Greetings everyone!
Today, we would like to invite you behind the scenes of Pharaoh: A New Era, with an exclusive dev blog dedicated to the game’s Art Direction. More precisely, we invite you to discover what Guillaume (aka Noodle) - Art Director at Triskell Interactive - has been working on so far.
This two-part dev blog reveals details about the creative work behind Pharaoh's graphic makeover. In this dev blog, we will also discuss the decisions made regarding the game's Art Direction, which we know is not entirely welcomed by some part of the community. Here, we are not trying to convince anyone but simply express our love and passion for the license. We fully understand that this may clash with your strong appreciation of the original game, but we hope to give you some perspective on the decisions that must be made with a production like this one.
In the end, please keep in mind that every choice was made with deep respect, passion, and love for the original game.
💬 INTERVIEW Q&A
➣ So, let's start with the easy part, can you introduce yourself to the community?
I'm what we call the art director of Pharaoh: A New Era. Basically, my main role is to make sure that all the game graphics are consistent with one another: the UI, buildings, characters, animations... I also take care of the design of the graphic assets (buildings, UI). In addition, I am the main contact between the game developers and the graphics department. I work closely with Leslie, who is also part of Triskell Interactive, also in charge of creating assets, making artworks, FX, animations, etc.
➣ What immediately comes to your mind when you think about Pharaoh?
The first thing that comes to my mind with Pharaoh is the feeling that the game is like a real living canvas. The game had left a lasting impression on me when I was young from the way it was drawn, painted, but also animated (and especially filled with great details.) To me, the game was simply amazing. Ironically, I think that's what got me into 2D / painting, even though the game was in 3D at the time. I discovered this game when I was quite young. It was one of the first PC games that my parents gave me. I must have been 13 or 14 at the time. It was the first game that introduced me to strategy games. It was very new to me because, at the time, I was mostly used to Nintendo games. However, I quickly got into it and have not stopped playing it since!
➣ What do you like most about Pharaoh's spirit?
What I like most about Pharaoh is its chill/contemplative aspect. Indeed, there is something fascinating about building a neighborhood and watching it grow. You do have the impression of standing in the middle of an Egyptian city and you can see how it develops: from its birth to its fall.
Another thing I like most about the original game is the OST. Indeed, the Ancient atmosphere is further emphasized by the music. With Pharaoh: A New Era, I feel like we've been very respectful of the original work in this regard.
➣ When you are in a creative process, how do you manage to put together what you want to do artistically and what the players expect from the game?
Being a big fan of the original game helped me a lot in shaping the game's art direction. The most important thing for me was to respect the original game and its artists, as the original game was incredible visually. Indeed, they managed to find the perfect balance between the game's visual aspect and its gameplay. I wanted to keep this particular balance. As for the painting and the 2D style, it is, for me, the real spirit of the game. I wanted to respect it as much as possible for the players.
➣ When you first started working on Pharaoh, what were the main aspects of the game that you were looking to improve and develop, and what were the ones you wanted to keep from the classic games?
In my opinion, there were a few things that didn't feel right in the original game that I wanted to improve. For example, the shiny, body-built characters looked outdated, as did the game's UI originally designed for 4:3 aspect ratio resolutions. The game was released in 1999, so graphics standards have evolved a lot, as well as computer hardware.
I didn't want Pharaoh: A New Era to be a mere graphical redesign. So, we tried to modernize the graphics while respecting the original artists' work as much as possible. Somewhat like an archeologist, my job is to dust off the old sprites, making them brighter, more fitting to today's standards. As for the aspects that I absolutely wanted to keep, well, it's precisely this "living canvas" aspect that impressed me so much, as well as the depth of detail. In this regard, using 2D, i.e. digital painting, seems ideal to me. I think we made the right choice in using this technique.
➣ In the end, how do you manage to respect the original spirit of the game, while making it "more modern"?
Well, finding the right balance can be very tricky. For example, we used the sprites from the original game to create the new building designs. Still, at the same time, we try to modernize them and improve on what has already been done. It includes a subtle change of colors to make the game brighter, the addition of animations and visual effects: a bird flying by, dust escaping from a collapsing building. Also, today's screen resolutions allow us to go into more detail: a few random pixels in the original game can become a clay pot in Pharaoh: A New Era, and I think that's our magic trick.
➣ What would you have to say to those fans who don't necessarily like the cartoon aspect of Pharaoh: A New Era?
We knew from the very beginning that we would have to make choices. These choices could not please everyone and it was a dilemma that we had to accept from the start to move forward.
Since we didn't have the original game's resources, and we had to redo everything, we decided to fully focus on the 2D aspect (walkers included). It brings more harmony between the buildings and the characters' design. Of course, some former players are fond of the "realistic" look of the original game, especially with the walkers. However, while I was working on Pharaoh: A New Era, I decided to change some of the walkers' details that I thought were overly caricatural (e.g the bodybuilder look and their shiny bronze skin). So we decided to distance ourselves from this aspect and turn to something closer to our sensibility: the cartoon style. Pharaoh: A New Era also needed to be adapted to today’s standards. The game was already gorgeous in 1999, and I understand that some fans still find it gorgeous, myself included! However, the idea of making this remake was to modernize its visual aspect. So we chose to keep the original design of the buildings (using digital painting) and to remake the walkers so they would be more noticeable, more detailed, and more adapted to the artistic direction of the project.
- Love, hippos, and pyramids. 🦛
💞 The second part of this dev blog will be published next month. In the meantime, feel free to send some love to the dev team by wishlisting the game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1351080/Pharaoh_A_New_Era/
✨ Keep up with the latest news on Pharaoh: A New Era by following:
https://twitter.com/Triskell_Int
https://twitter.com/Dotemu
http://www.facebook.com/PharaohNewEra
http://www.pharaoh.game/
🎮 Make sure to join us on Discord:
https://discord.gg/pharaohnewera
