THE MAKING OF THE COVER ART

How Was The Cover Art Made?

You can watch the creation of the official cover art for SHELLSTORM: The Great War in the attached timelapse video - a process which helped define the visual identity of the game. The art piece by Hayk Amirbekyan is titled “Holding the Line”. Soldiers are shown plunging into the chaos of explosive battle, embodying the spirit of defiance against overwhelming odds.

Camera & Composition

The first step was to arrange the scene in rough form, capturing all the core elements of the game: infantry, field guns, aircraft, tanks, and trenches - all within a single composition. The image was designed to convey the scale of a sprawling battle while keeping a few soldiers relatively close to the camera, preserving a personal, human perspective. The goal was to create a dual sense of intimacy and magnitude. The camera was positioned at ground level facing the horizon, anchoring the viewer amidst the action.

Adding The Wordmark

The next step was to create space for the wordmark and establish a font and color arrangement that would match the earthly and bloody tones of the game. At this stage, the project carried the working title SHELLSHOCK: The Great War. As we neared the public announcement, the name was adjusted SHELLSTORM: The Great War to ensure it stood apart in the marketplace and avoided overlap with established franchises. 

Sky, Fog, and Props

With the general composition of the scene established, the next step was to start making it look nice. We first changed the sky color to better match the earthly hues of the terrain, re-positioned the airplanes to make for a clearer view of the wordmark, and added foreground props to fill the emptiness of the scene - like sandbags and helmets. We added fog to the distant terrain, which helped create a sense of depth. The image was starting to look cohesive.

Posing The Characters and Adding Particle Effects

Next, we gave each on-screen solider a unique pose. With soldiers now depicted either operating field guns, shooting at the incoming army, charging to defend the frontline, hanging lifelessly, or being tossed by an explosion, these poses made the scene look more dramatic and personal. We added many particle effects to the scene including explosions, debris, dust, and tracer rounds to show the chaos of battle. We also added craters to the background terrain to showcase the environmental destruction and make it look embattled. 

Final Touches

To finish the poster, we adjusted the font to make it less bulky, and accentuated its shadows. We also made sure the wordmark was rendered in front of all the fog in the scene to be more clearly visible. At this point the soldier models were still missing faces and skin. Since we needed the soldiers to look British, we asked Alec, who programs much of SHELLSTORMS core gameplay systems, to send over some selfies. We wrapped the images around the character model's head - a choice that was hilarious, yet appropriate. The final touch was sprinkling blood on the sandbags and on the dead soldier in the foreground. 

Verdict

Thank you for reading our blog and watching the creation timelapse video. As you can see, the cover art for SHELLSTORM: The Great War was captured entirely in Unity - without doctoring, photoshop, generative AI, or post-processing. Just a carefully composed screenshot from within the game engine with the wordmark overlaid on top. The same models, terrain, and VFX are used during gameplay. 

If you’d like a physical copy of the poster, it’s currently available for purchase on ArtStation. Profits will go toward the development and publishing of SHELLSTORM. Since the playable demo is free and the full game is not yet purchasable, buying the poster is currently the best way to financially support SHELLSTORM: The Great War. For those of you already playing the demo, thank you for being on the frontlines with us!

Grab a physical copy of the art-piece on Artstation!

Best regards,
Hayk Amirbekyan
Founder, HyperMad Interactive

------------------------------------------------
BE PART OF THE HYPERMAD JOURNEY!
------------------------------------------------

Wishlist SHELLSTORM: The Great War on Steam!

Play the DEMO on Steam! Enjoyed the Demo? Share it with your friends and leave a review!

Sign Up for Our Newsletter to get news, updates, exclusive demos, development/publishing insights, and job postings delivered to your inbox!

Join our Discord to chat directly with Hayk Amirbekyan and Alec McKay - the developers behind SHELLSTORM: The Great War!

Follow us on  YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, IndieDB, and Steam!

Industry Press & Independent Journalists: contact us for exclusive access, and co-launching of upcoming news and trailers. 

YouTubers, Streamers & Content Creators: Contact us if you'd like to coordinate a cross-promotions.

Game Developers & Students: Contact us to discuss partnerships and internships at Hypermad interactive!

Email Us At at info@HyperMadinteractive.com