In this post, we’re excited to share the concept art behind Scrum Showdown, our rugby-inspired arcade game created in celebration of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Concept art plays a crucial role in bringing a game’s vision to life, it was all about capturing the energy, excitement, and inclusivity of women’s rugby while crafting vibrant, dynamic visuals for our arcade experience. 

One of the first steps was designing the characters. Ben Green wanted each player to represent diverse female athletes from the world of rugby, showcasing strength, agility, and determination. The character designs aimed to balance realism with a playful, cartoon-style aesthetic, making sure that players could instantly recognize the energy of the sport. 

The outfits were inspired by the UK rugby teams, with bold colors, dynamic jerseys that make each character feel distinct. 

Next, we turned our focus to the game’s arenas. Just like the characters, we wanted the environments to reflect the energy of rugby but also feel immersive and exciting. Sam (artist) designed the Arena with its own unique atmosphere.  

We decided to incorporate moving obstacles to certain game modes, which added an extra layer of challenge and excitement. The key here was to make sure that the gameplay remained clear and understandable from any angle, especially for spectators.  

Once we had the initial designs in place, we started refining the visuals. We wanted to create a style that was bold but not too cluttered, with clean lines and dynamic animations. The color scheme for the game evolved to incorporate vibrant hues that would make the action pop, but we also balanced this with more muted tones for the backgrounds and UI elements to ensure the characters and gameplay remained the focal point. 

Once the designs were finalized, it was time to bring everything to life in 3D. Our Designer, with the help of the team began translating the 2D concepts into models, ensuring that the character proportions, movements, and environments were true to the original vision. At this point we were still working on creating smooth, fluid animations for actions like scrumming, passing, and tackling, ensuring each movement looked both realistic and fun to watch. 

Next, we will talk about some mechanics!