Alex Ries’s illustrations encompass everything from prehistoric life to video game concept art and storyboards. The forthcoming book Other Worlds: The Art of Alex Ries includes an impressive overview of his work in all of its myriad dimensions. Here’s what Ries had to say about the creation of some literally otherworldly beings, along with a selection of images from the book, which is on Kickstarter now:

“Subnautica is a survival game set on a beautiful, mysterious and often deadly planet. For me, the game was love at first sight; an alien world with an ecosystem that felt real, with creature designs that were truly different; I wanted to be a part of that. My first round of design explorations played heavily into the arctic theme: great icebreaker leviathans which carved channels through pack ice, orca-like relatives of the tropical reaper leviathans that hunted in packs, and creatures which stalked the snow like reptilian polar bears. One of my aims was to maintain a sense of continuity between the life-forms of Subnautica to those of Below Zero, linking the new creatures of the polar regions through a shared evolution. So, from the diminutive holefish of Subnautica I designed its gigantic cousin the titan holefish, while on the ice above prowled snow stalkers, terrestrial relatives of the first game’s stalkers. The project posed interesting challenges, including tonal ones; the game’s creatures could be frightening but also comedic. I found it enjoyable to keep the creatures plausible within the tone of the game at both ends of that spectrum. This was particularly true of the pengwings which, while comedic and cute, became rather less so when they opened their beaks…”

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