Hello Dragon Hunters,
Today, we want to share a behind-the-scenes look at Dragonkin’s cinematics.
These were all created by Lea Martel in collaboration with our awesome animation, 3D and VFX team too. If you are interested in how they managed to bring cinematics to life, you are in the right place as we are going to dive into details!
But first of all, let’s explain…
Cinematics are a way to ground the narrative, heighten immersion, and highlight the moments that matter the most.
In Dragonkin, we employ a variety of cinematic types, from class or major-encounter introductions, panoramas, and key story moments to emphasize critical events.
In ARPGs, players are almost always on the move.
They’re either busy tweaking their Ancestral Grid, theorycrafting, or roaming through maps fighting dozens of enemies. Cinematics create a little downtime where the player can have a moment to pause and breathe. After a hard-fought boss fight, for example, a cinematic lets them fully soak in the victory, relish that sense of accomplishment, or appreciate the stakes of the world through characters and boss introductions. Panoramas make the world more grounded and can even help the player to scout the area from afar.
Another thing, especially tied to Hack & Slash, is that the camera usually is set above the player, for gameplay purposes. With cinematics we can break that perspective, giving the game a new dimension. By moving the camera closer and framing the world from unfamiliar angles, we can show environments on another lens .
Ideally, cinematics are designed to be meaningful and memorable, creating a “wow” moment for the player, reaching a point where the game can “show, not tell” and not rely on solely exposition.
At EKO, Lea Martel is the creative force behind nearly all the cinematics you experience in Dragonkin.
A key principle in cinematic design is treating the camera as an actor in its own right. It’s not just a passive observer, it has weight, presence, and personality.
The camera should move through the environment alongside characters, basically “react to the world around it”. This approach ensures that each cinematic feels alive and immersive, rather than simply a sequence of shots.
One of the biggest challenges for Dragonkin is creating cinematics directly in the Engine.
Unlike pre-rendered cinematics, which offer unlimited control over every frame, real-time engine cinematics come with technical constraints, such as performance limits and complexities, that require creative solutions. These limitations push us to innovate, finding ways to balance technical feasibility with the artistic vision we try to deliver.
For example, Lea often has to scout the environment to find camera angles that effectively tell the story and carefully avoid unfinished areas or make new geometry / blocks solely for the cinematic.
With that in mind, Lea works closely with our Art Director to define the intentions given to each cutscene. Once this is set, Lea Martel begins the pre-production.
The first step is defining the narrative we want to create for our players.
Let’s take an existing Dragonkin cinematic and walk through its creation process.
During the prologue, players get to try each class, and it was important for us to make an introduction for the player to immediately catch the “them” of each one. The cinematic needed to communicate the class’s personality, what kind of vibe they bring into the world building.
The Tracker core fantasy, in-game behavior, and personality is written by Maxime Gonzalès, our narrative designer.
A bit of lore:
"Before the Battle of the Breach, the Qhongirati Trackers were fiercely independent nomads, able to make the most of Dragon's blood. They created mutated beasts to use as mounts, the Draghurss, as well as a fighting style relying on ranged weapons to minimize their disadvantage in number.
They make for the most elite archers in the world of Dragonkin."
Key story beats of this sequence are:
Dragonkins make rituals to break the barrier and make Saur Iknog returns
Allied races unite to stop and repel the dragonkins invasion
This gives us the opportunity to create a sequence to introduce the Trackers as a cavalry force to showcase the mount, emphasizing their mobility and acrobatic fighting style.
The next step is creating the scene and brainstorming the full sequence, either through a storyboard or directly in the engine, building a timeline.
The process usually starts with a rough version, using placeholder cubes, existing animations, and available assets and posing the different actors, such as characters and monsters in the scene.
This gives the initial sense of how the scene should look and whether it conveys the story the way we want. This is our first draft!
Another important consideration we apply to specific cinematics is where the cinematic will play and how to create a seamless transition between the cutscene and gameplay.
From there, it becomes a collaborative back-and-forth between the cinematic and the technical team. Most of the time the animation team creates custom animations asked by Lea, often complemented by VFX.
Lighting is then added, and sound is implemented last to tie everything together.
This iterative process ensures each cinematic not only looks polished but also delivers the intended emotion and narrative impact.
Creating a cutscene is as fun as it is interesting, and as you can guess, what we’ve shared here is only the tip of the iceberg.
We hope you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes and the design philosophy that forms the backbone of Dragonkin.
Thanks so much for reading!
Discord: https://discord.gg/K2dJ7WuK2f