Old pitches and concept art for Apex Legends’ first four maps have been unearthed online, and it shows an interesting view of a flat Storm Point that existed before the map’s sloping, elevated design was finalised.
A fan of the battle royale has uncovered a treasure trove of old concept art living on the Art Station account of a former Respawn employee. While a lot of it was posted up to three years ago, and some of the early designs for the stars of our Apex Legends tier list have been circulated by the community before, we highly doubt any of you will have seen this concept art of Kings Canyon, World’s Edge, Olympus, and Storm Point before.
The artist, Hethe Srodawa, was responsible for drawing up some of the earliest visions of these maps, and his Art Station showcases some early concepts and inspirations boards. While Srodawa left Respawn a few months after Apex Legends launched in 2019, he was still clearly responsible for helping inspire maps that would come to the game as recently as October 2021 with Storm Point. Srodawa currently works as the art director at Gravity Well, a new studio set up by ex-Respawn developers that is making a AAA title that’s yet to be revealed.
The most interesting part about the concept art, which was shared by ‘Garret’ on Twitter, is that Srodawa’s vision of Storm Point is a relatively flat cove that has a sea border to the south and a steep mountain range penning it in at the north, rather than the towering, sloping island we have today. While there are some points of elevation, it’s a very different look from the final product.
Some influences, such as a lot of water breaking up POIs on the south of the map, are well represented in today’s Storm Point, but some other ideas, such as a wide green expanse labelled as “Crop Fields” or a large lighthouse, didn’t make the final cut.
While concept art is more about setting the tone and aesthetic, rather than the overall layout and playability of a map, it is interesting to see just how much of an evolution a map like Storm Point took throughout development. Shrodawa’s artwork for the other three maps is a testament to this as well, but Storm Point really stands out.
Clearly, the concept stage for new map Broken Map began after Shrodowa’s departure, but we can’t wait to see concept art for this latest map emerge online at some point in the future too.
While you’re probably deep into grinding the Apex Legends ranks this season, check out our guide on the Apex Legends Season 16 release date to get the lowdown on what’s coming next.