Concept Design

Isolated Space Station: Concept

Character wakes on an isolated and abandoned space station. They must explore the  

Backstory: You receive a distress signal from and isolated research and mining base on the moon. The base has been silent ever since. This is a old research base which has been responsible for investigating alien minerals found in the moons surface. The base relies on old school technology so it is notorious for malfunctioning. 

Setting: An isolated underground mining base situated in one of the moons craters. The architecture is quite under advanced and cold war-esc. 

Conflict: Upon venturing through the unusually empty mine you come across and alien artifact surrounded by strange minerals. Coming into contact with the artifact agitates it and reveals the corrupted crew members who have been laying dormant. You must now find a way to escape the station and make sure these alien's do not reach Earth.

Style: The interior style for the mine is very cold war era, with rusty and well worn textures. The lighting is also very dim to help exaggerate the shadows. 

Indoor: Indoor environments would feature lots of tunnels, with minecarts and mining equipment. The control room would have lots of monitors and a big window looking over the crater. The space along the walls and roof would be filled with flood lights, large pipes and ventilation. 

Outdoor: The outdoor environment would be barren moon surface surrounded by the walls of a crater. A portion of this area would be viewable from the base.

This idea appeals to me as I like the isolated feeling of being trapped in space with no where to go. It also draws lots of inspiration from games like Dead Space and Doom. I also much preferred the idea of the station being coldwar era with rustic, retro technology as opposed to high tech sleek designs.

Potential areas for the vertical slice could be a tunnel shot, or a shot of the alien artifact, or the cargo elevator, or the control room looking over the crater.

Here are some concept sketches for the layout of the map and the different areas within it.

This is the lowest part of the environment. It will be and open cape cave with long colorful crystals

point out of the rocks. Embedded in the far wall will be the alien crystal / artifact, which will be decorated with strange symbols and glowing effects. The area will also be lit with large flood lights to light as much of the area as possible. Tools and excavators will also be lying around.

This will be the main floor of the environment. It will connect to all the other areas via tunnels and stairs. There will be ventilation and pipes leading to each area to help create that feeling of connectedness between the rooms. The contents of the central room may be minecarts containing transported materials and equipment or large mining vehicles and containers. The entrance tunnel will also implement a sort of depressurization chamber. Side rooms extending from the center could contain crew quarters and amenities or storage space. One side of the central room will have stairs and elevators leading up to the next floor.  

This is the highest floor in the environment. Leading on from the stairs and elevators it connects to a lab for researching alien material. however this could also be a power station with generators and filtration units. Alongside this there is the control room with is full of computers and screens for monitoring the state of the base and its areas. It will have a large window for viewing the outside surroundings.