Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is so close now you can tase it in the air with the barest flick of your forked, reptilian tongue. In the lead-up to launch, Insomniac Games is highlighting how some familiar faces have evolved since the first game's events, and the studio's eagerly anticipated sequel crawls onto PS5 on 20th October.
Over on the PlayStation Blog, we learn that the more monstrous design of Dr. Curtis Connors, AKA Lizard, was inspired by honest-to-goodness lizards, leathery skin and all. Insomniac senior art director Jacinda Chew described the process, ultimately determining that nature's attempts weren't nearly slimy enough:
"We looked at a lot of lizard skin for research. The thing about lizards in real life, their skin's actually really dry. Most people who looked at our Lizard kept initially saying, 'He's not slimy enough.' But I think it's a nod to what people expect a lizard to look like. He's got that lizard skin, but it's actually much shinier than what you'd see on a real lizard."
Far more bestial than earlier incarnations, Insomniac wanted to create something striking yet vaguely realistic, and Chew notes that: "We gave him spikes, too. For design references, I tried looking at real-life lizards that looked a bit more prehistoric because some lizards can look soft and cute. I was looking at spikier, more snake-like, more aggressive references."
The wizards at Insomniac have even developed a slick technique where Lizard can shed his skin, and its "artists used a program to simulate how the skin might move fluttering in the wind."