Mass Effect - Creating the Krogans

Mass Effect's associate art director Matt Rhodes talks about creating the Krogan race.

[@Mothman1992]

krogans eyes being so far apart made me a little afraid of tuchanka, because as tough as krogan are, they're evolved to cope with being hunted

[@Kuhtlass]

Timothy Creighton Duh, those Thresher Maws get hungry.

[@popcornfilms1]

Cool

[@bluzercic]

so did we

[@dspt9803]

as i understand, they could have radically evolved from the prey species to the predator species

[@Spartan-ek8ih]

The yahg however...

[@Jon71992]

I would have never guessed bats. If he would have said crocodile/alligator, maybe even pissed off frog, but not bats

[@Abudzin]

Jon71992 "a pissed off frog" is exactly what I thought when I saw a krogan first time xd

[@jerdasaurusrex557]

I see tortoises.

[@mathewanderson5111]

People can gain inspiration from the most unexpected sources.

[@BillyDrakePianoMan]

"A little Krogan with wings." I will never think of bats the same way again.

[@Whiteythereaper]

Describing Grunt as "A Krogan with that New Car Smell" is now one of my favourite lines about the series

[@michaelcanales85]

Battle Toads

[@nujabes7]

+Thomas Sifflet On ice...

[@angrybadandmad9198]

When I thawed Grunt my first thought was, "Whup, Shep's a mommy now." By ME3, when he was punching reaper forces to death, I was just like... "Aww, Shep's tank baby is all grown up and killing people. :)"

[@LordiAwa]

+AngryBad AndMad omg :D I thought I would be the only one who did it :D

[@mantisynth2186]

Oh, Grunt. You will be missed in my playthrough of ME3

[@NatureXwars]

I kinda find Grunt's fresh baby krogan face cute, his softer looking skin/scales on his jaw & stubbier head makes him look like a giant pet lizzard :P

[@FuPlaayz]

"Shepard ?" -Wrex

[@JJDvorshak]

Wrex died on me. It was a very unexpected moment. I was so high strung, I couldn't have cared less. Although I was like in my mind: "Jesus! What the fuck just happened here? We are on a mission to save our galaxy and you just shot a fucken crew mate's head off! It's unexpected that is..." Maybe I did care a little...

[@ZephWraen]

If you look closely in ME2 the bones on his head are completely separated with noticeable gaps. In ME3 it's pretty much solid bone with no gaps, it just hasn't formed into the standard plate yet. So there IS a difference, you just have to pay close attention to see it.

[@perfectlyhopeless]

A krogan with wings sounds amazing

[@133oggbogg]

Really. Because to me, that sounds terrifying.

[@perfectlyhopeless]

133oggbogg Terrifyingly amazing

[@HellaGust]

Shadow Broker DLC, if you go through Grunt's extranet search history. (Also holy balls Shepard are you reading the adolescent male crewmember's search history what exactly do you think you'll find?)

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Evolution doesn't aim for perfection, "good enough" is good enough.

[@floppydisksareop]

it "aims" for perfection, stops at "good enough" XD

[@TiagoTiagoT]

@DCgameGuy85 1 Good enough literally means good enough for keeping the species going; if "good enough" wasn't good enough, then it wouldn't be called "good enough" and the species would go extinct.

[@TiagoTiagoT]

@DCgameGuy85 1 If it's good enough to keep the species going, then the species doesn't go extinct. That's how words work.

[@TiagoTiagoT]

@DCgameGuy85 1 Dude, is English not your native language or something? If the species went extinct, then obviously they were not good enough to keep going.

[@TiagoTiagoT]

@DCgameGuy85 1 It's not airtight, no one says it is; that's exactly how it works, it leaks out the mutations that are not good enough to keep going. If you take out the ones that are not good enough, you're left with the ones that are good enough.

[@RaxuRangerkingsChannel]

I still think that krogans were inspired by turtles and dinosaurs.

[@magnustirsgaard]

Me to brohter

[@seamusfinnerty5897]

same

[@markervine1855]

I mean you can but the fact is the artist says bats.

[@lordofflies4873]

me too. turtles

[@TalenkauenTV]

They weren't though. You can't just claim that it was based on one thing if it's specifically stated to be based on something else.

[@Meanlucario]

Krogans being the prey species would fit with their mass breeding and how harsh Tuchanka is.

[@arijit276]

8 years and this is still my favourite game series. I know the gaming world is a hard place to be professionally but I would love to be in the development of mass effect and develop thr lore, characters and the architecture.

[@MillyDel]

The plural of krogan is krogan

[@jerdasaurusrex557]

Honestly I don't like the look of like a full body "shell" on them. It looks almost too insect like. I always imagined a more like armored scales/scutes like the knobs you see on an alligator's back.

[@debott4538]

I often associated the Krogan more with rhinos, hippos or maybe steinbocks, which although technically being prey animals can be even more aggressive and menacing than most predators. In that sense the Krogan sideways eye positioning would actually make a lot sense.

[@PissingPeopleOff1]

Remember: on Tuchanka, krogan were prey animals. Meaning, there already are things on Tuchanka bigger, meaner, scarier, and more aggressive then krogan.

[@olliered9924]

bit late lol but they still could be smaller most predators are usually smaller look at lions and buffalo for example or cheetahs and gazelles

[@biohazard724]

Of course, hell Wrex flat out says even the plants that survived are carnivorous. But at the same time the Krogan got help from the Salarians. Makes me wonder what would have happened if they'd chosen the Yahg instead.

[@bddag]

"That krogan with the new-car smell." I giggled more than I reasonably should have.

[@Onefuturist]

I think they look a lot like toads...

[@codeninja100]

lol i love how in all these vids the artists complain about the combat ready specs they had to follow for human skeletons.

[@keyo3316]

I just love the color palette used on Grunt.

[@tillmannfischer]

Always interesting to see peoples reaction to the working areas of artists... Reminds me when I first saw a video on how the sounds for Star Wars were made (the Tie-Fighter sound was a reworked recording of a propeller plane). Or some of the textures for some newer movies. I believe Davy Jones' skin from Pirates of the Caribbean was partially made of a used styrofoam coffee cup...

[@gregkiss2396]

Krogan = Battle beast. Sounds very cool :)

[@Onefuturist]

Or the best toads in the universe.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

lol at the Krogan being based in Bats and Bugs. I always thought they were based on snapping turtles. I mean they ended up with something very turtle like, and snapping turtles are ambush predators with a nasty bite. In fact the heads of old Krogan look more turtle like than bat like, or maybe even dinosaur like.

[@Jerry4050]

That’s what I’m saying I’m playing Legendary edition and Wrex looks like those scary fishes you find deep in the ocean. It’s the top of his head that makes him look like a Shell fish or sea creature, plus he has no ears to look like a bat. I laugh hard when someone told me if Wrex is Ninja turtle 😂

[@OddTillTheEnd]

This is great. It's fun to hear game designers talk about the ideas that form their characters. :D

[@EternalXSamurai]

Nothing is deadlier than the Mandalorians, those guys are the fucking Spartans of the Star Wars universe.

[@didjargo]

I would have never guessed that the designs of Krogan were based off bats. I always figured that they were like a mix of armadillos and sharks.

[@Amunarath]

I wish they matured Grunts skull plate more in ME3, he doesn't look threatening at all.

[@Yooparkeria]

I enjoy watching these videos. I love the game Mass Effect

[@Grim-HEX]

Krogan with wings.. Krogan air drop anyone

[@v4l3nc1a7]

I recently thought of krogans as a tortoise.. like like at Wrex’s face and neck ! It’s like a tortoise.. and his hump on his back it’s like his shell..

[@evathehedgehog01]

when he said krogans looked like wrinkled bat faces I paused the video at that moment and looked it up and now I'm happy the bats will forever be known to me as Krogan bats thank you Mass Effect

[@KeLtiCxWaRRioIR]

i agree another point would be the plates that would offer protection much like a hippos thick skin

[@blueshit199]

I would love to see what the original Mass Effect crew would have done with alien designs if they weren't limited by animations

[@MusialMedia]

If you have Padok Wiks, that is, if Mordin died during the suicide mission, then if you talk to him before the Tuchanka mission, he'll ask Eve how krogan mate, to which she'll reply "very clumsily"

[@masseffectbozon]

amazing

[@ErnestoTani]

KROGAN ON M.E. . ARE LIKE KLINGONS ON STAR TREK UNIVERSE. BRUTALS, VIOLENTS, FEARLESS AND A GREAT SENSE OF HONOR.

[@qweerty69]

Erm...nope...You can either google it up or replay ME2, tak to Aria on Omega and ask her questions...she mentions it at some point.

[@XxHizzyxX]

THE GAMES... the only one that comes to mind at the moment is that one Asari thats half krogan (Liara's asari dad)... in Mass Effect 2 she says her father (a krogan) as close to a 1000 when he found out his wife fought in the krogan rebellions.

[@PissingPeopleOff1]

They were probably in the middle of the food chain, since they are carnivores(You can tell from their teeth), so they ate animals, but their eyes are far apart, a prey animal characteristic. Predators have eyes close together, facing forwards. The krogan's are far apart, facing away, for a wider field of vision, to better spot predators.

[@VeemaMusic]

My thoughts exactly.

[@jonasgrant]

I wrote stories like this, sometime you just produce random sounds until one somehow seems appropriate. Krogan seems like one of those random sounds.

[@Randiezorzorzor]

"new car smell" xD

[@halfbreed1426]

Weird though, I always liked Grunt's segmented head plates

[@Ko700el]

grunts armor reminds me the ARS suit of Vanquish...for krogan

[@VCMEntertainments]

Eventually the Humans were seen as Warriors aswell by the other Species. Based on the aggresive demand of a Council-seat only a few decades after the First Contact in which the Humans gave the "biggest Military force in the council-sektor" a bloody Nose.

[@OLASZKECSKE]

Well there are Krogan children and Grunt is definitely bigger than a children (even krogan size :D) so i think Grunt was already a hundred years old in maturity or a bit more,after all he was tank bred.

[@amonsterchef5182]

Confirmed: Everyone loved Grunt from the moment of his conception.

[@elgar101]

Hmm going back to what he said about the position of the eyes. I think Krogan could be considered a prey species just due to the sheer number of prey species on Tuchunka, it even mentions in the codex of Mass Effect 2 that until the invention of gunpowder being eaten by predators was the largest cause of Krogan mortality, though i suppose since Krogan are very slow to develop tech that in their timeline, gunpowder could have been invented thousands of years ago.

[@jamesestrella5911]

Toucans are typically not prey, and eyes are on the sides of their head. Turtles are mostly predatory as well. The eye thing is a generality, but exceptions are not too uncommon even in real life.

[@putowtin]

Indeed, they have a Quad!

[@ForeverB0b]

@Choblik Hmm, good point.

[@Dodgyboy43]

bit of reference there to the theory that humans were modified at the genetic level thousands of years ago, perhaps.

[@Arkay24]

True that

[@glacier2win]

This dude seems pretty cool.

[@geekymgee]

"A hairy race"? You've yet to see my uncle, He's basically Sasquatch.

[@L0ngsword]

@armyoftheredgamers That sounds about right.

[@frybread002_3]

I've always called Grunt a guppie

[@JariahxSynn]

Grunt= Krogan with a new car smell. I lol'd so hard.

[@lordcrull]

any links to videos about the creation of turians, guarians, and geth?

[@MasterChief1001000]

Krogan culture = Mandalorians from Star Wars Krogan appearance = Sleg troops from Turok Krogan bloodthirst = Spartans from Sparta

[@the_real_rascal]

I always figured they were a mix of bearded dragons and something else.

[@Littleattack]

It won't be much creation design considering their whole face and body is covered.

[@EndymionTv]

Wait, they’re BATS?!

[@PissingPeopleOff1]

They would have other predators too. If there were enough Threshers on Tuchanka to be the leading cause of death for a population in the millions, the Krogan would never even get far enough to make nukes.

[@wilhelmscream25]

His dossier Dr. Okeer - Millennia of combat and strategic experience - Rumored familiarity with Collector technology A brilliant and brutal krogan warlord who fought in the Krogan Rebellions, Dr. Okeer has become obsessed with saving the krogan people from the genophage and is believed to have contacted the Collectors in an attempt to gain technology to that end. He is currently in a Blue Suns camp on Korlus, though the nature of his relationship with the mercenary group is unknown.

[@endless031]

Klingons of mass effect

[@user-ky4xo6jk9s]

Drazen Graves I agree if you would relate them to any other race it would definitely be the Klingons

[@TheAnimeRick]

/watch?v=b2Zs9_oxnSA Conversation Topic at 1:25. Specifically, "Dad (Krogan father) was near on a thousand when the truth came out." -Matriarch Aethyta

[@aseticelite]

I want the turian creation :(

[@NLangelofglory]

I always chois for krogan in mass effect... krogans rule!

[@T0mN7]

Anyone know which track plays in the background?

[@sarahIcommented]

They have forward facing eyes.

[@iFYMxDRKNSFALLS]

ya most likely, man i've been getting tons of responses over the few months. Some even tell me how Tali looks like even after This comment was Before ME3 release

[@bokito999]

point taken :)

[@OverFork0ver]

Yes, that was on another video, new comment please.

[@mysupernamegoeshere]

So Wrex is Leonidas... That explains alot

[@Shiyamirai]

Krogan New Car Smell? Is that the same as a New Tank Smell? "If he was just "born", why does he smell like gunpowder and old tobacco?"

[@Chrinik]

SuperBigLoaf Perfect species? All that really sets us apart from more sophisticated mammals is our intelligence, which makes us overcome our weaknesses. Our eyes suck, our skin isn´t very durable and doesn´t insulate well, with crappy knees and backs he mean they are easily broken by mundane injuries like falling or punches, the knew design also makes them slam into your chest or face when trying to compensate for a long drop, causing further injuries. The wisdom teeth are REMNANTS, as in, we used to use them but since our food became softer, we now have no use for them anymore, and there is a shit ton of body parts that serve no use at all.

[@67tedward]

Human's can also run longer than any mammals, which was how cavemen were able to catch prey. They were a lot slower, but animals would tire out much faster, and humans would be able to catch up to them and kill them.

[@Chrinik]

67tedward Lucky for early humans was the usage of tools, a skill that almost all primates posess...because even with all our endurance, if another predator existed who´d specialize in attacking humans, us having no bodily weapons except our teeth and a woeful bite, would mean we´d have no way of defending ourselfes.

[@BeedrillYanyan]

Our eyes don't suck.

[@Chrinik]

Neil Adrian Calaquian Comparitively, yes they do. There are eyes out there much better then our own. But I guess they do the job fine.

[@BeedrillYanyan]

True but our eyes are much better than those of lots of other animals like fish, dogs, cats, elephants, horses, etc. While there are animals whose eyes are better than ours (like birds), our eyes are still better than most other types of animals.

[@Caboose727]

I bet if Grunt were a human he'd be a total stud.

[@FeelingSoFresh]

Turianosaurus Wrex

[@Arkay24]

You forgot Mutant Command Turtle

[@iFYMxDRKNSFALLS]

waiting for the Quarian video...

[@TheForeverLight1]

I see so many organic life and exo-skeleton bug-like aliens, you wonder if there would be a hairy race?

[@Ariana321]

Hah, a friend of mine has been comparing them to Mandalorians and Predators a lot lately.

[@MsDatsaspicymeatball]

I always thought the krogan were based off of turtles...

[@28Shadow]

Mandalorian + Spartan + Dinosaur = Krogan

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Bats? I thought they came from frogs...i'm pretty sure there are some frog species that even got that hard layer on top of their heads...

[@JohnTraviss]

Cowboy, I should've used the word cowboy.

[@HouseKoumoray]

I liked the idea of the krogan being a prey race. It's supposed to speak of how dangerous their homeworld is. In other words, if KROGAN are a fucking prey race, you don't even want to meet the predators on Tuchanka.

[@CynicalOptimist99]

I thought the same, yet I hear (and see) people saying 'Krogans'. To me it's 'Krogan' - singular and plural.

[@berniehebes]

Tyrannosaurus Wrex

[@arbiterskiss]

I...AM...KROGAN! He's been in combat before, and he's just as good as any veteran. He's even a quint who craps dark matter.

[@HonestDiscussioner]

I was thinking they were more like Klingons.

[@ForeverB0b]

@Choblik While I agree with you, I think the Turians are a little more Mado'adeish.

[@mackmaster100]

Turtlasaur = Krogan

[@chaosbahamut123]

I don't want to think about a krogan with wings. Grounded krogan are bad enough. x.x

[@urdnotwrex9057]

This pissed turtles coming for you.