The 80-strong artist project that'll never get made

80-strong art project that'll never get made

Stephen Oakley was one of the 80 artists involved

Late last year, the studio behind the Darksiders game franchise, Vigil Games, closed. It was a massive blow to the many full-time creatives there, but as the saying goes, as one door closes, another opens.

Substrata was conceived by concept artist Paul Richards as a way to reunite his fellow artists from Vigil Games. The project resulted in 80 brilliant concept artists working together, all for a never-to-be-made game, releasing a stunning art book along the way.

80-strong art project that'll never get made

Many world renowned concept artists worked on Substrata for free

"The group is already steeped in dark fantasy, so this was the best way to get them excited," says Paul, who wanted the project to enable artists to experiment with twisted concepts that would scare conventional publishers.

80-strong art project that'll never get made

All proceeds from the art book will go to charity

"We wanted all of the things you're not supposed to do, with an open-ended design brief where people could choose from an array of game-driven content. Some decided to deliver on one aspect, while others conducted a more thorough exploration of their own universe."

The 240-page art book has been published through UDON Entertainment, and features concept art, character designs and illustrations from over 80 top game artists from around the world.

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Beren Neale
Deals Editor

Beren has worked on creative tech magazines and websites at Future Publishing for 13 years. He started this journey as Staff Writer on the digital art magazine ImagineFX, and in 2012 found himself bridging the magazine/website divide as Commissioning Editor on the newly launched Creative Bloq. Since then he took the editor role on ImagineFX, was Launch Editor of the fine art magazine Paint & Draw, moved to Canon Pro Europe website as Deputy Editor, and then edited the graphic design magazine Computer Arts. In 2020 he moved back to Creative Bloq, the biggest global art and design website, and as Deals Editor has applied his expertise in creative tech to help digital creatives get the best deals on the kit that they need and love. Outside of work, Beren likes nothing better than to climb himself a bit of rock.