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Hey friends,
Since the release of Somerville, the dust has finally cleared a bit, and we'd like to take this opportunity to tell you more about the background and inspirations with some updates here on Steam. Let's start with the arts and the looks of Somerville.
One of the main goals for the Art team on Somerville was to capture the unique mood and textures of the English Countryside and together with the Design team translate those to a fitting stage for the story we wanted to have the players experience. We set out to achieve this, not so much through it’s most striking and well known features, but through staying true in the depiction of its more subtle qualities, characteristics and elements. To make it not so much recognisable and identifiable at a glance, but felt and experienced in its very particular way.
Below are some sample snapshots of the concept and visual direction process, that we hope will give an idea of where and how a lot of the final in-game visuals, the art team built, originated. This is by no means a complete process log and omits an enormous amount of exploration work or key pieces of concept art and world/story maps that might prove major spoilers to the experience.



Flight over Muddy Fields, a piece of concept art done in the run-up to one of our trailers, that helped solidify the final look, texture and patterns of the fields.
Inspiration & Reference
Lived Experience
Before becoming a mostly remote studio, Jumpship had its start in Guildford amidst the Surrey Hills. It was a natural choice to use that personal experience of the landscape and small town aesthetic elements to serve as a basis for creating a more immersive setting and experience. One that feels close and personal. Together with Guildford and its steeply climbing highstreet, architectural elements and pieces of layout from a few other nearby, small towns were used. Marlow’s bridge, highstreet and cathedral and Godalming’s distinct church spires served as sources.
Artistic Influence & Inspiration
Early on and at several, progressively deepening, stages throughout the process of development we looked at a wide range of references and sources of inspiration, from life experience, photography and art - past and contemporary, but a few names we kept going back to: George Shaw, Jack Simckock and Maurice Wade. Artists that have perfectly captured the spirit and image of urban, rural and natural England in the present and not so distant past. Masters of minimal realism and graphic composition, often close to classic travel poster art, of subtle natural light and shade, of the understated, yet rich colour palette(Georgi Shaw), of textures abstracted to perfection to not over-explaining, but suggest just enough to create the perfect impression of materiality.



Concept Art & Visual Direction
Early Mood & Setting exploration



Invasion over the English Countryside by Ian McQue
Very early in the process of development on Somerville, alongside extensive world building and mapping of the story progression through the world, a series of concept illustrations and sketches were created by Ian McQue. Those mood pieces helped establish a high baseline for the stylistic direction and the right mix of visual elements, to create the perfect balance of stylisation and authentic realism for our English Countryside setting.
Story Maps, Beats & Speculative Location Thumbnails
The Forest was one of the first we extensively worked on and explored, as one of our early game areas that would establish a lot of the mood and natural setting tying many other locations together. It was planned as a quieter, slower and more gradual introduction to the game’s mechanics as well and building up hints about main actors in the story and the event’s that have been happening in the wider world, beyond the family home.
The protagonist and his four legged companion attempt to make their way toward the local town via the forest in the hope to pick up a trail that leads to the other half of their family. The alien craft above and their agents on the ground sweep the forest, collecting dormant sediment from downed allies. Craft debris from the failing defence efforts of human military organisations litter the forest.
It’s roughly 4am in the morning. Mist and fog sits heavy among the trees, mixed with pockets of burning jet fuel. Thick overcast clouds loom, a storm is brewing. The Forest is an incremental climb to a hill top, where they emerge from the treeline for a moment to observe the devastation wrought, before descending back among the trees.
To capture some of the distinct character of the wooded hills, as well as the mystery and peril of the situation, the protagonist and companion find themselves in a familiar landscape, occupied by a strange presence on the ground and sky above.
We set our story in winter, to help enhance both the beauty, through lighting and simplicity of colour, and the discomfort of the situation, sending the characters on treks through muddy paths, stale ponds and piles of wet, rotten leaves.
Through a bleak landscape that still retains a lot of its harsh beauty in patches of evergreen grass and trees contrasted with the bare dead branches of seasonal ones, and the piles of decomposing leaves, giving the cold ambience a touch of vibrancy. Subte, but rich.
With a lot of this information defined early on, we had a pretty specific idea of where it sat in the storyline and the world and what mechanics/concepts/story elements we wanted to introduce. Based on that we explored a series of potential locations through value thumbnails that we later used to assemble a logical sequence that fit well our narrative and gameplay progression.



Speculative Forest story beats and locations by Georgi Simeonov, 2019



Location/Visual Beat sequence & elevation map by Chris Olsen, 2019



Mood Progression map by Gregor Strnad, 2019
Early Location Key Art
We used the Crossing of the train line as the literal, physical threshold to the Forest and into the unknown, mystery and danger, leaving normality behind. A space at the same familiar, common and evocative of our setting, but at the same time firmly associated with danger, a crossing our protagonist would not have undertaken, if not under the current dire circumstances.
This image served not only as a baseline reference for the game’s visual style, colour palette and mood, but also to test and demonstrate the fine balance between realism and stylisation.



Crossing the Line, location key art by Georgi Simeonov, 2019



Hill Hiking at Dawn, early mood/style exploration by Georgi Simeonov, 2019



Hilltop, final concept overpaint by Georgi Simeonov, Gregor Strnad & Environment art Team, 2022
Landscape & Vegetation
The use of modular assets allowed the artists to create diverse and detailed environments, as they can be assembled and reassembled in various combinations to create unique clusters and compositions to fit each location. The advantage of modular assets is that they can be used across multiple levels and scenes, reducing the need for individual asset creation, whilst ensuring consistency in the quality and style. Those are also highly customisable allowing for easy and quick adjustment of tint and scale once they’re placed in an environment.



Landscape Modules, a reusable modular kit



Tree Silhouette Stylisation at various distances



Tree & Shrub stylisation & graphical treatment in 3D
And that's it for Somerville's art side of things. We hope you enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain of Somerville's development. There is more to come, so see you in a bit.
All the best and stay healthy!
The Somerville Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1671410/Somerville/