Archæan Study is a self-proposed project based around the game "Rainbow Six Extraction", and more specifically the enemies within the game known as archæans. My goal with this project was to create a new archæan to add to the roster that was distinct from pre-existing designs but still fit into the theming of the archæans from both an in-universe means and gameplay means. (Rainbow Six Extraction, is a tactical first-person shooter, where the player fights off and assassinates archæans to complete objectives leading to eventual extraction from the map.)

The first step was to research the pre-existing archæans. To do this I went to the wiki and used my own gameplay for research as well. This process started with the basic research of how they are classified into tiers. The tiers related to how common and how dangerous an individual of a given type is. Beyond that, I documented every archæans' looks, abilities, and rough stats.

After documentation, I wanted to figure out the "distinct" aspect of my design. To do this I needed to determine what was missing from all of the current archæans. So I started comparing them to other strategic game systems. I classified each archæan into the roles they fit best into under three categories. The categories I used for comparison are the Holy Trinity, a front-to-back army, and the zerg from Starcraft. After comparing the archæan line up to these I found a few holes. The archæans had no healers, and also no vertical enemies.

With the goal of making a vertical healer archæan, I got to work playing with gameplay ideas that could fit these. To start I worked with the vertical aspect. Within the game, there are multiple floors, large vaulted ceilings, open-air regions, and small cramped hallways, leading to varying yet unused vertical space. The obvious approach would be a flying enemy yet this idea was scrapped as in open-air why not fly away. Eventually, the concept of a spider-like enemy that could climb walls was settled on as it would ground the creature by linking it to a surface.

With a unique movement scheme worked out, next was what its combat abilities would be. For a spider, I thought of a spider turret like a dragoon from Starcraft. But wanting to get back to the idea of a healer, I changed the shots from damaging shots to healing shots. This would build off of the idea of one of the in-game operators having a stim shot where he can shoot an ally to heal them.

With the concepts for the mechanics set, I wanted to try my hand at a visual design to go with it. I started with a human, like all archæans, and added spider legs to its back, like the iron spider from spider man. Iterating onto this, I eventual came up with the idea of using the sprawl like tendrils, some the archæans use to hover to latch the creature to walls like a pair of wings extending from the walls and ground. I then went in game and to some screenshots and scribbled in my new design in for scaling. After that I decided a name, "Angel" based on its wing like appendages and healing abilities.