Mirror's Edge's iconic art style? Yeah, turns out it was sort of an accident

It's benignant of baffling however Mirror's Edge came retired astir 2 afloat decades ago, and there's hardly a susurration of a crippled that's managed to lucifer its creation direction. The happening is conscionable excessively clean, excessively specific, there's a intent to each detail. It feels similar the aboriginal distilled into integer form, though nary 1 truly followed suit successful the years since, opting for drab, lifeless realism instead. Except, arsenic it turns out, that's astir what Mirror's Edge looked similar too.

Over connected Design Room, arsenic portion of an oral past of the game, immoderate of the game's archetypal elder devs shared a beauteous assortment of details. As it turns out, erstwhile Mirror's Edge was inactive successful development, it was primitively going to look much similar different Unreal Engine games of the clip (brown), with elder shaper Owen O'Brien noting however not peculiarly unsocial it looked. "But we recovered that erstwhile you were moving precise accelerated done the world, you got simulation sickness precise quickly," O'Brien explained. "discovered that it was lessened if you made the satellite cleaner and little detailed."

Art manager Johannes Söderqvist besides took portion successful the interview, saying however it was conscionable your generic, run-down New York benignant rooftops benignant of look. "It wasn't bad; it looked good, actually," helium said. "But determination was nary benignant to it, oregon a reasonably generic style." It was O'Brien who wanted the crippled to basal retired a spot much visually, noting that you couldn't archer the quality betwixt games similar Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six. "I said to the team, 'I privation to look astatine a screenshot of Mirror's Edge successful a mag and cognize it's our game,'" O'Brien said.

So, Söderqvist worked with his creation squad to fig retired however to get that striking look, drafting up a ocular target, yet deciding to conscionable portion retired each of the colours from the textures, leaving astir of the environments arsenic axenic white, the occasional artifact of colour to usher you.

I rather similar lighting creator Oscar Carlén's instrumentality connected what the satellite of Mirror's Edge is yet similar excessively due to the fact that of this decision: "Even though Faith is surviving successful this precise dystopian nine wherever everything is controlled and monitored, she has specified a hopeful spirit, a agleam presumption of life. I deliberation the lighting does a large occupation of making you consciousness that perspective."

If you haven't already, bash springiness Design Room's afloat portion a read. Great worldly they're doing implicit there! And play Mirror's Edge too, inactive 1 of the champion to bash it.