Those who attended E3 last June 2015 were treated to a developer demo of a new medieval combat game For Honor, pitting European soldiers against Japanese samurai and warriors as well as Vikings. The visceral combat put the game on the radar of many players, but the level design and look also struck people as well.
In a new official blog post, concept artist Maxime Desmettre described the process in bringing a map from concept to reality.
According to Desmettre, there was very little restrictions to what the map could be, since there were no system requirements for the game. They were only given a general description of what the developers wanted. ”The initial brief was to give the feeling of a huge dam and of a stronghold built on a cliff, at a height that would be impregnable from a frontal assault.”
From there, she started a series of sketches of ramparts and walls. Art director Christian Diaz approved some designs and nixed others, giving her an idea of what direction to go in, allowing her to delve deeper with specific designs. From there, she was also able to sketch a global view of the stronghold.
”I went really conventional for that part, drawing freehand in Adobe Photoshop software to bring the shapes I wanted. I did not look for photo references at this stage,” Desmettre revealed. ”because I did not want to be influenced by pre-existing designs that early in the conception process.”
That’s not to say she ignored real-world references, as actual castles and fortified sites from northern Europe were ”extremely useful” for guiding color choices.
She went on to state that while the castles and strongholds were realistic, they were skewed towards gameplay considerations. ”The castles, at the core of several For Honor maps, are here to give an emotion, a feeling of strength, grandeur and importance rather than to match historical requirements,” Desmettre explained. ”This allows our team to stretch reality and to focus on the function they have in our game (like ramparts rather than a courtyard, for example). Still, we stayed practical in our approach to raise credible structures that could stand against assaults and time.”
To see why people were excited about the game after E3, here is the demo that was shown off by Ubisoft at the show.
