Massive Entertainment - A Ubisoft Studio

Throughout last week we provided one last sneak peek into the adventures of Kay and Nix, as #gamescom visitors were able to try out Star Wars Outlaws at the Xbox, Nvidia, or Ubisoft booths! Just two days left until the game will launch to the world! See you in the Outer Rim. 😎

It’s launch week here at Massive! There’s only five more days left before you can explore the worlds of Star Wars Outlaws. 🙌

The first story pack for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Sky Breaker, was released last month, and of course we got together to celebrate this occasion and the team’s great work with some afterwork drinks and snacks! 💙🍾

In this episode of Behind Massive Screens, Dóri Halldórsson meets Hyungyung Bae, Lead Concept Artist on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Océane Näsström, Associate Lead Character Artist on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. 🎮🧑🎨 Hear about their roles, how they got to where they are today, and what went into designing the clans and characters in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – and making them come to life in the game. How the environments in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora affected the characters in the game, in everything from their silhouettes, hairstyles, clothing and gear – and much more.   👇  YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eYDeqPw9 Soundcloud: https://lnkd.in/eZsnijRE Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts 🔊

🌅 As the sun stays up well into the night during Sweden’s enchanting summer, we love to embrace the longest day of the year on our rooftop terrace. A unique opportunity for everyone in the studio to connect and recharge. ✨ An experience we whole-heartedly recommend – explore our career opportunities and join us there the next time! 👉 https://lnkd.in/eTf9UJYa

"Working with Jon Landau was all about passion and dedication to excellence. Everything he did, and every time he was involved, he was always striving for excellence. With Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, he had a pivotal impact making the game what it is today. Jon was more than a collaborator; he was a true member of the Massive family. He will be profoundly missed, and forever remembered" - Thomas Andrén, Managing Director at Massive Entertainment

Say hello to our new gaming companion, Nix! We are thrilled for the release of Star Wars Outlaws at the end of the month! ✨

In early June, Massive was part of this year’s Ubisoft Forward with not one, nor two, but three of our games being present. Dóri visited LA to provide us with a new episode of Life at Massive, looking behind the scenes of Ubisoft’s major annual event. He talks to our envoys for Star Wars Outlaws, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, and shows off the local cantina. 🎥👉 https://lnkd.in/dRUhmEwj

San Diego Comic-Con was a delight ✨ Our favorite scoundrels Kay, Nix, and ND-5 joined Julian Gerighty to talk more Star Wars Outlaws in front of an amazing Comic-Con audience! Thanks to Humberly Gonzalez, Jay Rincon, and Dee Bradley Baker for being with us!

Back in March, the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora team shared a large number of artworks and as we wanted to learn more about those, we reached out to some of our artists. Dianne Botham is a Lead Level Artist here at Massive and has shared some of her work with us.   Dianne worked on one of the resistance camps the player visits right at the beginning of the game. This facility was used to study local flora and fauna in their natural habitat but is under heavy attack when the player comes across it the first time. When the player returns to the site after the quest, they see the camp in an abandoned state.   For an area like this camp, the very first step is reading the quest design document, to get a feeling for the narrative intentions and the basic requirements, as it is part of the main quest. After discussing those further with both the narrative and quest designers, Dianne starts gathering reference images and creating mood boards. Together with a blockout from the level designer, those were then used by the concept art team for creating a concept. In the case of the resistance camp, some key considerations were to put it close to nature and a water source, giving the facility itself an airlock so the humans can remove their masks inside, as well as shielding it from detection via overhead tarps. The building itself was made from salvaged RDA equipment but has a non-military atmosphere with scientific research happening on the ground floor and living spaces on the upper floor. When the concept is approved by the art direction, assets are requested from the props team to then start building the level. At first, this happens in broad stroke, placing all the bigger assets, a preliminary lighting pass, and terrain sculpting. From here everything becomes continuously smaller, adding medium assets that impact player navigation, refining the terrain and making sure NPCs as well as the AMP suits have enough room to navigate the level. Finally, the level comes to life through finer details and storytelling in the surroundings, portraying the aftermath of a devastating attack. Fire and smoke play a big part in this, showcasing the recent attack, but also a second version of the camp that shows it abandoned (and not burning) later in the game.   Dianne also emphasizes the fact that while her description of creating a level in a game seems rather forward, this can be deceiving. Designing a level is never straight forward and the layout can go through may iterations throughout the development, meaning everything needs to be adapted continuously.   👉 You can’t find more of Dianne’s artworks here:  https://lnkd.in/e647R3-d