Saints Row Enemy Factions: The Idols
I was Art Director on Saints Row (2022) and was responsible for developing the high level art direction for the game including the enemy Factions.
I had the opportunity to work with some amazingly talented Associate Art Directors, Art Leads, and artists, both internal and external, to develop the concepts and ideas below to define and describe the enemies in the world.
Check out my GDC 2023 presentation "The Art Direction of Saints Row" for an overview of the style of the game. It's available in the GDC Vault!
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1029337/The-Art-Direction-of-Saints
The Idols are anarchist cult with anonymous but flamboyant leaders. They have grounded tech and physicality, but have exaggerated costumes & theming with their Egyptian raver motif. They are attention seekers, trying to convert people to their cause.
Their motto is 'No Pharoahs, No Gods, No Idols but Us'.
The hot pink gives them a youthful, energetic and electric quality. Its rebellious and paired with the baby blue it also gives them a bit of immature quality. Shape wise, we pushed sharp shapes to give them a dangerous aspect. It also pairs nicely with some Egyptian imagery like pyramids, crocodile teeth, and cat ears.
In our enemy line-up we have our sub grunts on the low end. These are minions that go around tagging the world with the Idols message.
As we move up, we get better equipped, and we start theming with the Egyptian motifs more and more, until the high end, where we have full costumes for our elite fighters. These are patterned after various Egyptian gods. Overall, the idea was to suggest losing their identity to the cult. They get more and more covered up as they rise in rank and threat and, eventually cease to be a recognizable individual. We also add more gold to help differentiate the elite from the lower ranks. At the highest end is the Collective, in their golden, LED Cat masks.
Idols vehicles center around small, sporty cars, dirt buggies, and dirt bikes, which are heavily and hastily customized. They rip off doors, spray paint their colors, logos and slogans, and wrap in and rope lights. Overall, Idols vehicles are intended to look a bit nomadic with the roof racks and gear strapped on.
We designed a variety of custom weaponry, vehicles, and locations for the Idols across the map.
Idols Faction Brand
1. Color - PInk, Blue, Yellow
2. Shapes - Bias towards sharp shapes, then curves, then blocky shapes
3. Metal - Gold
4. Element - Water
Factions promote one primary color that is used in exclusively for the game. This helps the Faction stand out and be immediately recognized as well as provide an opportunity for the Faction to have a high visual priority on screen. For the Idols the primary color is pink, then a baby blue, with yellow accents.
Idols Beat Down concept. We created a series of illustrations depicting the new enemy factions to capture their style and tone. Concept by Sperasoft.
Cinematic clip featuring the Idols enemy faction.
All the major factions in the game had high level ingredients that manifested in different ways. For the Idols, they were pink with blue and yellow accents, favored sharp shapes, had gold as their metal, and water as their element.
Idols logo design. It's a stencil based design, used to spread the Idols message of anarchy.
Idols color palette.
Idols LIne up. On the low end are the sub-grunts, and then the foot soldiers. Three specialist classes have unique combat kits, and finally we have the cat masked leaders. Concepts by various artists.
Concept of an Idols bike by Josh Norman.
Idols vehicles are heavily modified with spray painted messages and led rope light. They have a nomadic aspect to them, hence the cargo net and gear on top. Concept by Josh Norman.
Screenshot from the game featuring combat with the Idols.
Night time concept of the Idols Camp. Idols extensively use attention grabbing led lights and black light. Concept by Josh Norman.
Concept of an Idols stage by Josh Norman. The Idols are theatrical, mainly to grab attention and convert followers to their cause.
Screenshot of the Idols Collective. The Idols are led by the masked members of the Collective. Each has a unique animated faceplate for their mask.
The Idols 'calling card' is a beach ball that emits black light. We have a working black light system in the game. Some Idols have hidden messages written on them.
Idols Camp concept by Josh Norman. The Idols are not native to Santo Ileso, but have come in and squatted at an abandoned county fair.
Examples of Idols weaponry from the game. Idols mostly use conventional weaponry, but customize it with paints and decals.
Idols wallpaper created by the Brand team.