Bonus Content Disc/Technology: Space Vehicles - Other Races

The following are transcriptions of the artists' comments for the design gallery "The Technology of Mass Effect: Space Vehicles - Other Races" found on the bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.

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Derek Watts: During the talk about the mass relay, I was showing you a design that we were thinking of for the asari ship, Destiny's Ascension [sic]. We decided to go with that for the mass relay, and then we went with this one for Destiny's Ascension [sic]. This one, we just painted up. We didn't know what race it was going to be for. I painted up this concept, it kind of had a neat design to it. It had a hole in the middle, and then the wings off to the left... The actual ships would come out of that hole, all lit up. It had a very different feel to it. It was going to be quite a large ship, and we thought this would actually work quite well with the asari. As you look at the ships and the races, you can kind of match up and say "yeah, I can believe them building this ship." So, this is the final design for that, which you see a lot in the cinematics.

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Derek Watts: These were actually early concepts done up for the salarians. Back at this point, we were thinking of having the salarians as a party member. We ended up not doing that, but they were still a big part of Mass Effect. So, at this time, they were supposed to have a lot of ships. So, looking at the salarians, we were thinking, maybe they have more of an organic feel, a softer look, and this is an early concept for that. So, it has kind of an open section in the middle with the wings on either side and a cockpit.

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Derek Watts: This is again some quick drawings done up. You can do so many of these in a couple of hours. It's worth just getting any kind of design that might work. You never know what you're going to get out of it. This one, obviously, a bit odd, but you never know.

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Derek Watts: This one here was a pretty neat design. It had the cockpit further back, it had a very sleek look to it; and in the engines, almost maybe the guns were at the front through those two ovals. Maybe it would shoot out through there. Maybe it would be more of something a cruiser size; not a large ship, but a medium-sized ship.

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Derek Watts: This is another version of the asari ship. Maybe the engines kind of were sunk down a bit at the back, making a very sleek look to it, almost like a layered feeling for where the windows were along the sides; and an aggressive cockpit at the front.

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Derek Watts: This one here had a fairly interesting cockpit at the front there with those two wings. It actually goes straight back with a large middle section. Then, the two wings would bend down and off to the left and right for where the engines were.

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Derek Watts: Another version of the salarian ship. This could have maybe even been modified for one of the geth ships. It had those nice two blades that came out on either side of the cockpit for protection, maybe the guns were in there. Maybe this wasn't a battleship, this could even have been used more as a shuttle. With a few modifications, you can make this thing into anything you'd want.

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Derek Watts: This is another ship design. It feels more like a giant wave pool than a ship. I'm not sure what's going on with that one.

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Derek Watts: This ship had a larger front end. Again, you can kind of see some of the reasons you don't really carry on with them. You draw them out, you look at them, you show them to people and they usually go "yeah, that one's cool" or they go "that one looks terrible." They're usually pretty honest. Maybe not as honest as that, but you get some good feedback from people. Because you're doing these ships, it's nice to grab a bunch of people as they're coming by the office; you get some artists, you get some of the designers and programmers, a lot of variety of people and you'll say "what do you think of these ones?" They'll have good reasons why they do or don't like them.