A Vanguard. The foremost part of a force or movement.

Vanguard was our response to the abandonment of Titanfall. With the series adrift, the community did not know where to go. Titanfall was at the whims of investors, and a company who saw greener pastures elsewhere. With the games on life support, hackers were everywhere uncombated. Numerous RCE scares, DoS attacks- the games were often unplayable, or we were scared to play them. Vanguard was part of the same movement to revive Titanfall that brought us Northstar- but Northstar is not much more than a prosthetic. It runs on a game that you may not even be able to buy tomorrow, something that is almost for all intents and purposes abandonware.

Vanguard is a game for the Titanfall community, by the Titanfall community. We knew we were embarking on a long voyage- games are big, complex, sprawling machines, often built by dozens or hundreds of people. We are but a team of volunteers. But this past year, we’ve made great progress. Work continues to build a robust multiplayer structure, dozens of pieces of high-quality concept art have inspired us, detailed 3d models have been modeled and textured.

A year ago, we committed to this project. There were some peaks of productivity and moments where the project lay in slumber. But we’ve pushed through them all, and we believe we can push this project through to completion. We know it’s not gonna take us merely another year- but we’re not gonna let down this project, this community, this dream.

So on that note- here’s much of what we’ve worked on. What each of us is most proud of, and what we’re excited for in the year to come.

Please note that everything included in this is NOT finalized, or in any way guaranteed to be a part of the final game. This is a showcase of some of the work we have done over the past year, including some work that has been heavily modified or dropped already.

I’m a designer and concept artist, working on designing our mechs, rangers, and weapons. Since joining the project in March, a lot of my explorations have been done in tandem with Jonny and Tato, with their distinct styles being a deep well to draw from.



Here are some concepts and designs for equipment, mostly weaponry. On this front, I mostly work in collaboration with the writing team, and especially the 3d artists. Kinetic.



I’ve also been spearheading the mecha design. This realm of design is more delicate, despite the heavy-duty subject. Most enjoyable is finding the balance between purpose built war machine and making each one an individual.



Creating and refining our visual style directly in cooperation with fellow devs from all stations is invaluable to me. I’ve contributed hundreds of designs and drawings, with plans for several hundred more.

Thanks for everything.

-Zinovi



Hi, I'm Tato. I'm a digital concept artist. I oversaw Character art and established a distinct style for the project, drawing from our inspirations while still going for something unique and original. I concepted the majority of the rangers and some other characters with help and feedback from the rest of the team.



I’ve made a few concepts for the environment and overall look of the world. While we're not too far yet on this aspect of the project, these concepts help paint a picture of what the maps and the world around them might feel like aesthetically.



I also drafted these promo images!



In the beginning of the project we had no proper pipeline yet, and as such a lot of our first or second drafts immediately got passed without reconsideration, leading to the massive redesigns of both blur and Corsair in between devlog 2 and 3. The way it works now is, one of the idea departments (either writers or game dev) asks for concept art of something, the team drafts their own impression of the prompt, we pass our drafts to someone else within concept art and then they work further on that concept, creating a more refined final concept in which the entire concept team contributed.

A special thank you to the team that has helped me both grow as an artist and dealt with my absurdities for almost a year now.

And another special thank you to the community that keeps me and the rest of the team motivated to do the best we can. TATO OUT.



Hello everyone! I'm Jonny, red cross EMT and freelance concept artist in Austria, near Vienna. Fun fact- lots of my concepts were sketched in the back of an ambulance or while waiting for emergencies on station.

This project has been lots of fun. I really enjoyed crafting designs, reiterating them based on feedback and seeing them become part of the universe we are creating. I’ll be honest- I don’t see myself on the same level in terms of creating finished pieces as the other artists on the team. I mostly focus on sketches to convey ideas. However, I’ve improved my painting and shading skills a lot over the course of this project, thanks to practice and feedback from other artists (special thanks to Tato!).

As a concept artist I was involved in a lot of stuff. I also tried myself on 3D-modeling since I had experience in CAD, but always failed at preparing the models for the game engine. I often quickly sketched ideas that came to mind, most of which were later abandoned- but some stayed.

Here’s a quick list, followed by the projects that were not necessarily the most complex ones, but those with the biggest impact on the project.

• Olympian/Elysium Industries (some aspects adapted, became a big in-game manufacturer)
• Locust/R8 Matrix (dropped)
• OS-1K (unclear)
• Not-Marvin/Melvin (to be revisited someday)
• Medium Warden (sketched, partly modeled, dropped)
• Icarus Thrusters (adapted into the thrusters of most current Rangers)
• Legionnaire SAW (dropped)
• Cloak/Geist (approved, yay!)
• Nonspecific Ranger (dropped, nay:/)
• Undersuit (dropped)
• Dropship (unclear)
• The Elysian Garde (in progress)
• BP-RP (approved :D)
• Lightning Bolt Javelin (approved, modeled by the legendary L3gerity)
• RR2-Remote Rifle (not quite dropped- violently thrown into the abyss)
• Feint/Hologuy (to be seen…)
• Generic Mid-Range Scope (concept finished, currently being modeled by L3gerity)
• Knock-Off Alternator (dropped)

The most important stuff:

Right at the start of the project, I submitted a design sheet for a manufacturer then called "Elysium Industries". As you can see, the drawings were pretty crude and I relied a lot on effects- I promise that’ll get better in later submissions.

An in-game company that produces luxury products with a dystopian flair, I also imagined it managing Halo-like ring worlds as luxury retreats for the rich. This idea, combined with the name, were discarded since there was a (very) high similarity to the movie Elysium. (I had watched that a long time ago and hadn’t realized the full extent of the parallel until it was pointed out :/)

The look changed somewhat- away from the red targeting lasers, and with an added gold accent, but the sleek, black base and the flair of luxus stayed. But after the name later became "Olympian", it became the in-universe manufacturer of, for example, the spectacularly sleek EMG and LR-11, as well as the fittingly Zeus themed lightning bolt javelin.



An EPG main myself, I designed what was supposed to become the EPG of this game: a plasma rocket launcher, basically. I modeled it in Fusion 360, without any 2D-concepts prior. The design was well received, but it is unclear when the model itself will ever get optimized, since I failed dramatically every time I dared open Blender so far. By the way, to avoid confusion- the cylinder is at the back of the gun.



Before I even got into the team I concepted a Mrvn-knock off, which went through many names: Not-Marvin, Melvin, Martin, etc.

Before the concept even got approved by anyone, I had already started modeling it, again in Fusion 360. The design changed a bit- mostly away from the source material. The screen moved, it got bunny-ears. Later, the model even got rigged by the amazing Dhruv Gandhi and inserted into a movement-demo build. Again, the future of this model is uncertain- the design is there, but there is a lot of work needed to make it game-ready. I do plan on working on the design again- there's a good start here but I’d like to make it more unique. Give it an actually distinct character.







I presented an idea for a jump pack that consisted of eight different thrusters, four on the side of the hip and four on the shoulders. It was judged to be too complicated, but the concept of thrusters mounted on the side of the hip stayed. It’s present on many current Ranger concepts: Aegis, Sonar, Cloak and Feint!

Here is my first proper Ranger concept, created together with C150utcast! This was a very long running project- I drew multiple versions although not much changed since the first version, except for the visor. Well, that and the name: from Cloak to Specter to Geist.



I drew an undersuit to be used as a basis for all Ranger models. It was then 3D-modeled by the wonderful Waffle and looked pretty cool, but a bit too complicated. It’s unclear where the design will go or whether there will actually be an undersuit as basis for character design, or if it will simply be a base model for rigging characters.



Perhaps my longest lasting concept for this project: Spectre-like androids in the sleek style of Olympian. I have drawn countless iterations of the design but I’m not really happy with any of them. My main inspiration currently is the CoD Black Ops III Reaper with the High-tech skin. Damn, I love that robot. I mention that way too often.

A concept for a simple, lightweight(ish) battle robot. I focused a lot on negative space and tried to reach an aesthetic between the Star Wars Battle Droid and Reaper from CoD. The concept was approved and I began modeling it. There may be some revisions to come- for one, it sure looks very beefy for a light weight robot.

A small idea that quickly got approved and then promptly modeled! Here's the concept art.



My latest and favorite Ranger concept: A sneaky Trickster using Holograms to distract the enemy.

I’m really proud of the foxy-looking visor that gives this design a lot of character. The helmet stayed pretty consistent since the start, but the armor changed a lot. Hologuy isn’t, I’m guessing, the final name. Tato and Zinovi are also sketching up alternative concepts.





My most recent proper concept! A generic mid-range scope designed with input from the glorious Kat.

I also made up the made-up manufacturer of this piece, “Opticos”, and drew a logo that I’m proud of enough to accept that the name isn’t very popular. It’s gonna change sometime though, pride doesn’t last long.



I still have big plans- one thing I love about this project is that you can always find something to draw for it. I often use it to procrastinate on other projects (some of which I should be doing this very moment).

I definitely want to do a proper, renewed concept of the Elysian Garde, as well as a redesign of Melvin. I’d also love to design a Warden and perhaps some spacecraft.

In any case, you haven’t heard the end of me!

Cheers, Jonny

Btw: feel free to dm me for concept suggestions or critique

I’ve done a bit of concept art for Olympian (the original concepts for both the LR11 and its LMG companion, the LX Typhoon), and one singular- but very detailed- weapon model.

This is the ER9 Energy Machine Gun. It is an Olympian designed weapon that fits into the role of an SMG. It is, like far too many of our weapons, sorta a bullpup- but given that the firing mechanism isn’t ballistic, I’m not too sure whether it truly is one. Anyways, you’ll be seeing a lot more of the ER9 soon.



Hello, I’m Waffle, I’m part of the 3D team and I unfortunately don’t have too much to show off since I’ve been focusing on education, procrastination and honing my skills through online courses, but I am excited to continue to use the skills I’ve gained and honed to collaborate with the rest of the team to create a game we can all be proud of.

A large amount of the stuff I worked on was earlier in the year and was unfortunately scrapped as concepts were revised and updated to have a clearer art direction. The original model for Blur (who has since been substantially revised) was a little funky for me to work on because I didn't have too much experience with modeling from concept art very accurately, since before then I mostly tried to create my own designs on my own projects. However, it was a very good learning experience, and it was a fun collaboration with Tato and Jonny.



It’s proportions are a little scuffed, as you can see the arms are noticeably long.

The undersuit was another model I had worked on before it was later redesigned by Zinovi, and I’m currently working on remodeling it. The original design was helmed by Jonny, and was my first go at trying out modeling more organic shapes while collaborating with L3garity who helped with iterating and concepting a spine for the model. The model was essentially made in around 3 weeks, which while fast did end up having a few issues, the most noticeable being the lack of proper topology in the hands, which I was unable to get back to due to... procrastination!



My next goal was to work on the revised concept of Blur, which was radically different from the original. I ended up nearly completing the block out of the model, but I couldn’t find a way to change the curvature of a hand and translate it to a more hard surface design. After it was finished, I took my aforementioned break from the project to focus on my education and skills to improve my modeling abilities.



I still need to work on the hands…

But, here’s some of the stuff I worked on in my studies- in particular I worked on my grasp of anatomy.



This is one of my anatomy studies, which I made in zbrush. (Done following a CGMA course)



And this was a bit of practice in substance painter. This model isn’t mine, but I created the materials and textures from the ground up. (Done following a CGMA course)

A big part of what made working on this project so fun for me was the amount of collaboration involved in the team. In particular, I’ve loved working with the rest of the 3d modelers- anytime one of us is stuck, confused, or needs inspiration, everyone else chimes in with suggestions and ideas. But this also applies to many of the other artists- whenever we needed references of their concepts, or ideas on design they were ready and willing to help. I’m not the best at writing conclusions- so I’m going to call it here...

Hello there! I'm L3gerity, 3D modeler and Titanfall enthusiast. It's been an honor to be a part of this team, and I'm excited to show what I've been up to this year!

The LR-11 is the first full model that I made for the project. It is based on wonderful concept art from F1shy, and fully realized with help from the team. It certainly isn't perfect, and I plan to overhaul the textures, but regardless I'm quite proud of this model and I learned a lot.



The Locust is currently my all-time favorite model, and my first major experience with proper baking and texturing software. Zinovi and I went through many iterations of this firearm until we landed on this design. One interesting thing we iterated on in the creation of this model was the charging handle! We started out with a basic, cylindrical non-reciprocating handle- but we ended up swapping this for a folding handle, to better suit the weapon’s role. Chambered in a high pressure 10mm cartridge, this weapon will play a similar role to the alternator; that is, a relatively slow firing, punchy SMG.



Here’s a couple pistol concepts I made. They’re very rough blockouts, but they show some of the designs we worked with early on.



In between working on guns, I also made props- such as this garage filler pack. (I still need to texture these...)



And here is this simple can I created, as a fun little environmental piece. (Now 100% rat free!)



But that’s not all I’ve been up to! I also have worked on modeling a throwable javelin and an anti-warden weapon. More information about those is just a bit further down. Goodbye for now!

Hey, there! I’m Kat. I do freelance 3D hard-surface, and I have what some have called “expertise” in optics and gun sights. I was asked to join the team for that purpose, and I’m excited to share what I’ve got.



The OFG (Open-Framed Gunsight) is a lensless device that creates an Aerosolized Interference Matrix - an organized, almost crystalline structure suspended between the anterior fins - and refracts collimated laser light through it to create a deep image of the reticle, at a programmable distance. Technically, you could say it’s parallax free - you just gotta adjust it. On the fly. Y’know, maybe it’s got a rangefinder in it.

Inspired by Ryan Lastimosa’s HCOG, the OFG evolved from a blocky mess to what you see right now. In fact, here are some progress shots. At one point, I had what looked like stereo knobs on it. Yeesh.



Optics in games are pretty hit or miss, and, this may be a hot take, but… Titanfall and Titanfall 2 were misses in that department. Lemme explain, briefly.

When aiming down your sights, Titanfall always shoots the bullet from the camera, and through the center of the screen. Unfortunately, when you move your mouse around, your sights’ reticle moves off center. This incongruence causes a miscommunication to the player, and they wonder why they miss their shots. And, Titanfall 2’s sights don’t even function properly (sorry, guys).

My aim (haha) in joining the team on Project Vanguard is to ensure our optics both function properly and accurately communicate information to the player! That means: the reticle’s location and the place where bullets land (point of impact) is always the same - and the reticle is projected far away, and isn’t floating inside the frame.

Anyway, that’s all from me. More to come!

Hi, Sleepy here. I’m mainly working as a member of the sound design team but I've been working on one of the first maps because I don't understand the concept of boundaries. Speaking of concepts; welcome to Salvage.



An old ship breaking facility on a desert world, littered with the husks of ancient warships. Cranes, smelteries, sand and rust; the map will have a heavily industrial and weathered feel. I drew huge inspiration for the overall feel of the map from Halo Reach’s Boneyard map as well as Titanfall 2’s Rise and Homestead maps. The centerpiece of the map will be a tall watchtower, surrounded by large smelters and the split wreckage of an old vessel. With the cranes holding platforms, tight corridors within the ships, wide open sightlines on the outside, and underground tunnels and passageways, the map should have something for everyone to explore.



During the year I’ve made multiple concepts for the user interface of the game, including the main menu below and thought about how we could offer the best experience for all users. Here’s two concepts for the main menu screen using 100% placeholder images, that were not created by us, nor will be used in the final piece.



Hey everyone! I’m Macks, and I create some of the music here! I have made a ton of concepts, and one finished product. Unfortunately most were lost- my SSD corrupted and I lost a ton of work, including those concepts. I’m going to see what I can recover, but this has delayed one large project and lost a few other tracks. I’ll keep working to recover and remake those tracks, but a lot of progress was lost.

Planning:

• Main Theme
• Menu Theme
• Multiplayer Lobby Theme
• Music for Campaign

^Here's is a link to the menu OST I made.



^And here's a concept I made for a suspenseful track.

Hello, my name is jitJet, and I’m one of the composers for vanguard. I’ll be working together with many others to create the perfect soundtrack.

Concepts and Planning:

• Short match intro tracks that is themed around the map
• Intense tracks that last for the last few minutes of a match (could also be themed around the map)
• General tracks

Finished Concepts:

• The first concept of a match intro
  
  
• The second match intro concept, this time including unique short tracks that play when a team loses or wins
  
  
• The third match intro concept, much more refined than the first one
  
  
• The fourth match intro concept, still a work in progress. Includes an intense track that will play during the last few minutes of a match, giving it a "last hurrah" feel

Unreal vs. Unity

UE5 does have some tremendous advantages over Unity- prominent among them being Nanite (an infinite LOD tool), Lumen (very resource efficient, realtime global illumination solution), and simply a more detailed graphics pipeline. This is why at the start of the project, we planned to use UE5. But because of how many more people are familiar with Unity, it would not only be harder to find programmers- but most of the people we’d found worked in Unity anyways. We’re intending to stick with Unity- but this may change in the future, given recent news regarding the company.

There’s been a lot of ideas on how to create unique, memorable weapons. There’s only so many guns you can create- at some point you’re gonna run out of ideas. Cue the obvious solution- don’t just add guns!

When we look at marksman weapons, a few stand out as perpetually viable- such as the bow. It ruled the battlefields in its era, and keeps its following to this very day. It has no place on the battlefields of the future- but perhaps one of its cousins has a niche. The crossbow, or more specifically the arbalest. The power of a bow- but with more flexible power. Replace the limbs with coil springs- which the weapon can rewind on its own -and you now have the silence and power of a bow in the form-factor of a firearm.

We’re looking at expanding the arsenal of ARs with a new weapon– but this is one we really feel we need to get right. It’ll be the standard issue weapon of most grunts, and will be a simple, light, easy weapon to control and use- but not our greatest powerhouse. It is currently known as the AG-80, and is produced by Ali & Gao, but this is subject to potential change.

Every cowboy on their frontier needs his trusty revolver. With the frontier in space, this ol’ iron has evolved to match. It is a distant relative to the old single-action army- it has more in common with a main battle tank than its ancestors. This trusty wingman, made exclusively for elite troops has a ferocious reputation- and the power to match.

Another creation from Zinovi, the GAWS (Guided Anti-armor Weapon System) is our first Anti-Warden weapon. It may be dumbfired from the hip, or locked on to a warden before releasing a salvo of homing missiles. Currently it is in nearly the same state as the javelin, only needing optimization and texturing before the reveal.



This fantastical weapon was a new ordnance dreamt up by Jonny months ago. Fully collapsible, this javelin is portable and capable of instantly killing anyone directly hit, and stunning any warden caught in the radius. Currently this is mostly modeled, and only needs re-texturing and optimizing before the full reveal.



Recent works and discussion have been made to the warden system with how it will be formatted and function within the game. Many systems, including weapons, abilities and chassises have solidified concepts to them, however are not fully realized to completion and will require more work to achieve the finalized gameplay loop.

Everyone wants a trickster. A devious, mischievous devil. We’ve never fully finalized the design or gameplay, but rest assured- we will have our own little holographic Loki. Multiple ideas for the name have been floated around, but we really want to get this name right, so we haven’t decided yet.







Wonderful art provided by Tato and Jonny.

Our art departments have been making major progress, as well as our writing team; you can look forward to more lore and concepts soon. Some keen-eyed readers might have noticed the programming section is quite a bit more barren than the rest, but rest assured that progress is being made. We've accomplished a lot this year, but there's still a long road ahead. We appreciate everyone's support for the project, and are excited to keep you all updated.

Until next time,

-The Project Vanguard team