Back in the '90s, Rare had quite a reputation for being secretive about its internal practices. Though it has opened up significantly since being acquired by Microsoft, it's one of the reasons why we get interesting stories still emerging, decades after the fact. Taking to YouTube yesterday, we've now had our first-ever look at the original Donkey Kong Country sketches, thanks to Rare's former artist Kev Bayliss.
Throughout the 8 minute video, Kev Bayliss showcases a few of Country's additional characters like Winky, Rambi, Kremlings and Expresso the Ostrich. He then moves onto Donkey Kong himself, detailing how he went from Shigeru Miyamoto's original sketch to Rare's initial design, before reaching the final rendered image.
It makes for interesting viewing, giving us a look into Donkey Kong Country's development process we'd not seen before. Bayliss ends on a positive note too, encouraging budding artists to keep practising.
Speaking of Donkey Kong while we're at it: our esteemed video team recently ranked All 55 Kongs across the franchise, so why not take a look and decide whether their decisions about Kiddy Kong were fair.
Are you an aspiring artist? Do you have fond memories of Donkey Kong Country? Let us know in the comments.
[source nintendoeverything.com, via youtube.com]
Comments 17
I really like his interpretation of DK, Functional and good looking.
this is amazing!
Great video! Very encouraging.
DKC concept art is so fascinating. In the early days of the 3d era, there was this surreal mysterious quality to environments and characters. I always wanted to see what was just beyond what was shown. Just weird to see this stuff in it's infant phase as typical 2d illustrations
Kinda funny...hand drawn art as concept, so 3D artists could model and texture everything, so 2D keyframe animations could be rendered.
I love me some DKC, but I wonder how it would have looked if they skipped the middleman and used hand-drawn art for the final product.
A lot of DKC-related news lately. Is that a hint that this year something big will happen with the franchise?
That initial DK sketch would make for a really good sticker, decal, or tattoo. I love how square it is.
Miyamoto's sketch is nice, very reminiscing of the DK Arcade origins, but I'm glad Rare's design defined the modern Donkey Kong
I wish they'd actually went with the way he looks in the middle image of those concepts, the initial Rare sketch. I personally think it's more aesthetically appealing than what they actually went for, and better than Miyamoto's drawing too.
Dang I never really thought about how DKC was the first game to implement the more iconic DK design. both good designs but imagine If DK still had the DK/DKJ look from the boxarts and such
I think this game could have been just as great in a cartoonish yoshi's island type style but probably wouldn't have made nearly as big of a splash.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I desperately want Retro to do another DKC after they finish Prime 4.
@doctorhino
The leaked "Super Donkey" prototype suggests this was originally Nintendo EAD's vision. That project would eventually become Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which Rare would develop a divergent Donkey Kong game.
Each game made their own splash in their own way.
@thesilverbrick That opinion is popular with me!! ❤️
@RareFan
A return to kremlings and all that, but this time with a fantasy medieval feel. Klumps return but this time they use trebuchets. Have a wizard enemy. A remake of Aquatic Ambience to fit ice levels.
@RupeeClock I guess my point is Donkey Kong had to go from a Villain to a hero with that game. I think a lot of his appeal was that he came off as powerful and heroic both in look and story. I'm just not sure anyone would have bought into a cartoon gorilla as being something to take seriously
Lots of people are comparing Rare to Nintendo when it comes to the secrecy behind the scenes on stuff like art and how games are made. We are lucky we even saw concept art for Geno of all people with a sword. lol
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