Breaking Point: Mutant Evolution
A big part of my job for my time working on Breaking Point was working out how humans were turned into mutants. Figuring out how people were initially infected and what that looked like, along with some pseudo science behind how it could have happened in the universe. In the end we went with a zombie-like transformation that mutated a host's Hox genes, replicating finger-like growths all over the body, not unlike a teratoma growth. A big inspiration for the final product was the works of Zdzisław Beksiński and his nightmare paintings which are wonderfully horrifying.
The Idolon are boss variants of the mutant hoard. The mutants took on a Beksiński inspired vibe throughout the process that I gravitated towards. The Idolons have a kind of intelligence, reflected in the ‘As above, so below' pose.
An alternate, crawling variant to the Idolon would crawl and squirm through particularly dark sewer tunnels. Protected from its squishy back side by a boney plate of armour, and a horrifying surprise from the front.
Isometric turnarounds of the final, base variant of a standard mutant.
Working out the infection's life cycle was important to line up all of the iterations of the mutant units.
Exploring different ways that the virus would affect its human host was an important part of the process. It helped us establish that the creatures were in fact mutants and not your run of the mill zombie.
Once landing on the Beksiński inspired approach, further horrifying exploration was in order.
With the general mutant vibe nailed down, I explored different iterations of units that would add some flavor to the gameplay.
A slow, crawling variant was basically a necessity. But I didn't want the crawlers to be a bog standard, chopped in half zombie. Exploring interesting and admittedly disgusting versions of a crawling infected.