Takeover #14 Gregorios Kythreotis
Sable's Architecture
You are in the middle of a weird desert, it is time to jump on your hoverbike and ride towards the sunset.
Only for the Takeovers my text will be in italic, just to distinguish it from the guest’s. My name is Federico and welcome to Representations of Architecture #39.
[Your e-mail provider will probably chunk this mail (since is too long), be sure to click continue at the end of it.]
Intro
During E31 2018 a game called Sable was announced. The cel-shaded graphics imitated the stroke of the French cartoonist Moebius, the atmospheres were those of his Arzak, the trail of dust left by the hoverbike was extraordinary, buildings halfway between Abraham and Woods stood out in the middle of the desert, it was difficult to understand what the goal was: I was completely conquered. A few months ago Sable saw the light and is now available on Steam. The game is extraordinary, it combines the exploration of Zelda Breath of the Wild with the lyricism of Journey, creating an unforgettable combination. Behind much of this success is a guy named Gregorios Kythreotis, Creative Director of Shedworks, developer of the game. Gregorios is today’s guest.
Insights
In our game, Sable, I designed a number of different architectural styles and locations from ruined sci-fi spaceships to nomadic fabric tent architecture. One of my favourite locations to design, however, was Eccria. Eccria is a town in the game that players will probably encounter a number of hours after leaving Sable’s clan and exploring the world on their own. It is an outlier in terms of how people live in this world, most people live a nomadic lifestyle, moving with their clan or on their own and staying at the Beetle Stations found throughout the dunes or in their own tents.
Designing Eccria was a tricky process that took a number of iterations to finalise, it fluctuated in size and scope throughout. The town is an adapted Cistern, originally built due to its proximity to the Oasis. Now it sits as an example of a more static form of living, a new attempt at forming a town in the harsh desert landscape. There are a number of design decisions made due to its location, for example, the town has high outer walls to protect citizens from incoming sandstorms. These create tight alleys in the town, not only providing shade but creating opportunities for wind to move through the town and cool people down as hot air moves to more exposed areas such as squares.
Layered semi-private and private spaces are also played with by utilising rooftop spaces, shared kitchens create moments of communal gathering opportunities for people to sit above noise of street level interactions.
The town has a large glass roof tower, this is for capturing hot air during the day and then is used to flush this hot air through the interiors of buildings at night when the desert becomes considerably cooler.
Flowing water in the town is a resource not enjoyed by all in Midden, the fact that it has a fountain at its entrance is a show of opulence and wealth in nomadic society.
We initially created interior environments in the town for every building, we wanted some of the buildings to act as pathways through the city and to create something that felt Warren-like and players could get lost in. We still try to create something that feels bigger than it is, particularly when you first encounter it, but had to cut these interiors for performance reasons as well as not having clearly defined functions for all of them.
Very beautiful links
This is an incredible resource for game level and environment designers, a bit like revealing a magic trick, seeing how these released and familiar environments are put together is great fun to explore.
Recently I’ve really enjoyed exploring these photogrammetry heritage models made by artfletch on sketchfab, particularly those detailing parts of my home city of London. There’s something incredibly satisfying about the diorama effect of each slice.
Sweet IG pages
I don’t use Instagram a lot but I’d like to highlight the work of 2 good friends of mine, both who studied alongside me at the Bartlett, Ellie Sampson and Doug John Miller.Â
Doug’s illustrations are all packed with detail and dense with atmosphere and life. Always a pleasure to scroll through his feed.
Ellie creates fantastic models of architecture, some of specific Architectural delights and others exploring smaller residential homes, all are phenomenal.
Misc
I listen to a lot of podcasts, they are kind of an essential part of my working process when I’m really grinding away at a particular thing, iterating and doing things that can be somewhat monotonous. One of my absolute favourite podcasts is Ghibliotheque - Michelle Zauner and I featured on it recently but I highly recommend going back to earlier episodes, maybe watching or rewatching a Ghibli film before you do so and enjoying the impeccable vibes. Their series on Satoshi Kon is also an absolute delight.
Thanks Greg for the sweet insights and the precious links.
The sun is rising, time to explore again.
See you in two weeks with something unnoticed.
CIAO,
Federico
In the pre-covid world the E3 was the most important videogame event in the world. This year edition was cancelled and its future is a big question mark.