From Cold War Inspiration to Steam Hit: How Soliloquis Defined Frontiers Reach's Retro-Futuristic Style with Meshy?
Soliloquis is a 3D artist and independent game developer who has been exploring game creation as a hobbyist since 2001, using tools like StarEdit, WarEdit, and RPGMaker 2003. In 2020, he decided to transition from a "closet" hobbyist to a professional developer, planning to release a series of original space games on Steam.
Among them, Frontiers Reach: Mercenaries is a technical demo for a project he has been conceptualizing since 2015, inspired by classic games like Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, his six years of military service, and his love for old-school science fiction.
The game's visual style is unique: Soliloquis draws inspiration from the 1950s to 1970s Cold War era, transforming design elements from vintage fighter jets like the F-86 Saber and Mig-21 into futuristic starfighters. This blend of "retro and weird" makes the Frontiers Reach universe stand out in the sci-fi genre. As an almost one-person development team, he is building this world using tools like Unity3D, Substance Painter, and Blender, with Meshy emerging as a crucial turning point in his creative journey.
"I take a lot of inspiration from the early to middle cold war era. So 1950 to 1970. Turning fighter jets like the F-86 Saber and Mig-21 into wild looking starfighters. This mix of old and weird gives the Frontiers Reach Universe as a whole a very different look from the rest of science fiction."
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
Soliloquis' Dilemma: In Indie Development, Who Breaks the “No Time for Modeling + Artist Communication Hell” Cycle?
Before using Meshy, Soliloquis faced multiple challenges in character design. First, the workload pressure: while he had experience in 3D character modeling, he was not proficient at it, and most of his daily time was spent on core tasks like game mechanics, environment and vehicle design, story writing, and marketing, leaving little room for character creation.
A more pressing issue was the barrier in creative communication. The worldview of Frontiers Reach is not new, but it belongs to a niche sci-fi genre these days, making it hard to find artists who can grasp its style; even when he did, it often took weeks and multiple reviews to get them on the same creative page. He urgently needed a tool that could both help him quickly visualize character concepts and serve as a "visual bridge" for communication with artists.
"In that regard, tools like Meshy are an invaluable asset. I can type in what I'm looking and get a product pretty close to what I want before handing it off to an artist to bring it to life in a more game-ready capacity."
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
Soliloquis Teaches His Full Meshy Workflow: From a Single Prompt to Animated NPCs - 3 Steps to Double Character Delivery Speed
Soliloquis first learned about Meshy through YouTube ads, at a time when he was searching for NPCs to populate the town scenes in his technical demo—even placeholders would help him showcase the game's vision to players and potential investors. He hoped Meshy could meet needs like character ideation and rapid prototyping, and in practice, Meshy proved to be the key to breaking through his bottlenecks.
" I'd been on the hunt for something, anything, that would help me create a collection of walk-about NPCs for the towns in my tech demo."
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
He experimented with various workflows, including "Meshy + MidJourney"—importing images generated by MidJourney into Meshy — but found the results unsatisfactory. Eventually, he developed an efficient "Meshy from start to finish" process:
- Image Generation: Creating character images that match his vision using precise prompts, such as "full body shot of a middle-aged male retro futuristic soldier inspired by the cold war era soldiers and high altitude flight suits wearing tank commander helmets, full body portrait, arms out in an A-Pose";
- Mesh Generation: Generating 3D meshes from the images and selecting the cleanest version;
- Texturing and Retopology: Processing textures and optimizing the topology of the model;
- Basic Rigging: Using Meshy's built-in basic rigging for simple animations—though these rigs don't include detailed finger or toe controls, they are sufficient for NPCs that players don't need to interact with.
This workflow allowed him to quickly materialize the characters in his mind, even providing near-final prototypes before handing them over to professional artists.
"Meshy's image output was much better than I expected and actually helped me better understand how to communicate with Meshy before moving into 3D model generation. That enabled me to make better choices about the language I use when describing the aesthetic."
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
From “Empty Towns” to “Bustling Bars”: How Soliloquis Infused Frontiers Reach with “Vibrancy” Using Meshy
Meshy has brought significant changes to Soliloquis' creations. While the generated characters still had "rough edges," they were far better than what he could achieve alone; more importantly, it saved him a lot of time, enabling him to import Meshy-generated models into his technical demo and populate building interiors with basic animations—for example, he recently managed to set up characters in social spaces like bars, creating a more immersive world for players.
These advancements are gradually transforming the town scenes of Frontiers Reach: Mercenaries from "lifeless spaces patrolled only by soldier NPCs" into more dynamic environments.
Soliloquis Speaks Out: Meshy Isn't Just a Tool - It's a “Lifesaver” for Budget-Conscious Indie Developers
Looking ahead, Soliloquis is excited to explore more possibilities with Meshy. He plans to try over-painting characters in Substance Painter to further enhance their quality.
"I particularly recommend Meshy to two groups of creators: indie game developers on a budget and 3D printing enthusiasts."
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
As for Frontiers Reach: Mercenaries, his next goal is to get NPCs walking around towns and add animated shopkeepers to make the spaces feel more lively.
"Even with all of the advances in AI, it still takes a lot of perseverance to build out even a small game to completion. Stay motivated and keep on that grind!"
Soliloquis
3D Artist & independent game developer
Soliloquis' journey with Frontiers Reach: Mercenaries is a vivid illustration that creative concepts, even within niche sci-fi genres, don't have to be hindered by the difficulty of finding style-savvy artists. With tools like Meshy, indie creators can breathe life into their unique game worlds without being held back by the usual hurdles in artist collaboration or resource shortages.
Follow the development journey on Soliloquis' channel here.
If you're ready to turn your niche game visions into reality, Meshy is here to empower you!
