For Yaron "Lonewolf" Levi, it all began with Counter-Strike. The Jerusalem-based freelance weapons designer began his career on a lark nearly a decade ago, designing custom shotguns and sidearms for the ravenously popular Half-Life multiplayer mod and earning hearty praise from the community in the process. Growing up drawing and sketching, modding weapons for fellow Counter-Strike players was just another fun, artistic thing to do – not something he expected to lead to a career working on several AAA shooters. When first contacted by a French studio to create weapons for a game shortly thereafter, he initially dismissed it as a gag. "Basically, I thought it was a joke. I didn't realize that you could make money off of it," he admits. "It's just so fun; I didn't think it was worth anything."
Unlike many weapon designers who utilize real-life firearms to help model digital facsimiles, Levi only works from photos found online – but he'll amass a large number of distinct angles and lighting conditions in his reference shots, to make sure he's catching every possible detail. Despite relying on photos found easily through a Google Image Search, his attention to painstaking realism shows in the work, and it's why he was recruited to work on numerous weapons for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and also contributed work to games like Killzone 2, Saints Row, Section 8, and Microsoft Flight Simulator X in recent years.
Tasked with designing a dozen weapons for The Darkness II, Levi opted not to revisit those seen in the Starbreeze Studios-designed original (Digital Extremes is behind the sequel) or the original comics, instead starting fresh as he designed his own takes on familiar firearms like the Desert Eagle, a sawed-off shotgun, and the MP7 and UMP sub-machine guns. Each weapon took him about two full weeks to fully model, as he stared at the screen for seven hours at a time to add as many little details as possible before sending them off to Digital Extremes.
"My main goal when I'm doing this kind of art – whether it's guns or vehicles – is to get that photorealistic look," Levi proclaims. But while that's the base step that sets the tone for his work, he also believes that weapons must give off a mood; something that establishes its history and place in the game universe simply through sight. Levi cites the green tint given to scenes in The Matrix as an example of how a subtle visual tweak can deliver a lot of context and information about what's going on, and believes the design and condition of a weapon can say plenty about where it's been and what it's been a party to in the past. While his guns for The Darkness II highlight the gunmetal sheen, the tarnished weapons in Modern Warfare 3 looked like they'd been to hell and back. "The guns had to feel like they went through a warzone," he says of the MW3 creations.
While The Darkness II includes an array of firearms, like dual-wielded pistols and sub-machine guns, plus two-handed shotguns and assault rifles, Levi's favorite of the pack (and easily the most stylized) is the M1911 pistol. Marked by floral etchings in the cold steel, along with a worn wooden handle, it's a standout piece that looks like the reliable companion to a mobster who has fought his way out of – and likely into – a few conflicts in his days.
Levi went on to customize a version for himself, and joked that he might get it made into a physical replica someday. (Perhaps Digital Extremes can be convinced to send him one as a bonus, if The Darkness II packs as much of a punch at retail as its stylish firearms do within the game.)
