Vanderbilt

Right before the MOBA project was cancelled, our team was in the process of expanding each of the worlds that our hero units came from. There was a Tolkien-esque world, a Lovecraftian horror world, a world inspired by Conan, and of course--my favorite--a steampunk world.

Vanderbilt here was the character that just fell out of my brain during our original brainstorm session at the beginning of the project, and in no time at all, Lead Designer Tim built an incredible steam-powered world around him, including Obadyne, our other fully fleshed-out (hammered-out?) steampunk character. This guy's the one I *most* wanted to see come to life, primarily because he's the most unique and original. Felt like this was just the sort of outside-the-box thinking that the fantasy-heavy MOBA genre needs, and we wanted so badly to put this and other unusual ideas out there in the world.

Well, at least he's seeing the light of day now. Maybe I can use the idea in some future endeavor.

Fun fact: if you look at Vanderbilt's 'anatomy' carefully, you'll see all the key components of a period-accurate steam engine (in the back view, even the door to his firebox would've been present!). I really wanted it to be clear that this creature was an actual train prior to becoming a Big Daddy-like stempunk golem. At one point, we thought that perhaps he could simply transform back into a train for a ramming-type special attack.

-------
Texture resources from CGtextures: [link]

-------
More from this series:

And see the complete PROJECT MERCURY Gallery here: [link]