
Inspiration
The direction of Nightveil Hallow was greatly inspired by 80s horror movies, specifically the awesome creature-flicks and fun-spirited ‘schlocky’ tone of the era. As a Halloween and horror-fanatic, it was a blast to work with the team to mix all the pieces that make 80s horror so iconic, and present them within the realm of Aeternum. Baalphazu and his Pumpkinites convey a theme that should hopefully feel familiar to fans of the genre and season, while Salvatore is a classic throwback to the golden age of horror cinema icons.Event Goals
The goal of every holiday event is to ensure it’s unmistakable to players that a special event is happening in Aeternum. With that, the playfully decorated settlements round out Nightveil Hallow. It is the team’s seal on our love letter to the spookiest time of year!References in the Event Shop Rewards

The Creation of Baalphazu
When conceiving the demon Baalphazu, we wanted to hint at the existence of other parallel worlds. The Netherworld is a mysterious realm of shadows and nightmares, where the dark figure of Lord Tenebrous rules over the Host, a collection of goblins, ghouls, and other terrors. Baalphazu is one of the Netherworld’s dread captains, eager to carry out the will of his twisted master by spreading fear throughout the island of immortals.Naming Baalphazu
We tossed a few names around when conceiving this demon. When it comes to New World, our goal is to have creatures and NPCs that are familiar but still uniquely Aeternum. I was fond of the name ‘Belphegor’ while another developer favored ‘Pazuzu’ so it’s easy to see how we settled on Baalphazu.Pumpkinites

Pumpklins
Despite being the smallest and most fodder creature of the bunch, the Pumpklins were a deceivingly intricate mob to create, as they are vital to defeating Baalphazu. The concept of defeating an enemy and picking up its head to throw at others was as wild to pitch as it was to develop. A lot of new tech had to be created and there were many moving parts. It was a cross-departmental effort. Everyone involved with the process did such an amazing job, it’s immensely satisfying mowing them down by the dozens and seeing their heads fly across the battlefield. I’m incredibly excited the Pumpklin is now a permanent fixture of Aeternum, and can’t wait to see what other shenanigans it can get itself into.Baalphazu Boss Fight

Boss Design

Appearance

The New Throwable Object Mechanic

Concept Art
See how some of the Design Team’s concepts came to life:


