Commentary by John Pearson, lead artist of Redguard.
This was one of the first major sketches done for Redguard. This sketch was inspired by King Kong to be honest. The scene were Faye Ray first sees the beast. I just wanted that overwhelming feeling of "Holy sh*t!" What's cool is that when you meet this enemy in the game, you have that exact feeling. The mood of this sketch reflects what you'll experience the first time you face the Golem.
This is one of the many enemy characters you confront in Redguard. When I started designing what Stros M' Kai's inhabitants would look like, I wasn't sure if we should go with a realistic look, or make our characters resemble something you might see on Saturday morning adventure serials. We decided to go with a stylized appearance. The final decision was a good one as Redguard has some vibrant and colorful characters, each with his or her own personality.
When starting out on a project there is a lot of concept art that is done. This particular sketch was one artist's idea on how we could make the harbor look. Most of what you see here is in the game. It's been that way from the start. We had a vision when Redguard began, and we've stuck pretty close to the original.
Dram was inspired by a well-known bounty hunter from a galaxy far, far, away. When it came to Richton, I wanted him to be almost feminine in his mannerisms. I pictured him looking and acting like he was nothing to fear, but when you faced him it was quite the contrary.
When you make a game such as Redguard, you want to put in all sorts of monsters for your hero to fight. We thought a sea sepent [sic] would make a wonderful addition to the stack. Let's just hope you'll be able to beat him in the game. He towers over Cyrus 64' from out of the water!
Here is a great sketch of the Mage's Guild. The final version ended up slightly different.