Architect Turned SCAD Professor And Game Designer Walter Woods Sees The Art In Coding

As a professor of digital media at Savannah College of Arts and Design, Walter Woods is always on the lookout for innovations in the videogame field, from new technology to new software. But, as he told Paste, the inspiration for his latest game came from “beyond the grave,” as Woods borrowed the art of 19th-century master artist Gustave Doré, scanning his black and white linework and using it to provide textures for much of the game. 

Best known for his illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Doré also lent his talents to the works of Homer, Byron, Goethe, and Corneille. When creating Dark and Deep, Woods used a 150-year-old Bible illustrated by Doré to provide the surreal, cosmic horror aesthetic he was searching for. Woods also took inspiration from the bold visual storytelling on A24 movies like The Lighthouse and Midsommar to plunge players into a terrifying nightmare that bends reality.

In the game, players assume the identity of Samuel Judge, an underachieving IT guy and a loyal fan of the mysterious conspiracy podcast “Dark and Deep”. As players try to navigate a “shadowy and dangerous landscape,” they use magical picture frames to fight hidden creatures and reveal important objects. In addition to serving as windows into a terrifying world, the frames are also tools to banish the darkness. 

Woods hails from Savannah, Ga., and returned to teach at SCAD in 2016, but he spent years in Boston, studying architecture and then working for a firm. At the time, professional architects were just starting to use game engines like Unreal Engine to visualize projects, so he already had a built-in skill set when he met a programmer up in Boston who inspired me and taught me how to code. The duo started MUTT studio together in 2014 and worked on creating projects until 2019 when Woods went solo. 

“I was always interested in world-building. I think that’s why I got into architecture for the purpose of building worlds, building spaces, and expressing myself through spaces in history, geometry, and light,” he said. “I also have had a lifelong obsession with conspiracies and mythology, so I made Dark and Deep to share my love for the strange and ancient with the horror game community.”

Walter Woods

Woods, who designed the game and provided art, code, sounds and music, was assisted by illustrator and concept artist Jason Scalfano, 3D modeler and animator Thai Liuu and Eric Albaugh, who provided the voice of the “Dark and Deep” podcast. The game is currently set to release in August.

While Woods sees programming as a means to an end, he advocates learning to code for all the artists he teaches and works with. 

“I didn’t start from a tech background, but it’s been so empowering to have complete control of my creation,” he said. “Familiarity with a tool is the most important thing. If you know the tool, make something awesome with it. Don’t mistake learning more software or programming languages with making things. I like to make things, so I embrace any limitations of the tools I know and try to thrive within them.”

Since opening in 2002, SCAD’s Interactive Game Design and Development Program has graduated prominent industry players including Chief Creative Officer at Insomniac Games Chad Dezern, Matt Ward, the director of Visual Storytelling & Cinematics at Gearbox Entertainment, Netflix Animation Director Zach Parrish and Riot Games Creative Director Elie Lehman Fielding.

@walterwoodsdev

A conspiracy podcast drags you into a hauntingly illustrated world of mystery and terror. Reveal secrets and horrors with mystical frames given to you by a strange observer. Dark and Deep is a first person cosmic horror game with a focus on puzzles and exploration. Play the demo on Steam now. #gamedev #indiedev #indiegames #gaming #tiktokgaming #horror #horrorgame #cosmichorror #art #artist

♬ Paris – 3Hzwave

The school, which has locations in Atlanta and Savannah, was also approached by Epic Games to become an Unreal education partner and offers programs that constantly pivot around technology and production changes, according to Wendy Gardner, SCAD Sr. Director of Public Relations. Currently, the college hosts 38 separate game labs, all outfitted with cutting-edge tech.

Woods teaches with and currently uses Unreal Engine 5 as a game engine, which has tools like procedural animation and generation tools, Blueprint visual scripting for creating functionality, Lumen for realtime lighting, and Nanite for unlimited polycounts that allow small devs to act like a big team. 

“3D modeling workflows have become different as well. I can do photogrammetry on my iPhone with Polycam. I actually have quite a few scanned meshes in Dark and Deep. It’s so cool to be able to take great architecture or sculpture and use it as reference or even take it directly into the game,” he said. 

Woods said the advice he constantly gives to younger developers just starting out is to play fewer games and make more art. 

“Only you can make your art. You have to shift from being a consumer to a creator,” he said. “If you can make that leap, you will do great.”

Dana Forsythe is a freelance writer covering tech, comic books and culture. He lives in Massachusetts, enjoys photographing street art, collecting comics and can be followed via Twitter @danafour.