Several weeks ago, Star Trek Online celebrated its 11th anniversary that brought several new things to the game, including an anniversary event that includes tons of minigames and opportunities to win fantastic prizes. Now, for players who still haven't checked back in the game, the anniversary event will run until February 25th on the PC.
Now, in celebration of Star Trek Online's 11th anniversary, Game Rant sat down with Nick Duguid, the senior environment artist, to talk about the overall aesthetic of Star Trek Online, its inspirations, and how its design has changed in the course of 11 years. Of course, given how massive the Star Trek franchise is, it is interesting to see whether Star Trek Online tries to remain faithful to a specific era or if it takes the best elements of each one and incorporates them into the game.
How The Star Trek Series Inspired the Aesthetics of Star Trek Online
Since we talked with Star Trek Online's Design Director and Senior Environment Artist, we opted to ask the developers how Star Trek's ever-evolving aesthetics inspired Star Trek Online. In response, Duguid revealed that the team tries to stay spiritually true to a given era while ensuring that Star Trek Online maintains a common design that would make it look like it belongs in the same universe. Duguid added that when the team introduced Agents of Yesterday, an expansion from The Original Star Trek, the developers worked hard to ensure that the ship interiors look and feel like the show. However, Duguid also shared his insights on how the developers strived to make the objects look like the materials they were meant to be:
That is, when you look at the hallway walls in TOS, the reality is that they are painted plywood, but what was that meant to represent? So we try to keep the same forms, but make the objects look like the materials they were meant to be. In the case of the walls, we gave them a slight metallic feel. At a distance, they should look much like the show, but up close, or when running by, you may notice them catching light a little differently than painted plywood would.
How Star Trek Online Tries To Keep Up With Star Trek's Ever-Evolving Aesthetics
Given the long history of Star Trek that spanned decades, its general aesthetic has evolved over the years from The Original Series until Discovery, which is why many are wondering how Star Trek Online incorporates the look of the series in the game. According to Duguid, Cryptic Studios strives to "reference and showcase all eras of the shows."
Throughout Star Trek Online's 11 years, Cryptic has designed environments inspired by TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Discovery. "We want it all, and we want to show it all off," Duguid remarked in the interview. Additionally, the developer shared the joys of having the long history of Star Trek shows as inspiration for the game's design. It allows the studio to mix things that are impossible to do in the shows, given that some of them are 50 years apart.
Duguid shared that one of the most interesting elements of doing Star Trek Online is the ability to take a character from one era and have them interact with another character from a different era. Overall, Duguid expressed how it's fun "to find all of the little dangling threads throughout Star Trek, and figure out how to tie them all together in unexpected ways."
When asked whether it is important for Star Trek Online to have its own unique look outside of the shows, Duguid responded by saying that it is not really important. The developer explained that when recreating canon locations such as Boreth, it is important for fans to see exactly what they saw on screen. Of course, this is not to say that Cryptic Studios doesn't take liberties, but one thing the studio ensures with Star Trek Online's design is that it should capture the essence of the shows.
Star Trek Online is available now on Mac, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.