Designing the Colony Surface

Designing the Colony Surface

Colonies started as solid blocks of color, one per terrain kind. It worked for rules and pathing, but the ground never felt like a place.

Early flat surface design (left) compared with the current terrain-motif and shading approach (right)

We wanted something that would have a higher visual appeal than what we had but still clearly convey what type of tile it is.

We tried many designs and approaches: pre-generating tiles as graphics, dynamically generating the whole surface with WebGL, and adding animation. Here are a few attempts at exploring a design.

Attempt 1 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 2 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 3 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 4 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 5 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 6 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
Attempt 7 of 7: Attempts at exploring a colony surface design
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Attempts at exploring a colony surface design

Ultimately we wanted to improve but not get stuck on it. I have a sense we'll revisit the surface design someday in the future.

Here are some examples of finished colonies using the current surface design. The images are from the colony planner, hence the sorted tiles.

Attempt 1 of 6: Final colony surface designs
Attempt 2 of 6: Final colony surface designs
Attempt 3 of 6: Final colony surface designs
Attempt 4 of 6: Final colony surface designs
Attempt 5 of 6: Final colony surface designs
Attempt 6 of 6: Final colony surface designs
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Final colony surface designs

Happy building, commanders.
Ion Space HQ 👋