Greetings, adventurers!
We're taking a closer look at the enemies currently in production: the Skeletal Hulk and the Vordine. We're also sharing a preview of a blog coming later this month that goes into depth on the Caligni. This is the first of a series where we share our approach to taking content from the Pathfinder table top game and translating it into our hack and slash ARPG. Enjoy!
The Skeletal Hulk is an imposing and terrifying enemy, typically encountered after the bones of a giant enemy or multiple smaller ones reanimate. In our game, the Hulk is an enormous mini-boss encountered deep within the Vaults on the fifth floor.
Our vision for bringing this lumbering monstrosity to life meant conveying it's devastating size. When the Heroes face it for the first time, it will feel like an unstoppable force.
The Vordine are enemies faced even deeper at floor seven. Paizo's original design is a natural fit for our concept of them in-game. To represent the different types, we intend to produce both a melee and ranged based version to compliment each other in combat and provide a challenge for the Heroes to contend with!
One of our favourite parts of developing the game is translating Pathfinder 2E’s rich lore and crunchy mechanics from “Tabletop format” to “Action RPG viable”.
We want to take you along this journey to show just how we’re staying true to the beloved source material. We’re starting with the strange and mysterious the Darklands: the Caligni.
- Wyatt, Creative Director at BKOM
Getting the visual design right always starts by looking at the source material. We take great inspiration from the books themselves and other art pieces from Paizo.
At our current stage of production, our pipeline is well defined. It starts with reference gathering then moves to a front-and-back-view sketch. We try to keep all the key elements of the original design but adapt them to our vision.
Normally only one or two sketches are needed since the artwork provided by Paizo already gives us so much to work with.
Then it’s review time. We check the proportions and ensure they’re exaggerated enough to read well from a top-down perspective. Each enemy and character must feel unique in their silhouette so we can recognize them quickly. We also minimise the number of small details in the design so the visual stays easy to read. Consulting the game design team to check the enemy visually matches in-game behaviour is also crucial.
When we’re ready, we move to the 3D blocking. At this stage the main goal is to validate the proportions directly in-game with proper camera angles. We make sure it reads well in the context of our game first before moving to polish. At this stage we can even start animation using the 3D blocking, before we even get the final models.
Read the full blog later this month.
Onward, to adventure!
~ The Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults Team
Follow us:
Discord | Twitter | Twitch | Facebook | Sign up to our newsletter | Wishlist on Steam