I really liked the previous visual style of the game, and at the time I spent a huge amount of time refining it until I was satisfied with the result.
But reality has its own rules. Almost every publisher I spoke with told me the same thing: the visuals had to be reworked because they clearly showed the use of AI-generated artwork. As I later came to realize, the publishers were right — these days, using AI-generated art can attract a huge amount of negative attention out of nowhere. And the quality of the game itself may not even matter. The mere presence of AI-generated artwork can potentially sink a project right at launch.
The work took quite a lot of time, despite my art background (although only an introductory one — I spent 9 years at an art school).
Luckily, I wasn't doing all of this alone, otherwise the process would have taken even longer.
Here are a few examples of how the game currently looks.
Main Menu scene (before / after):
German Nation Tech Tree (before / after):
Battle scene with minimal changes (I haven't yet managed to achieve a result I'm completely satisfied with). I also really liked the previous version, and I spent an incredible amount of time getting that scene to its current state (before / after):
German Historical Campaign scene (before / after):
PvE Raid mode scene (before / after):
The current look of the game is far from final and will continue to be refined and improved over time — just as I did with the previous visual style.
I'd really appreciate it if you could check out the current visuals directly in the game and leave your feedback.
And a reminder about my Telegram group dedicated to the development of the game. I'd be happy to see you there/