Privateer Sketches: First Base (June 15, 2012)

[Bandit LOAF]

We have a very cool treat today from a former Origin employee. She explains:

I'm Sheri Graner Ray. I worked at Origin Systems for 3.5 years. I worked on Ultima 7, Ultima 7 part two and Ultima 8. (For Ultima 7, my name shows up in the credits as Sheri Hobbs) My husband, Tim Ray, was also working at Origin at that time. He was on Strike Commander and Wing Commander 3. He was what was then called a "TDA" or Technical Design Associate. (Today that position would just be called "Designer.") He was the "lead TDA" on Wing Commander 3 and did all the data wrangling for that title.

ANYWAY.. I was going through some of our old boxes and came across a file that had a bunch of photocopied storyboards from [Privateer and] Wing 3. Each one had "done" on it in pink highlighter. Tim said they were the storyboards the artists did for the TDAs. The "DONE" was written on them when that particular scene was, well, done. Now they are scans of photocopies, but photocopies are what the TDAs were given to work with. I wasn't sure these would be all that interesting to you, but I figured, what the heck and scanned 'em.

We're very glad she did! These are extremely cool images. Today's set are the storyboards for many of Privateer's bases. Several, including the pleasure planet bar, are by Paul Steed, who would go on to fame at id Software. Note that many names hadn't been finalized at this point: the game is called "Free Trader" in some and New Detroit is "New Chicago!" Check back soon for artwork from Wing Commander III!

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Original update published on June 15, 2012

 

[Dondragmer]

Neat. The ship dealer storyboards seem to show five distinct vessels. There's a shiny new Tarsus at the left, for the one person on the planet who regretted selling theirs. The prongs at the lower center look like the ship in the "New Chicago" hangar storyboard, which in turn looks like a Demon. Were they considering allowing the player to buy one?

 

[NinjaLA]

I'm surprised that nobody has commented on the first sketch which would have made an awesome privateer strip club.!

 

[Aginor]

nice sketches!

 

[SpaceDrake]

Neat. The ship dealer storyboards seem to show five distinct vessels. There's a shiny new Tarsus at the left, for the one person on the planet who regretted selling theirs. The prongs at the lower center look like the ship in the "New Chicago" hangar storyboard, which in turn looks like a Demon. Were they considering allowing the player to buy one?

That is literally the first thing that sprang to mind - finally, after all this time, proof that at one point the Demon was considered for playability! I wonder what made them take it out? (Privateer, in my mind, suffers from a lack of a "fast" combat vessel in the sub-100k-credit range.) Also a bit hilarious to see that the Tarsus was considered for resale at one point - I guess you might want it back at some point, maybe? :V

Anyway, very cool. That pleasure bar is also... a lot more suggestive than what the shipped game was like. I kind of have to wonder what the reaction to THAT storyboard was around the office.

Also, the Mercenary's Guild was going to be staffed by dudes in uniform at one point, and it was a contract office. Interesting. It looks like mission computers might not have been in the design originally?

 

[specialsymbol]

Seems like you should have been able to buy the Demon, or what is this ship down there? It looks like a Demon to me.

Does anyone know what "Littler" means? Can't find it on LEO..

 

[Quarto]

Seems like you should have been able to buy the Demon, or what is this ship down there? It looks like a Demon to me.

Not necessarily - the artist just drew a couple of the ships that he knew would be in the game. It's an art reference, not a design reference .

Does anyone know what "Littler" means? Can't find it on LEO..

I suspect it's a bit of internal jargon. I'm guessing it refers to the purpose of drawing a person in this picture - as a scale reference to make the ships appear big by giving you a little person to compare them to.