Gabriele Kadner talked to Basil Weber (CEO) & Stephan Schweizer (Art Director) from Urban Games about teaming up with vrnb studios to set up high-quality 3D buildings in a short period of time.
The Games Industry has an ever-growing demand for more and more complex 3d environments. Also, game studios push harder than ever to produce great games with great stories. The same is also true for Switzerland based game development studio ‘Urban Games‘ with their upcoming title ‘Transport Fever 2‘ (PC).
The demand for a large amount of high-quality 3d buildings in a short period of time led them to work with an external partner, vrbn studios. The decision was made quickly, after just one meeting.
What has been the driving factor and motivation to work with vrbn studios as an external partner?
Basil: With vrbn studios, we saw the opportunity to completely redesign the buildings we needed for the game rather than just improving the existing ones.
Was there a particular advantage in the dialogue that Matt (vrbn studio’s founder) is actually a trained architect?
Stephan: Yes, this was an advantage when it came to the knowledge behind architectural styles, construction, and building materials. Further also because we needed buildings for three different time eras, which is a crucial aspect of the game’s story.
What were the goals and expectations from your side?
Stephan: The goal was to create buildings that depict three different eras as authentically as possible. Besides, we wanted to see the difference between residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, with our personal touch of the design.
What were the benefits for your game production?
Basil: Thanks to this cooperation with an external partner, we were able to gain time for our internal staff to ensure the required quality of the remaining production.
What was your process with vrbn studios?
Stephan: I did the art direction and managed the production as well as the technical implementation on Urban Games side. We established a close collaboration workflow for design iterations and testing of the buildings in different stages in our own game engine.
Next to the production of “ready to use “3d buildings for games, where do you see a specific advantage to work with vrbn studios?
Stephan: In the area of VFX for film, for example for environments and set extensions, or visualizations in the VR area. There are many other opportunities outside of gaming!
vrbn studios still being a young company: Are there some tips you’d like to give for their journey?
Basil: As a service provider, it is important to be able to react flexibly to the client’s wishes and to support him in the creative process. Not only the technical knowledge and a flexible pipeline is important, but also many years of experience in creating 3d content for commercial applications. However, you’re on a good path!
Currently, the style of the buildings is rather European. Do you plan to add additional cities and buildings from other regions at a later stage? American or Asian style?
Stephan: We do not know it yet, but we do not rule it out…
To whom would you recommend to check out vrbn studios?
Basil: vrbn studios has a deep knowledge of procedural modeling and has self-developed tools to quickly create large amounts of 3d buildings. Anyone looking for a professional partner for this complex task should check out vrbn studios.