Warhammer 40000:Darktide- Narrative Characters Concepts- Art dump

These are the concepts for a series of narrative and mission givers characters from the game Warhammer 40000: Darktide.
Was extremely fun working on it but also not easy at all and very challenging process.

One of the main pillar of the character design for this game, was making them look as real, plausible and believable looking as possible. That meant having to adapt a lot of the original IP´s designs from the tabletop game into some visual and design language that would translate well into a more realistic medium as a video game like "Warhammer 40000: Darktide", in contrast to the design of a tabletop miniatures game.

Ship Mistress: So with this in mind, regarding the costume design, the main challenge was to condense the bombastic and over the top baroque look of some of the typical "Imperial" fashion aesthetics elements of the original IP, and reinterpret them with a more grounded look so the character would fit better the more realistic and believable setting that we were trying to achieve with this game.

Another challenge for the costume design was finding a balance between this baroque and high status look of the costume, having these vibes from a "ball dress" of a noble woman , with another very important element but radically opposite. That it needed to be to some extent practical for a woman of action. It was important to show the adventurous side of the character. The costume needed to portray her as some sort of rich space pirate captain ready for action if the situation is required.

So I had to do a series of sketches focused in one hand on finding that fashion style suited for an Imperial Rogue trader and on the other trying to balance those two main defining elements of the character: high status and baroque pomp vs action and adventure.

Morrow: For this character, the aim was to convey a hardened veteran of the imperial guard, turned into a high ranked inquisitorial operative.
Even though at the beginning the imperial guard background was not a main element but much of a subtle element, at the end it was decided that it should take a very relevant place in his identity. So we went for him been a former veteran from one of the regiment from the Armageddon Steel Legion.
During the sketching phase, the imperial guard background was not a main element but much of a subtle element. The main focus with with the costume design was to show a very high end glove-suit and gear that looked sleek and professional.

For the final concept, I tried to go away from the classical 40k tropes of clothing and try to visualize something more "futuristic" spy/tactical look but still within the boundaries of what the 40k verse could allow. Trying to find that balance was a very fun exercise.
The idea was, that even if he is not part of the guard anymore, he carries some of the regiment's iconic gear as memories of his own past serving in it and as a mark of honor.