Destiny The Taken King Concept Art Explores The Dreadnaught

In Destiny’s first major expansion The Taken King, the primary battleground will be a massive ship called the Dreadnaught. And in case you simply can’t wait any longer to get a peek at the new location, the team at Bungie has released quite a few pieces of concept art to help tide you over.

Bungie has become known over the years for keeping their fans in the loop when it comes to the development process, and that certainly rings true for their latest FPS epic, Destiny. The studio produces regular updates for the Bungie blog offering behind the scenes details and, this week, new community manager Cozmo was on hand to introduce players to their next in-game destination: The Dreadnaught.

What’s cool about this week’s post is that it shows off concept art, as well as how those initial visions were then realized within the game. Take this image of a Dreadnaught interior for example, showing a couple of guardians exploring its labyrinthine corridors in The Taken King.

Now give this in-game image a gander. It’s not as wide open or filled with jagged bits of metal as the first image, but it gets the point across. The Dreadnaught is an ancient war vessel that’s traveled the stars and conquered civilizations. It hasn’t come out of the fray unscathed, though, as both the concept and in-game images show how weathered the ship has become. There’s even a massive hole blown into the side of the ship.

According to Cozmo, this makes the Dreadnaught more “daring” than “inviting,” which is exactly the atmosphere you would expect out of a ship housing a tortured army and an insane king who wants nothing more than to wipe you out because, you know, you killed his son and stuff.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was making the Dreadnaught feel unsettling and uninviting while still making it a place people would want to visit and spend a lot of time exploring,” explained lead lighting artist Mike Poe.

That’s certainly the case in these next couple of images, which show off a handful of raised walkways winding between spaceship thingamagigs (technical term).

What’s neat about this comparison is how it shows off those ideas Poe was just talking about. Compare the above image to the one below, and I think you’ll agree that the slightly brighter, green and yellow-tinged environment still nails that “foreboding” quality while simultaneously looking a bit more inviting than the ominous dark blue from the concept.

If you’re still plugging away at Destiny this week’s blog post is definitely worth a gander. From additional images to insight from team members, it should help make that wait until Sept. 15 just a little more bearable.