Well feedback on the previous diary entry was great and I thought it emphasized the passion that people have for the galaxy’s greatest sport. That’s just another reason why I’m enjoying working on developing this project.

Michele’s Nearly-Final DreadBall Ultimate 2 Cover Art – just some small amendments to make and done!

I’ve continued building up the art resources for the game whilst the rules committee furiously work on the rules. I hope to get a game in with some of the proposed changes later this week, but for now I’ve got some more bits and pieces to share with you, starting with two more team drafts and then the first look at developing the new pitch.

As usual, let us know what you think in the comments.

… what can only be described as Sumo Lizards.

One of Mr Renton’s ideas when exploring troupes we hadn’t covered before – Sumo. These aren’t large aliens that teleport around the pitch. They aren’t Hulks that rampage there way around the field. They are slabs of muscle, titans that will push, shove and bash you out of the way.

We started by looking at the body shape and what kind of alien we wanted them to be – something reptilian we thought, but in a different kind of way to the Tsudochan or Teratons. And this is what we got back:

Boby B is my favourite and this initial sketch will now get armoured up, probably leaving the stomach, torso and head left exposed – a distinctive look in our range and something interesting to paint.

Oh, and we experimented by putting them in Samurai-style DreadBall armour too. I’m sure we’ll see one of these designs crop up again!

DreadBall Living Legends

So you’re a famous DreadBall player living the life, scoring the strikes and then the inevitable happens. You get brutally dismembered by a Marauder Guard and your body is sold on the black market. What happens them?

Well, obviously you get resurrected and cybernetically enhanced so that you can continue to play.

What I love about this concept is that circle covering the heart area. Each player is getting this device on their armour and the cybernetic eyepiece.

With a idea like this there’s less of a need for a uniformed look – different players will have lost different limbs or been killed in different ways – but these devices keep the players looking similar, like a team.

Both of these drafts are designed to help us decide what a player should look like and, once we’ve decided, the concepts are developed further into different player positions with suggested poses. They are then sculpted.

The Pitch

We’re taking a good look at each component from the DreadBall boxed game and looking to make every one better than the last, including the pitch.

Having done a lot of research into player’s custom boards and our experience of the Gruba-tek VII Coliseum deluxe gaming pitch, we started with the rough layout…

… started adding effects…

… and kept developing it further and further to this latest incarnation:

This last version isn’t final, there’s still plenty of areas that are getting developed further but it gives you an idea as to the direction we’re going.

This also reaffirms our commitment to keeping the board shape the same, so any custom boards or deluxe pitches you’ve bought are still useable.

Let us know what you think in the comments. DreadBall 2 hits Kickstarter in late July.

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