title is Rick’s Ravagers, and we invite you along to learn about their history and follow how their leader, Rick Everrusty, grew from an idea into a fully-fledged Hash Rush character.

The History of Rick’s Ravagers

After enjoying centuries of prosperity as the trading hub of the Hermain solar system, Rustaria suffered a cataclysmic solar flare that turned this once beautiful planet into a scorched wasteland. Small groups survived in the planet’s crystal mines, emerging years later to find only a broken, shattered world before them.

Abandoned by their former friends and allies, the Rustarians unite behind new leader Rick Everrusty. These miners turned space-faring pirates slowly rebuild their society thanks to the wealth of the crypto crystals beneath their feet… and set about exacting revenge on those who turned their back on Rustaria.

Designing the Ravagers: Rick Everrusty

With the guidance of Hash Rush’s Creative Director, our concept artists Nicholas (‘Nic’) and Dendy used this back-story to develop some early concepts of Rick.

For Rick’s Ravagers, I was mostly influenced by the post-apocalyptic scenes from video games like Jak and Mad Max (Nathan Zeidonis, Creative Director)

Nathan laid the foundations by describing some of Rick’s attributes (“He has a bionic arm, a hand can be changed for drill… There’s a skull on his belt buckle, maybe some tattoos. He’s a menacing looking guy!”) and the faction’s motivations.

This allowed Nic and Dendy to explore how ‘mean’ Rick would actually appear, what would his character be like, and more. Slowly but surely, they narrowed down a design that fit with Rick’s background.

The team came up with the version of Rick depicted above, on the far right. While he looks great, the level of detail in this concept didn’t quite fit the overall art style of the game. The next version, just to the left, was definitely much closer, but just not there yet. Back to the drawing table!

The artists drew up different concepts of Rick based on the earlier design, narrowing it down with each iteration. Nathan felt that the concept shown at C, above, was closest to his idea — now it was time to turn him into a post-apocalyptic leader!

We had to balance Rick’s ‘pirate-side’ with the post-apocalyptic look and feel we wanted to give him. This was certainly a challenge, but ultimately, I think we made it work. (Nicholas Ng Hanyang, Concept Artist & Illustrator)

After adding a longer duster coat, and spiked epaulettes, Rick Everrusty was really starting to take shape. Having narrowed down the design further, Nic and Dendy started adding some colour.

At this point, the concept of Rick came closer and closer to Nathan’s vision. To maintain a menacing look, the art team decided a dark duster would look best.

With every version of Rick, new questions came up. At this point in the design process, our concept artists were thinking of: What colour and material should Rick’s arm be made of? And how would the dark colours of his coat and belt look like, if contrasted with the dusty brown and orange hues of Rick’s desolate home planet?

As it turns out, it looked great! But our creative team thought Rick looked a bit too polished. After all, the home base of Rick’s Ravagers is a wasteland. Combining elements from the above two versions, they produced a third concept, tying it all together.

We needed to make Rick’s arm look like it was made out of used metal from a junk yard. (Dendy Dharmier, Lead Concept Artist)

Yep, that’s it! Now all Rick needed was some finishing touches. And the final result is…:

Who make up Rick’s Ravagers?

Besides Rick, the team is creating all other characters, structures and items that make up the Ravagers. We’ll provide the Hash Rush community with more details about these new additions very soon, but for now, here’s a sneak peek. Stay tuned!

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