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Dishonored 2 art director walks us through game's phenomenal concept art

Exclusive: Sébastien Mitton reveals all about the city of Karnaca

Tuesday 20 September 2016 15:17 BST

Some of the concept art from Dishonored 2

Anyone who has played the first Dishonored will be able to wax lyrical about the game’s stunning Victorian visuals.

Thankfully, the sequel - which tells the next chapter in Empress Emily Kaldwin and Corvo Attano’s story - looks set to continue the steam-punk style, exemplified in Dishonored 2’s concept art.

Sébastien Mitton, Arkane’s Art Director, has pulled together numerous images of Karnaca for The Independent, walking us through what each represents in the game.

Highlights from the gallery include ‘Infestation’, revealing the horrible bloodflies ecosystem, and an overview of the Dust District, showing the wind turbines of Karnaca. Flick through the below gallery for Mitton’s own descriptions.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

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1/12Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Bay

Originally meant to be a mood board, Sergey Kolesov pushed the limits here by showing the bay being hit by the sun and rain at the same time, while the mountain blows its dust along the wind corridor.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Palace

Built on the vestige of an old fort, the Palace of the Duke is the result of the clash between classical and noble materials with modern lines.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Windbreaker

Because the wind and dust can be so violent that it damages Karnaca’s buildings, we came up with the idea of giving buildings in the Dust District diamond shaped blocks to break the strength of the wind on its surfaces. We then added some wind panels to the edge of these blocks, which is what you can see in this image.

Bethesda Softworks

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Overlook

The Shindaerey Peak serves as a natural landmark and helps players orient themselves, no matter where they are in the city of Karnaca. Here, the shot is taken at the train stop before the entrance to the house of Kirin Jindosh (a mad inventor), which overlooks the entire city.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Inhabitants

Karnaca is the result of years of urbanization including different waves of settlers from Morley, Tyvia, and Gristol which helps to give it, in addition to the natives, a great lineup of quirky faces.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Map of the City

Thanks to the Serkonan Cartographic Society, some of our maps are topographic! The last wave of settlers was people from Gristol, who came in with money. They started a more structured urbanization with boulevards, a hidden harbor, and even a big canal splitting the island in two, from Quintana Gates to the far North.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Dreadful Wale

The Dreadful Wale is not just a nice shell of a boat, but a real ship with rooms to explore, which the player will visit many times throughout the game. Like the Hound Pits Pub in the first game, the Dreadful Wale serves as your hub between the different missions.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Park

“Imagine Havana or Genoa with spots downtown where you can see giant trees too big to be felled”: this was the brief given to the artist Laurent Gapaillard, who’s one of the most talented pencil artists in the world.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Enclosed Courtyard

Here we can grasp the inspiration from our photo trips to Barcelona and see how our visuals are influenced by how the player will move around the environment.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Infestation

When you get a feature idea from the game design team, you never know how deep you’ll go in making it feel grounded into the world. The bloodflies ecosystem is a good example of where art mixes with story; showing that animation and gameplay can work well together

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Dust District

We really enjoy creating meaningful environments and the Dust District is a great example of this: a giant peak with silver mines at its base, a wind corridor that leads to a district at its end, and industrialization of the district with giant windmills - these were the starting points of the development of this area in Karnaca.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

A Southern Victorian Interior

With this image we wanted to mix a British curiosity cabinet with a rich interior from Cuba or Italy. The goal was to create a contrast between Dunwall (location of the first Dishonored game) and Karnaca (primary location of Dishonored 2) in terms of tone and lighting.

Dishonored 2 takes place fifteen years after the first game and starts with Empress Emily Kaldwin being dethroned by an ‘otherworldly superpower’. She soon becomes an outlaw from society and - with Corvo Attano - tries to restore power to the thrown. The game is set for worldwide release 11 November.

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