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Joakim Hultberg
Freelance Artist
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Cover Art and Logo (Bronze Dungeons)

Cover Art and logo for the recently announced "Bronze Dungeons" - a 90's inspired dungeon crawler, the first game in development at Questionably Sane - a small indie team hoping to bring each others' projects to life.

Follow development on the official Twitter: https://twitter.com/BronzeDungeons

On this project I handle both some 2D and 3D art with my main focus being creating and animating weapons and their attacks.

I have never before attempted to make any proper cover art, nor designing a final logo, so this project was a massive learning experience for me, and I don't mind sharing just how horrible things looked in the early stages of coming up with ideas and making concepts.

The idea was to create a cover art that would harken back to the 90's box arts for pc games. Covers like those for "Ultima Underworld", "Anvil of Dawn", "DOOM", "Heretic" etc.

Initially the idea was to do it entirely 2D hand drawn in Krita, but I decided I wanted a 3D base for the geometry, so I started blocking out a rough scene in Blender which I planned to ultimately entirely draw over. As it went on I decided to add some simple materials in Substance 3D Painter to help more with the basic elements, and I started having the idea that maybe I should just make it an entirely 3D rendered cover art instead, so I kept going with the intention of simply having this be a "blueprint" or prototype stage, and then rebuild the entire thing from scratch.

However as it went on, and I kept adding hand drawn elements on top, I eventually felt that this was starting to take on some really cool vibes. We eventually agreed to keep going with this version and get it as detailed and polished as we could.

The logo was first roughly designed using Krita. Then I started modeling it in Blender, where I kept iterating on the look. Eventually I brought it into Substance 3D Painter to give it that aged bronze texture, and then I brought it back into Blender to render it as a 2D image.
The much improved final look is in no small part thanks to the input from other team members who knew much more about such things than me.

This is the current final version of the cover art which had to meet a certain deadline. Given that it's my first cover and logo job ever I'm pretty proud of the end result.

Final Art. There are things I'm not entirely happy with, but deadlines are deadlines.

Final Art. There are things I'm not entirely happy with, but deadlines are deadlines.

The very first concept I made for this art. Trying to hit that mid- 90's vibe.

The very first concept I made for this art. Trying to hit that mid- 90's vibe.

Some color testing.

Some color testing.

A cover mockup using the concept art and a logo that was roughly halfway to completion at that point.

A cover mockup using the concept art and a logo that was roughly halfway to completion at that point.

Here you can see the logo progression. I had no idea how to go about designing one, so it looked very wonky until it was almost finished and I started to properly clean it up. It was modeled in Blender and textured in Substance 3D Painter.

Here you can see the logo progression. I had no idea how to go about designing one, so it looked very wonky until it was almost finished and I started to properly clean it up. It was modeled in Blender and textured in Substance 3D Painter.

Final logo. The interlocking letters did pose a problem, and I would attempt it differently if I were to do something similar again. For being my first ever logo done to completion, I have to say I'm fairly proud of it nonetheless.

Final logo. The interlocking letters did pose a problem, and I would attempt it differently if I were to do something similar again. For being my first ever logo done to completion, I have to say I'm fairly proud of it nonetheless.

I wanted to have a 3D base for the cover art to draw over, so I started a really basic one in Blender. The idea was to only use this for reference and draw the art entirely as 2D over this.

I wanted to have a 3D base for the cover art to draw over, so I started a really basic one in Blender. The idea was to only use this for reference and draw the art entirely as 2D over this.

Added some simple objects for reference, and trying to get some lighting blocked out.

Added some simple objects for reference, and trying to get some lighting blocked out.

Started playing with materials in Substance 3D Painter. At this stage I started thinking that maybe I should make the whole art as a 3D rendered image rather than 2D. But if that was the case this current version wouldn't do.

Started playing with materials in Substance 3D Painter. At this stage I started thinking that maybe I should make the whole art as a 3D rendered image rather than 2D. But if that was the case this current version wouldn't do.

I kept playing around to create a good prototype look, and planned to then take what I'd come up with and rebuild the whole scene from scratch. I added a filter I randomly found on my phone and quite liked how the colors looked, so I went with it for now.

I kept playing around to create a good prototype look, and planned to then take what I'd come up with and rebuild the whole scene from scratch. I added a filter I randomly found on my phone and quite liked how the colors looked, so I went with it for now.

I started drawing over to get a better idea for what to do when rebuilding the whole scene in 3D again, but as I went on, I started to like how it looked, and we just decided to keep going with this version instead.

I started drawing over to get a better idea for what to do when rebuilding the whole scene in 3D again, but as I went on, I started to like how it looked, and we just decided to keep going with this version instead.

In the end, here's the final product broken down in layers.

In the end, here's the final product broken down in layers.

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