Underzone: Hydroroot

STRIKE GAMELABS

Underzone is a procedural rogue-lite for PC that takes place in a future version of London; ground zero, in the aftermath of a national disaster. Taking control of 'The Mole', a re-purposed off-world mining mech, players must burrow through the 'Underzone', a sprawling subterranean network of living spaces and large industrial complexes buried deep below the surface of the city. As they carry out a search and rescue operation looking for survivors, players will uncover the mysterious circumstances of what happened above ground and soon come to realise they are not alone in the deep.
As Lead 3D Artist at Strike GameLabs I was responsible for independantly creating all of the initial 3D content for the game including blockouts, the main player character The Mole, environments, props and FX as well as creating and maintaining the 3D content production pipeline.
3D assets were created using 3Ds Max, ZBrush and Quixel Suite with the game being  built in Unity.
You can view some other environments here: Thames Waterworks, Access Tunnels, Synth Workshop.

Diorama exploring a large chamber in the Hydroroot Zone.

The Mole dashes through the drainage system of one of Hydroroot's Hydro-Propagation chambers as workers look on.

Hydroroot is the first of eight discoverable zones in Underzone and the first I worked on. The corporation oversee's the growth and production of plant based products such as medicine, food, clothing, building materials and clean air for the world above.
Hydroroot is a mixture of lush green growth chambers and industrial production and packing facitlities, generating enormous amounts of power to sustain wide varieties of flora and machines. It is charactersied by it's green/ yellow lighting and heavy amounts of fogging and moisture permeating the air.
As this was the first zone in the game, environmental hazards were kept to a minimum as it was crucial the player was able to explore and understand the mechanics of the game-play and its systems. Weaker enemies, steam vents and small amounts of electrical damage populated the higher level areas with these threats becoming greater as the player delved deeper into the Underzone.
Original Hydro-Propagation Chamber  concepts by Matt Beakes

An in-game version of one of the Hydro-Propagation Chamber variants. Lit and rendered with Marmoset Toolbag.

Various background details. Human characters were created using Adobe Fuse and Mixamo for rigging and animation to make the creation process faster.

Creation process from initial blockout to final.

Hydroroot Growth Chamber & tile studies by Matt Beakes

Hydroroot Growth Chamber Diorama

Close up of the growth containers. Moisture can be seen collecting on the glass, a sign of the heat and moisture needed to sustain the plants.

This chamber shows a very confined space for The Mole as it ducks under a pipe overhead.

A Hydroroot worker flee's from an unknown assailant.

Growth chamber development process.

As a procedurally generated rogue-lite each playthrough of Underzone is unique, with players unearthing different chambers and rooms in various states each time they play. With this in mind, the environments were created modularly with the room structures generated from a 4m x 4m grid tile kit that could be arranged into various room shapes and sizes to be discovered as the player burrows through the earth. Rooms were then populated with procedural prop kits to flesh out the room into a believable space. 
The front area of the room acts as the 'play space' where all the game play happens whilst the background serves to flesh out the environment and tell a story.
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