thanks so much!!!!! yeah i had no idea i'd be this deep in the blender mines. we weren't exactly going for looking like you're in a cavern, but i think i'm kinda down for the look, bc we associate living in caves with a primitive time in human history, so the juxtaposition of having an advanced city built inside of a cave sort of contributes to the theming that our use of non-renewable "fire" is primitive and keeps us from advancing, a sign of barbarism. it was my first time making hair and applying shaders the way i did to the model. like for instance, at the end with the burning hole, that burning parts had many different particles layered on of course, but the texture had a mesh displacement shader that caused the burning parts to look like they were undulating with heat distortion. i wasn't confident in my ability to make something humanoid, but it really came together, especially with the particles.
and the cosmic horror thing, yea! like a lot of that stuff involves unearthing some dark terror from an ancient civilization or something. especially with lovecraft-inspired work. but the funny thing is that fossils are often underground, but so are fossil fuels. the pieces all mesh really cohesively together. humanity unearthed something of unimaginable power, but may soon be destroyed by it. fossil fuels are kind of cosmic horror in that regard. it'd be fine if they didn't cause ecological collapse and climate catastrophe, but we unfortunately unearthed extinction from the earth. been really feeling it on the themes, which the RTS gameplay expresses really well.