The Astral Barrens
[p]The very first thing we explored visually for this expansion was the environment. As Bas told you in his earlier dev diary all about the Astral Barrens, we wanted a new terrain type consisting of sand and mountain features that was entirely hostile to magic and magical beings.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/acec31e7fa6d935c05531e8db4be552a92cf1155.jpg"][/img]Image description: Early concept art for the Astral Barrens[/p][p]Exploring the visual direction, we kept coming back to themes of wind. Similar to how river erosion formed the Grand Canyon, our antimagical landscapes suffered violent desert storms, shaping everything from the rocks to the trees.Based on these themes, our Environment Artist Sara dove into the creation of 3D assets. Even the smallest details matter when selling a story, such as the right terrain texture:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/1df8647ac6f629d49983018c71e96674fd49c1c7.jpg"][/img]Image description: Early terrain texture tests[/p][p]Among all of these tests we found one that perfectly represented the erosion and wind movements:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/adf099d8a6c3d7812b2d02ae75fd070bb402e1b4.jpg"][/img]Image description: The final main terrain texture[/p][p]To properly showcase the damage left behind by cataclysms and the devouring winds, we also wanted visible scars left behind in the terrain, so Sara experimented with decal assets:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/bb7b9bf86e104f67f9c8ec0aa065b8f09d993172.jpg"][/img]Image description: Spiral ground decal tests[/p][p]All of this was really starting to come together, but still needed to be brought to life. We like to do this with movement, in this case through our VFX Artist Ana adding some epic effects:[/p]
| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/757c1e41f2c02eb128c975d7ab34d52cdb702127.gif"][/img][/p] | [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/f0181c0fc61a1dd50ab5f8fab77bf25967fec0dc.gif"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
The Fractured
[p]Speaking of bringing a world to life; we needed to tackle what types of creatures live in the Astral Barrens. It is clear that nothing truly thrives here, but which creatures can survive at all? Introducing our new Fractured Wildlife![/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/39249905febb597182587b87ffe881c973e42718.jpg"][/img]Image description: 6 new fractured wildlife units[/p][p]Pale and hollowed out from the draining environment; these Fractured creatures cling on to life with an endless hunger for magic. Hungriest of them all is the Tier 5 unit: The Fractured Dragon![/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/0b04fd5456d458e161343149cc2d0cabdc986f90.jpg"][/img]Image description: Fractured Dragon sculpt[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/793efb9a6440c950faddbbd840f2b26b4fe85502.gif"][/img]Image description: GIF of Fractured Dragon in-game[/p][p]And because we are dragon enthusiasts as much as many of you, we’ve added these same visuals as Pantheon customization options for your dragon ruler (assuming you own Age of Wonders 4: Dragon Dawn).[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/65ac62efa429d7b610b03e8c4b9104d4450a4060.jpg"][/img]Image description: Fractured Dragon pantheon customization items[/p][p]If you’re less of a dragon enthusiast but just like the look of the Fractured Wildlife in general, this expansion also adds a new Fractured Major Transformation that gives your units the same insatiable hunger.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/84f4dc2ce598d2b40900bc3640c7343140364379.gif"][/img][/p][p]Image description: Fractured Major Transformation[/p][p]Naturally, Rise from Ruin also features some less corrupted creatures. The Scorpion and Sand Worm wildlife units required more iteration than the rest, being important units for the themes of the expansion.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/ebe48a99d20de3cce309ddd74f38007d4ab8dd5d.jpg"][/img]Image description: Sand Worm concepts[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/cced0ccf849af4986a12eb523bf0b449c329a444.jpg"][/img]Image description: Scorpion concepts[/p][p]Finally, the new wildlife comes with some epic new animations and FX too, one of our favorites being the very floppy Sand Worm Earth Tremor![/p]| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/df21c9888f2d27364b5e1989cc8d3f3e741d49bc.gif"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
The Nomad Culture
[p]To survive this magically wrought wasteland and fight (or flee from) magic-sucking creatures, one will need to be mobile. With the complex gameplay design of Nomad culture’s moving cities, they also became the first culture where the visual design of the city was arguably more important than the design of the units.[/p]A home on the move
[p]Many questions needed to be answered regarding these moving cities, and many different visual approaches were considered for the design. Early ideas included cities moving on the backs of giant creatures, or the cities themselves becoming giant moving machines like in Mortal Engines. Where animals felt too nature-aligned and machines too materium, there was one option that felt much better with this chaos culture: landships![/p]| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/5ff3229c55071b1bb8175bbbe33d762bd48d677b.jpg"][/img][/p] | [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/97a85a765376758cb80c60ac098c8b4d759ff7db.jpg"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
The Wandering People
[p]With the city now taking shape, it was time to look at the Nomad units. The visual notes we knew we wanted to hit were: low magic, cloth, light-weight materials, and craftiness. Based on these, all three of our 2D artists played around with vastly different directions:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/585074962d29596ba55be51b26768133642f9ad1.jpg"][/img]Image description: Early Nomad exploration concepts[/p][p]This is a great way to get the widest possible amount of ‘answers’ to our concept questions, quickly ruling out what does and doesn’t work.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/dc2474983c326951fabf4f1b442967aa733f7e87.jpg"][/img]Image description: Later Nomad concepts[/p][p]Some strong visual patterns continued to reappear throughout our exploration: highly functional weapons, lightweight discs used as armor, and weighted frills on the ends of cloth. We liked these because they did a great job of highlighting the utilitarian nature of the Nomads.[/p][p]Using this visual identity, a thumbnail lineup was made:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/b4a68421172cb313b56300bae98931232f636a54.jpg"][/img]Image description: Thumbnail lineup of the Nomad culture units[/p][p]A visual distinction was made between the subcultures: the conqueror subculture leans more towards the “raiding” land pirate theme, and the scavengers more towards a “survival” fantasy Mad Max.[/p]| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/3cdd077f3eb461be23ceea950d42736d00b8cc5c.jpg"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
Breathing them to Life
[p]In order to make the mobile nature of the Nomads shine, we needed some new animations. Highlighting 2 units in particular:[/p][p]The new Wind Warrior shield unit has a lightweight deployable shield, allowing her to swap between defending and running around the field. [/p]| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/4c542deede1169f8ee6d9fc5b290c70f0696433b.gif"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
| [p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43512488/eb7384f13a724d950c2e6ee7fa1eda608918ce70.gif"][/img][/p] | [/tr]
