Beyond a Steel Sky dev diary highlights the game’s art

Publisher Microids and developer Studio Revolution have come out with a first developer diary for Beyond a Steel Sky that focuses on the game’s art.

In the video, art directors Dave Gibbons and Sucha Singh detail the artistic intent and process. The team set to incorporate a comic book look, and to achieve this, Revolution wrote a custom cel-shading tool known as ToonToy. This emulates Gibbons’ hand-drawn comic book style in real time. Along with achieving an aesthetic objective, the look helps focus the eye on key, important background objects that are important for gameplay.

Beyond a Steel Sky is a spiritual successor to Beneath a Steel Sky, and this new game takes inspiration from the classic with references to the previous game. However, Singh has said that playing Beneath a Steel Sky first isn’t necessary. Beyond a Steel Sky is intended to appeal to both new players and longtime fans.

Here’s the full Beyond a Steel Sky dev diary providing a closer look at the game’s art:

Beyond a Steel Sky, the spiritual successor to Beneath a Steel Sky, launches for Switch on November 30. You can learn more about the game by visiting the official site here.