Greetings everyone!
Today, we are back with the following (and last) part of the dev blog about the game’s Art Direction.
First of all, we would like to apologize for the delay as this dev blog was supposed to be out last month. To be honest with you all, bad luck hit us, and part of the social team in charge was on sick leave for a while. Anyway, we are back now, and here are some more answers from Guillaume (aka Noodle) - Art Director at Triskell Interactive! I hope you’ll enjoy reading this last part of the dev blog!
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
➣ The amount of work to redesign each asset must be huge, but I imagine you also have to work on some of the sprite details, which were not necessarily there before. How do you deal with that?
Since we don't have access to the original game files, we always start working on the in-game version and scale up each asset by 2000%. It gives us a good idea of what we're working on (that's also the part when we realize that some of the details of the original game are just a bunch of pixels!). Then, we have to figure out what we are dealing with and whether this bunch of pixels is more of a carpet or a jar. Sometimes, it is even difficult to distinguish the different textures. We sometimes even wonder if we are dealing with earth, mud, or brick. So, my job is to find out what these textures are, to add details like cracks in a wall or some flowers… Also, I usually "edit" the work files, either for myself or for the team. In other words: I get the original sprite, then enlarge it and identify what might be blurry (or unclear). Finally, I put references for some objects or textures, and I establish a color chart.
Then and only then can the painting process begin. We start with the general shapes, then sharpen the details while preserving the original sprite design. It's meticulous work, but it's also a lot of fun! By using this method, we are sure to respect the spirit of the OG.
➣ What did you like best about remastering some assets? A favorite building/monument that you enjoyed (re)making?
I enjoyed working on the monuments — especially those of the original Cleopatra extension like the Caesareum. These are Greek and Roman-inspired buildings with lots of colonnades, statues... It's tedious to do, but it stands out from the rest of the Egyptian buildings and brings a breath of fresh air to the overall look of the game. It was a very welcome (re)creative break!
➣ Do you have any particular style or inspiration in mind whenever you work on Pharaoh: A New Era?
Since Pharaoh: A New Era is all about Ancient Egypt, I have inspirations and references from historical findings and archeology. I have several books at home on the subject. IMO, Ancient Egypt is fascinating, as not a month goes by without a discovery being made. This is what makes the topic so much exciting. Otherwise, the main inspiration is the original game, of course!
➣ What were your biggest difficulties during this project?
The difficulties encountered are not necessarily due to the creation itself but rather to our choice to use isometric 2D. Many difficulties result from this choice and, sometimes, influence the way we work or even the way some assets are designed. Most of the time, we have to decompose the assets of a building, making sure those bits overlap perfectly. There are also sorting issues, i.e. sprites that are not visually on the same level as others. These are technical difficulties that we have to take into account when creating graphic assets.
Another difficulty, which also results from the use of 2D, is the isometric perspective in the drawing process. It has many advantages but also disadvantages. Indeed, the isometric perspective is not realistic. It is a perspective that has no vanishing point, and it is sometimes very tedious to reproduce shapes like spheres, curves, or cylinders with this perspective. We often have to cheat, but as long as the visual rendering is there, cheating is allowed.
WIP - Overseer of the Military - Placeholder text
➣ On your streams, we can see that you enjoy putting little touches of humor on the buildings. Can we expect little Easter Eggs/visuals hidden in the game?
We have always done this before at Triskell Interactive. It's more of an inside joke than anything else! In the end, we are pretty serious about our games. I don't know if there will be any Easter Eggs in the end because Pharaoh is a pretty serious game, and we have to respect that too. Pharaoh is an iconic management game and we wouldn't want players to think that we took this work lightly. We'll see!
➣ What are your best memories of Pharaoh? How does it impact your creations?
I don't know if this is my "best" memory, but I remember the game being extremely difficult. I couldn't understand why my entire city was suddenly on fire. Also, I didn't understand what some of the characters were doing. For me, the walkers were merely for show. So, the most vivid memory I have is the game's replayability. It was a long learning process, but it was very exciting. I was able to try out different setups in my neighborhoods, switch the buildings around, and see the direct effects of those changes. Once you know the game mechanics, you tend to make the same neighborhoods and arrange your cities in the same way. But at the very beginning, it's the discovery, the search for perfection, the budget balance. Those are my fondest memories of the OG.
How does that impact my creations? I'm not so sure. I think what we want to do is to make a more detailed game so that the game experience is constantly renewed. I like the player to be amazed, every time they have to restart a mission, even for the 5th time in a row. I am hoping to bring back the excitement from those younger days to the fans. That would be a great accomplishment.
➣ Since the demo and thanks to the feedback from the community, have some things changed in your way of seeing things?
Naturally, getting constructive and interesting feedback challenges our way of seeing things and our work in general. Nevertheless, we cannot possibly change everything based on all the feedback we have received (even though we do believe that feedback will always be necessary). The Art Direction is in line with the whole game and we got a lot of positive feedback about it during the demo. Unfortunately, it is sometimes necessary to distance ourselves from criticism because it can quickly become a source of anxiety for the team and can lead us to question the work we have accomplished or even make us doubt our abilities. Still, there were some aspects of the project that we were less sure of, and this allowed us to make certain decisions.
As for the game's UI, we noticed that it turned out to be frustrating for some players during the demo. So, we decided to redesign the user interface, menus, etc., to make the game experience as smooth as possible. Here’s a small example: When creating a family (profile), we have added the possibility to choose an avatar, which will allow the player to know at a glance which family is selected (on top of personifying the player in some specific sections of the UI).
WIP - UI is still subject to change - Placeholder text
🦛 Love, hippos, and pyramids. 🦛
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We would also like to thank you for your feedback on the first part of the dev blog. It was a pleasure to take you all behind the scenes of Pharaoh: A New Era! In the end, we hope you’ll enjoy the game as much as we loved creating it for you.
📰 Read the first part of this dev blog here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1351080/view/3137326328684283908
💞 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/
🎮 The Discord server is back! Make sure to join us there:
https://discord.gg/pharaohnewera
