Bonus Content Disc/Creatures: Krogan

The following are transcriptions of the artists' comments for the design gallery "The Creatures of Mass Effect: Krogan" found on the bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.

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Matt Rhodes: So the krogans [sic], because we had this-- these were our... kind of our Klingons, these were the war-like beasts of the galaxy that everyone sort of tolerated. The violent family member that, you know, don't really know if you should invite to the table or not, you don't know what they're going to do, they're... you know, chaotic. So heading straight away, you know, the designers will say something like, "they're space lizards," and you know, right off the bat, you'll take that fairly literally. So, you know, you kind of have to get that sort of thing out of the way.

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Matt Rhodes: Here are some sketches of just some different, almost gorilla-like bodies. I don't even know who did these. ...Mike Spalding. Yeah, Mike Spalding did some awesome work for this. It just-- that ape-like shape, that really imposing gargantuan form is something that definitely translated.

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Matt Rhodes: Here we had a totally different direction. The face was mostly approved, and this was trying to come up with a body for it. This was before a lot was decided about who these guys were, and so this was kind of a more-- almost like a tribal approach to the subject. Like if these guys are war-like, it's kind of like a... you know, almost a sub-Saharan Africa sort of way. And here, you can see the big, long, organic dreadlocks hanging over. It's the hunched-over version, and trying to punch holes through the anatomy. And it's kind of some interesting stuff in the development of this guy.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's some really quick, simple stuff, just trying to take the face and go in almost like a classic Star Trek approach. So we have the big boots wrapped up, and the cone head. Didn't quite do the job.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's just taking the face and sort of working a body around it. We like the idea of it having the shell with some almost exposed, softer tissue, but trying to find the right arrangement for it was interesting. This guy was a little too lumbering, a little too... almost dopey, for lack of a better term.

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Matt Rhodes: Putting the big hump on the back really helped to sell the idea of them being almost like slaves, in the sense of like, you know, they've got this heavy burden on themselves, that they're slaves to their war-like natures, that they're slaves, that, you know... their genetics don't allow them to overrun the universe. This really sort of worked with the head as well. The way that head was shaved, it just-- it almost needed to be squished underneath a big, huge back. The organic dreadlocks were still in place here, but this was actually starting to head in a direction we could all agree on.

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Matt Rhodes: And here we have our naked krogan. This was-- this is the body that got approved. Everyone was cool with it. A few arrangements; we shrunk the back down a little bit, made it so he could fit on a human skeleton, and there we go, we had him. I really like how this guy turned out. He's one of my personal favorite alien species in the game. Just the hard armor, the soft underbelly bits, the face just works. That big giant mouth. It's so intimidating.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's the face of the krogan. This is the look. A few changes, but not too many. These are our war-like creatures. Overlayed a few textures, just to sort of get the idea, and just watch-- being able to watch this guy talk is amazing. The amount of work done on that mouth was incredible, but it really paid off.

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Matt Rhodes: And here's the krogan armor. Putting armor on this guy was an interesting thing as well, because again, trying to fit them into the galactic economy, so that, you know, everyone... You could almost buy krogan armor from the same guy who does human armor. What sort of requirements are there, you know, in trying to fit something over that frame. It was a really great experiment in shape. The way the slats all work, it was really to emphasize the back, the big giant back, with like the huge mass there, the curving down into the little tail. Thick and intimidating. And also the idea of circles, using circles and curved shapes in this guy. He's almost... he's intimidating enough as he is, he's so big, he's so imposing, and it's not like they're trying to be scary, they're just pushy. So, curves really helped to pull him into a realm that was believable and not laughable.