As I had stated previously, I’m no Van Gogh.  Doing space scenes, though, is a lot of fun.  Especially when you’re working on the concept art for some of the displays in a game.  Since I don’t have a massive whiteboard to draw out some of my own rough sketches, I turn to the GIMP to get it done.

Here’s some of the early concept art for the Starports in SM 2.  For some reason this one made sense to be Ross 154, which was in the original game and is also in the new one.

Click for larger version.

Starport Concept Art for Ross 154

I may end up going through each one of the Starports listed out in SM2 and making up a backstory to each one, such as when they were colonized, discovered, or built (some of the Starports are stations orbiting binary stars and therefore not planets), getting more in-depth with the trade goods, atmosphere types, things like that.  It adds a lot more depth into the game that, even if it were just a few more lines of text on the screen, gives the player more to work with.

Of course this also means it will take more time, but I’m willing to work on it and get it done in order to turn out a better game.