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Dance Central Spotlight Venues

Today we're going to take a look at the venues in Dance Central Spotlight – how they were created, the steps it took to implement them into the game, and who on our amazing team was responsible for their inception!


Let’s start with some concepts. Concepts for the game’s venues were designed by some of our talented artists, including Lauren Saint-Onge and Anne Szabla. We went through a lot of initial thoughts as to where would be the most entertaining and fun places to dance in the spotlight, and came up with some great ideas. Check out some of our concept art!


Penthouse Concept Concept art of the Penthouse Venue by Lauren Saint-Onge


Our Art Lead on Dance Central Spotlight, Matt Moore, gives a great explanation for how the Dance Central Spotlight venues were created:


“Our goal for Dance Central Spotlight was to recreate a music video’s changing locations. Ideally, we could punctuate special moments in songs by using dramatic locations switches. We often used locations that supported different kinds of moods as well. For example, the industrial group of venues starts out in a utility room with lots of red lights and pipes. This had a very different mood than the pink wallpaper fancier room.”


Taye Industrial Taye dancing in the Industrial Venue by Matt Gilpin


Our intentions with each Dance Central Spotlight venue was to be able to tell a story with each song, given the dramatic tools that were available. Some of our environment artists including Dawn Rivers and Matt Gilpin helped bring these venues to life with lighting and color effects, and have transformed early artwork into where you dance now! As a small Easter egg, Matt even added a goat mascot to the HMX-U gym venue that walks around in the background. Have you found our HMX goat yet?


Town Concept Concept art of the Town Venue by Lauren Saint-Onge


There’s never a dull moment when you are dancing in new and exciting places, ranging from city sidewalks to penthouse suites. The world is full of dancing possibilities – get out there, explore, and dance!


Town Screenshot A screenshot of the Town venue by Nate Wright