I expected Lost In ꦺCult’s Sable Design Works to be like many other video game art books I own: beautiful. It lived up to that expectation, including beautiful double-page spreads of game screenshots alongside annotated sketches from early in the open world indie’s design process.
As well as the visual feast, however, the weighty tome also includes a 50-page developer interview detailing insights into every stage of the design process, as well as further commentary from the developers throughout. I came expecting a picture book, and I’ve come away with a better knowledge of game design and an understanding of every decision that went into making Sable.
I’m a big Sable fan. The desert exploration game was officially my 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:second favourite title of 2021, in equal parts thanks to its lithographic, Moebius-inspired art style and sprawling gameplay. What I didn't realise at the time, was that Shedworks had started development of the game before Breath of the Wild was released.
Sable drew immediate comparisons to Breath of the Wild thanks to its open world, go anywh𒆙ere attitude, and anti-realism art style. Even the way side quests are handed out is similar. I always assumed that the developers had played Breath of the Wild and quickly crafted their own take on N🃏intendo’s instant classic, but that was not the case.
If anything, Breath of the Wild releasing midway through Sable’s development only served to tell Shedworks creators Gregorios Kythreotis and Daniel Fineberg that they were on the right track. The premise was already 🐈well underway when Zelda hit the shelves, but Link’s adventure helped them work out how to start and end the game at least. They call it a “lemon-shaped structure” where the opening and closing minutes of the game are extremely narrow and almost railroaded – think the Great Plateau or the Ewer – but everything in between widens into myriad choices and routes.
Kythreotis talks us through the initial prototype shared in a pub with other game devs, the terror of an E3 demo, the crunch to get a trailer ready on time, and seems honest with every aspect of development. Game development is hard, folks, especially in the early stages when you’re two people working out of a garden shed, or when a global pandemic stops you from being able to see your closest collaborator. Everything hurdle and achieveme✃nt is detailed, but reading the history of Sable’s development never once overstays its welcome.
All developers are passionate about their work, but few get the chance to gush across a thick book such as this one. While the humble origins of Shedworks make for great reading, some of the best conversation revolves around how the founders wanted to utilise Kythereotis’ architectural backgro🐲und better than in their previous mobile titles, and the inspiration they took from artists like Moebius as well as world cultures.
Sable is not influenced by any ꦐone culture, instead the designers travelled widely to understand how cultures develop, before crafting their own. Despite the obvious sandy parallels, Sable is almost the anti-Dune, as Shedworks worked out how Sable’s people adapted to life in the desert, rather than cherry picking an IRL religion or race to base the world upon.
The 50-page developer interview is a fraction of the book, filled with interesting tidbits as it is. Interviewer and writer Ewan Wilson talks mostly to Kythreotis, but Fineberg, Michelle Zauner (better known as Japanese Breakfast, who produced the game’s soundtrack), and more provide the full picture. The remaining 150 pages are filled with sketches and vistas, notes and scrawled references, measurements and jet bike designs. Kythereotis' background in architecture is clear, and it’s revelatory to see the work put into ensuring Midden’s three epochs have distinct architectural styles to hint at the deeper history of the planet.
The architecture of the book itself is almost as impressive as that of the game itself. The paper is thick, the printin♎g is perfect, and the resulting tome is weighty and impressive. Every page flows well beneath your eyes, the interviews are well planned, edited, and composited onto the pages, the art is hand-picked and carefully placed. I can only imagine how many hours went into collecting and curating screenshots from such a beautiful game – a feat of virtual photography itself. Lost In Cult has previous with high-quality publications, but the first entry into its Design Works series highlighting the development of indie games is special. It goes without saying that this book is well worth the £40 price tag.
is more than just a collection of art. It’s a game design treatise, it’s a𒈔n oral history of the development of a beloved indie, it’s a book to꧂ leave lying on your coffee table to impress your friends with. Most of all, though, this book is a work of art in and of itself.
