Artist Interview: New Summer Locations
Summer is the perfect time for making plans, hanging out, and gathering (responsibly) with the ones you love. That’s why we’re releasing three popular seasonal spots, a public park BBQ, under the pier, and a boardwalk. You can play them now in the app! We’re trying something new this time and learning about the behind-the-scenes inspiration from our artist who created these locations, Glenn!
Boardwalk
What was the inspiration behind creating this boardwalk scene, is it based on boardwalks that you’ve been to?
Yes, I drew inspiration from many boardwalks that I’ve been on, but mainly the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It’s not the exact same one, but I did try to recreate the feeling as best I could. The merry-go-round is actually inspired by the one in Golden Gate Park and not the one in Santa Cruz.
Speaking of the merry-go-round, it’s beautiful and definitely where my eyes go first, was that what took the most time creating out of everything?
Definitely, I really challenged myself with the merry-go-round and wasn’t sure that I could get it as detailed as I wanted, there were a lot of details that I had to focus on for both the structure and the horses. I actually worked at a merry-go-round museum on Fisherman’s Wharf when I was younger, it was next to a TGIF, I’m not sure if it’s still around or not.
I’m definitely going to have to hear more about that later, but for now, I notice the time of day at the boardwalk is around dusk, what was the thinking behind that compared to making it during the day?
It’s so that the lights of the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round would be more evident, whereas if it was during the day, the brightness of the lights would not be able to be seen as much. It also gives a warmer feeling to the boardwalk with the lights of the ride more visible.
What do you imagine in terms of practicing or busking on this boardwalk, what would you expect to see?
I imagine a lot of the street performers that I’ve seen walking through places such as Fisherman’s Wharf, whether it be violin or guitar, really all different types of instruments and styles. Happy music for sure, definitely someone playing happy music.
Under The Pier
What was the inspiration for this scene, have you spent a lot of time near beaches and piers?
This one was sort of a mix between two, I’d say it was mainly the Pacifica Pier but also a little of the Santa Monica Pier, that one is great as well. The support beams look a little different from either of the piers, but you’re still able to get the same feeling of being near the waves next to a large pier.
What were you mainly focused on when creating this scene, were any of the structures harder than the rest?
I mainly wanted to focus on the happy clouds and the blue sky. I didn’t realize until recently that they kind of remind me of Toy Story clouds, but yes I wanted to have an open-air and happy feeling for this one. I also made sure to add in some popular items such as a surfboard, picnic basket, and guitar.
What do you imagine in terms of practicing or busking on this boardwalk, what would you expect to see?
While I did include a guitar in this setting, I actually wanted to keep this scene as general and open as possible. I believe this is one of those places where everyone has their own experiences and immediately can relate and imagine what type of music and performers they heard when they were at a similar place. What I imagine and envision here would probably be different than what others may expect to see.
Public Park BBQ
What was the inspiration for this specific Public Park BBQ location, I’m seeing a lot of different things going on here in the background.
This is almost fully inspired by San Francisco. I do want to make it clear that this is not a real location, but I wanted to give an accurate feeling of the Bay Area, which is why I included many different items such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, the hilly park and terrain, and of course, most importantly, the fog. I’ve done a couple of BBQs in San Francisco and definitely pulled from those experiences.
That makes a lot of sense. What do you mainly eat or drink at a BBQ? It looks like that may resemble a can of Pepsi, is that your drink of choice?
For food at BBQs I mainly have just done the classics, BBQ meat, hot dogs, burgers, all that good stuff. I actually don’t really drink soda pop, so I don’t prefer Pepsi over any other soda pop, but the reason I chose those colors is that it helps make it much clearer that it’s a can of soda pop instead of any other type of beverage.
There are so many amazing details in this location, what would you say you spent the most time on compared to everything else?
The grass terrain is probably what I spent the most time on, I wanted to make sure the grass did not look flat, which is why you see there are different textures and shades of the grass, and I also wanted to make sure to show that it was hilly terrain as well, as shown in the screenshot. I created 256x256 squares and connected all of the terrains to make them as seamless as possible.
Thank you to Glenn for taking the time to answer all of these questions and for creating these beautiful locations that are now active for practicing and busking!
Join Us!
This is just a teaser of what we are up to! If you are intrigued by Blockstars, be sure to read much, much more about the game design, tokenomics, and development roadmap in our whitepaper, come and chat with other community members in our Discord and follow us on Twitter. If you want to join the team, check out our job openings here. We will also be posting news about upcoming features, roadmap progress & important events regularly right here, on our blog.
Julian Mu | Product Manager | Blockstars
