The Queen's Gambit Chess: Paris Environment Deep Dive

Making Of / 14 December 2023

We’re back with a special environment deep dive! This week Rockwater Artist, Tom Willcox, talks us through how he and the art team recreated a brand-new environment from the show; the immaculate Hotel de Ville in Paris.

How We Rebuilt Paris for Mobile

As we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, the challenge of adapting a Netflix show into a mobile game is no small feat! The process involves scaling down such detailed, iconic environments to be impactful on a screen that fits in the palm of your hand. The Parisian Hotel de Ville is one of those iconic environments! In this deep dive, we explore the meticulous work of bringing a set like this to life with insights from Rockwater Artist, Tom Willcox.

Getting Started With Scale

Where do you start with something like this? Research!

"The first step, just like any other project, is to conduct a ton of reference gathering and research. Me and the team studied The Queen's Gambit's Paris scenes frame by frame, taking screenshots and collating it all in a mood board. My initial focus was to capture the scale of the room. Episode Six of The Queen’s Gambit has this great shot from the back of the room which I used as my main reference. I knew that if I could match the lens settings and the angle I could kind of gauge whether I was on the right track." - Tom Willcox

Once we had a rough idea of scale, I went back through and found shots where the room was busy, using people to further cement the scale of things. For example, the benches could fit three people, from that I can roughly tell the width. There’s a behind-the-scenes shot of someone standing by the chess display on the wall, making it possible to estimate the height of the board. We also found the filming location - the Haus Cumberland in Berlin, this helped to get those extra details.” - Tom Willcox

Capturing the Detail

With the scale established, Tom and the team then worked on putting together an all-encompassing asset list, ensuring absolutely no detail was overlooked. The goal was to capture all of the grandeur and elegance of Paris, all the while staying true to the show's unique aesthetic.

“I didn't want to misrepresent any detail. We made sure everything was as close to the reference material as possible - right down to replicating the score sheet books. Those details are what sell an environment for me - it’s what I look out for personally when I play games. It drives immersion." - Tom Willcox

Optimising the Art of The Queen’s Gambit Chess for Mobile

With the majority of their previous projects landing on PC and Console, the Rockwater art team have always set a high bar for the visual fidelity they wanted to achieve. When it came to working on mobile, they set out to do whatever they could to maintain that level.

“From early on we knew the kind of limitations we were facing, since this had already been established from the previous environments. It was a whole host of compromises and optimisation to get the most out of as little as possible, but to me those challenges are fun and part of the process, they’re just puzzles that need to be solved." - Tom Willcox

To overcome these challenges, Tom and the art team made use of clever technical tricks that helped keep the fidelity up without impacting performance on mobiles with limited hardware capabilities:

“The environment was fully modular, which meant lots of repeating geometry, lots of reused textures, and fewer draw calls. I used trim sheets for the architecture, which helped to maintain the texel density throughout, as well as made for quick, iterative texturing. A lot of props shared texture sheets, I think they were all on two, which meant some strategically unwrapped and packed UVs; the Tetris of the game dev world.” - Tom Willcox

The Deeper Details: Paris

As with all other The Queen’s Gambit Chess environments the devil is in the details. Tom took a closer look at various props within the environment. Each element was crucial in immersing players in the world of the show from the playing position.

"I think Paris in the show feels elegant, grand, and somewhat intimidating. I hope players get that same feeling from the playing position in our environment. As a fan of any TV show or film, having access to that third dimension in some form is exciting. I hope players enjoy that experience to get closer to the show.” - Tom Willcox

Ensuring authenticity to the show's art style was a delicate balance. Tom and the art team performed early lighting passes and iterative texturing and ensured that the more vivid colour palette of the game always complemented the show's aesthetic.

“This was definitely a balancing act. It required early lighting passes, which were handled by Jake (Rockwater Senior Artist), in conjunction with iterative texturing. This ensured we correctly represented the show while complimenting the more stylized, vivid colour palette of the game. I also spent time bouncing around the existing levels making sure our new environment remained grounded within the rest of the game..” - Tom Willcox

Tom's Journey As A Video Game Artist…So Far!

The Queen’s Gambit Chess marks both Tom’s and former Rockwater Artist Jack Shergold’s first experiences working on a published game! With this in mind, we asked Tom to shed some more light on his journey as a video game artist so far, exploring his insights into working within the Rockwater art team as well as his aspirations for the future.

This is your first work to feature in a published game, right? How does it feel knowing that your art is finally out there for the world to see on Netflix Games?!

"It’s honestly been a dream come true, which I am fully aware sounds majorly cheesy, but this has been my dream job for as long as I can recall. It feels incredibly surreal! It’s the understatement of the year to say that I'm honoured to have worked on an adaptation of such a beloved show.I fell in love with the artistic vision for The Queen’s Gambit; the locations, the era, the clothes. This was our team’s love letter to the show, so I wanted to do it proud. It was my first real endeavour for Rockwater, so I made it my personal goal to uphold the high standards Jake and Matt had already set across the other environments.”

Ripstone is your first role as an artist in the games industry, how has it been so far?

"I’ve loved it! It’s great having the freedom to try new things, and to be allowed and encouraged to explore. I’m still new to this industry but it’s such a huge thing that here I’m able to express an opinion or an idea and it’s always considered and valued. There have been occasions where I’ve suggested things - workflows or potential ideas - and the response has always been ‘Go for it, go try it out!’. We follow this mantra that it’s not wasted time if you learn something. Being a small team also allows me and other junior artists to be given creative control over an entire environment sometimes. It’s something I’m massively grateful for.”

What are you looking forward to going into 2024?

“I feel like a kid in a sweet shop every day! I love learning about every aspect of game art, from honing my modelling and texturing skills, lighting, composition and environment building, to technical art; like shader creation, or finding ways to optimise workflows. This is probably the broadest answer ever, but yeah, I’m a huge nerd for this stuff!”

Any tips for upcoming artists heading into their first industry roles? What do you wish you'd known going in?

"Absorb everything, and always be open to feedback. It’s an easy thing to say but not the easiest thing to implement. It can be easy to get attached to the things that we make, and be precious about them, but to grow you have to trust the process and the opinions of the team around you."

More From Ripstone’s ArtStation

Thanks again for joining us on the Ripstone ArtStation! If you've enjoyed this exploration of how our Rockwater Art Team recreated Paris’ Hotel de Ville for The Queen’s Gambit Chess, be sure to delve into our previous articles to discover more behind-the-scenes insights:

HOTEL DE VILLE, PARIS CREDITS:

Environment Work:
Tom Wilcox, Junior Artist

Jack Shergold, Junior Artist

Lighting and Engine:
Jake Parrott, Senior Artist

Additional Support:
Matt Beech, Senior Artist