Phoenix Labs' Project Bismuth (Unreleased) - Umbral
Project Bismuth is an unreleased title from Phoenix Labs. I was brought into the project in 2023 to establish a style and to design all the many different areas the game has. My major contribution was to help the level design and 3D environment team with many different ideas. All images are published with permission from Phoenix Labs.
This page is particular in dedicated to the Umbral area, which mainly consists of the Spider Caves and Catacombs.
First exploration of the spider caves. Instead of the usual black cutout at the top, we explored the idea of showing some interesting bits like buried treasure inside the cavern walls. Characters were done by another artist.
Ideas for the spider caves. I was thinking of some ways to bring light into the caves. I also thought it would be cool to have monsters from other areas being trapped by the spiders.
Ideas for the transition from Sewers to the Spider Caves. The sewer walls would have caved in due to the tunnels dug by the spiders.
Exploring how the Umbral miasma could corrupt the environment.
Initial idea exploration for the Spider Caves.
Eggs can be interesting to design.
One of my favorite exploration pages I did for the project. Just a ton of creative ideas being poured into this. The team eventually used the waterfall from the mouth of the bird statue idea quite literally one to one.
Refining the graybox for the 3D team. I wanted to inject environmental storytelling into the dungeon. See if you can spot a few of them.
Drawover of an area called the Field Hospital. It was a market square turned to an emergency care facility.
Graybox drawover of the Warehouse.