In a brand new developer insight video, Eidos-Montréal revealed just how Star-Lord came up with his name for their upcoming Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy game.
Art director Bruno Gauthier-Leblanc not only revealed how Star-Lord came up with his name for the game, but also provided a ton of information about all of the Guardians of the Galaxy character designs.
In a press release promoting the video, Gauthier-Leblanc talked about their general design goal for the Guardians, “When designing the Guardians, it was important they remained true to the narrative we had built while still being instantly recognisable as the Guardians of the Galaxy fans know and love.”
He added, “We combined inspiration from Marvel comic lore with our own character backstories to craft new visuals for this fun and dysfunctional family, infusing each Guardian with specific design aspects that also tie into gameplay.”
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Gauthier-Leblanc begins the video saying, “When we first started Star-Lord’s design, we were primarily focused on getting a feeling of a space pirate look. We researched that a long time, but eventually on the team, me and other people started having this idea: ‘What if Star-Lord’s favorite band when he was a kid was actually named Star-Lord?'”
He continued, “Everything from there just kind of exploded. We found his obsession with Star-Lord the band, his 80s style. All this explained his design, by him putting the patch of his favorite band on his jacket.”
Gauthier-Leblanc then provided more details on his design, “We peppered his design with little easter eggs from 80s, with pins on his lapel, of the vinyls from the 80s and the Space Invaders icon, and of course his Star-Lord pin.”
He wrapped up his discussion of Star-Lord stating, “I guess the word that would define the design of Star-Lord the most would be ‘space metal.’ Yeah, like, rock ‘n’ roll!”
As for Drax he stated, “From Star-Lord, the we found Drax, with his tattoos. In our design, we actually have a backstory, that the tattoos are circular in nature and every circle he adds means he won a battle.
Which also informed the environments of Katah, his home planet. Everything is based on these circle designs: the tombstones, the arches… So all the architecture was then derived from the tattoos.
Moving on to Gamora, he said, “It was very important we had to give her a very strong, powerful look. So we came up with the idea of going back a bit to what they had done in the comics.”
And we were really inspired by one of the looks of the black and white armor. We even had little touches of American fists on all her knuckles, on her feet. Which emphasizes that she’s ready to punch, kick, kill at any moment.”
Gauthier Leblanc then switched to Rocket and said his design was “the easiest to nail.”
He further explained, “Because he’s so upfront in what he likes. He likes explosions. He likes grenades. He likes to tinker. So, of course we needed to put that on his design.
We needed him to have his goggles because they’re actually gameplay-related. We have a goatee, and he actually has some beads that looks like Groot because they are best friends.
And then of course, he has his gun that transforms into his backpack, so it’s always ready for action and to transform. Of course, the gun is twice his size.”
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Finally, he discussed Groot saying he was “the hardest to nail.”
“We wanted him to have armor platings and almost feel like he was a big mech. What we came up with is, since him and Rocket are best friends, we thought that Rocket should always be customizing Groot,” he explained.
He elaborated, “In the sense that it’s his mech, therefore he added a harness to him, so that he could grab on to him, stay on him, use him as a turret. And all this is related to gameplay as well, it’s not just story.
“So, Groot and Rocket are intertwined as designs,” he concluded.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy arrives on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on October 26th. A Nintendo Switch version titled Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cloud Version will arrive on the platform in select regions on October 26th as well.
What do you make of Gauthier-Leblanc’s revelations about the designs for the Guardians of the Galaxy?