Update #77: Art in Alpha

[BAdler]

Update by Rose Gomez, Associate Producer

 

Greetings backers! In today's update, we've got some great new character, and area art for you to check out. Our artists have been hard at work creating beautiful new areas and lots of new armor for the game. Our next update will be the next chapter in the class series, all about chanters and priests, by Josh Sawyer.

 

Characters

 

Recently our character artists have been hard at work crafting as many armor types as possible. All of our armor types have a variety of quality levels: normal, fine, and exquisite. JD Cerince recently finished up the plate armor designs for the game, which you can see here.

 

Plate Armor.

 

James Chea worked on the scale armor for the game. Below you can see a few varieties for female player characters. Cloth pieces for our armor sets can be tinted as in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.

 

Scale Armor.

Areas

It's not all dungeons and darkness in Pillars of Eternity. Sean Dunny finished up the beautiful beachy area of Anslog's Compass. Wave effects and details are courtesy of John Lewis. Named for a rocky stretch of land which theoretically resembles a sundial, this lagoon provides decent fishing for both brave Dyrwoodans and a local contingent of xaurips. More than one ship has met its end upon the nearby reef, and debris occasionally washes ashore from the wreckage.

 

Anslog's Compass.

 

Here you can see the Hall of Warriors done by April Giron. This large wooden structure is used as a meeting place for visiting warriors within Twin Elms. It is here that the Glanfathan hunters gather and tell stories of past deeds, discuss upcoming events and hunts, and conduct friendly contests of physical prowess (arm wrestling, tests of endurance, etc.). Sometimes, a visiting anamfath will take residence in the hall when visiting the city.

 

Hall of Warriors.

 

Here we have a section of a much larger dungeon by Sean Dunny. This is from Clîaban Rilag, an Engwithan ruin.

 

Clîaban Rilag Entrance.

 

That's it for this week. We hope you enjoyed this quick art update! Come back next week for a thorough update on chanters and priests by Josh Sawyer.

[C2B]

Looks great

[Gumbercules]

The art looks lovely, I just wish there were more of it.

 

What's the general status of the game right now? Is everything at alpha yet?

[Thundercat710]

nice

[Cubiq]

HAH!

I remember people asking for full plate armor, and you guys delivered!

And WOW, my jaw dropped when i saw the beach! I hope the animation on water will look as great as they do on the still image.

I think it would be really cool if you could go in that hut, or behind the counter in at the merchant stand, i think it would really make the world more immersing.

 

In the middle pic, the stones around the camp fire might look a little too clean considering it's near ashes.

 

Also i'm hoping in the next update if you could give a few examples of how Talents would look like? Are they going to be mostly passive stat increase or something?

[J.E. Sawyer]

And WOW, my jaw dropped when i saw the beach! I hope the animation on water will look as great as they do on the still image.

 

It does.

[Bryy]

The Compass looks great!

[Veenox]

It is so gorgeous and such an outstanding quality that I got a lil emotional!

 

Keep working hard, it shows and we appreciate it a lot.

[Mor]

connection issues.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Mor

[Mor]

Ahh, eye candy update, leaving us with taste for more. I love the plate\scale male\female armor variants, and that you put the time into differentiating quality levels visually. Also a verity of new locations and terms for us to fuse about, trying to fish for more info

 

where Anslog's Compass? and who is xaurips and anamfath?

[anameforobsidian]

When will it be ready to show as a video?  I really want to see that coastline in action.

 

 

Ahh, eye candy update, leaving us with taste for more. I love the plate\scale male\female armor variants, and that you put the time into differentiating quality levels visually. Also a verity of new locations and terms for us to fuse about, trying to fish for more info 

where Anslog's Compass? and who is xaurips and anamfath?

 

Xaurips are probably the little kobold-lizard things they covered in the animation update (because they had a staff in the animation).

 

Edited April 30, 2014 by anameforobsidian

[Hormalakh]

looks good. wish there was more. I'm glad you went for the leggings afterall.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Hormalakh

[Lephys]

*bites lip*...

 

'Dat Artwork!

 

You guys are doing such an amazing job with the art. Keep it up, Art Team! I'm gonna call you guys the Aesthetic Alliance. Because I can... u_u

 

I'm going to second that that water looks absolutely splendtastic, and I can't wait to see it move. I bet it likes to move it move it. The sand looks really good, too. I've just been noticing stuff like that, as, in this style of art for a game, you tend to see a lot of detailed on all the obvious things, but a lot of times textures across an entire floor get a bit neglected. However, it really looks like a damp, sandy beach that's been tromped upon. Good stuff! GREAT stuff! Better than Snapple's stuff, stuff!

 

 

I do have a question regarding the armors. What kind of variance will we see in the actual different armors (as individual equippable items) in the game? I ask because, on the plate screenshot above, you easily get the feel it's going from normal, to fine, to exquisite (on full plate). But, how many different sets of, say, normal plate armor will there be? Because, on the scale armor screenshot, the one on the left is clearly a more substantial armor (offering more coverage/protection) than the one on the right.

 

Are we going to see plate go from just a breastplate (with normal, fine, and exquisite variants), to, say, 1/3 plate (I dunno if that's a thing, but... I'm just talkin' body coverage here/number of plate components beyond just a breastplate, since I'm a nooblet and don't know specifically what the progression would be), with its own three quality variants? Then maybe half plate, then 3/4 plate? Then full plate? Or maybe even more individual variants in between those (Specific suits of armor by culture/faction, etc.)?

 

Just curious, because a lot of past games have only had the very, very few, then differentiated with enchantments and +X ratings and such.

[ultimis]

 

That's it for this week. We hope you enjoyed this quick art update! Come back next week for a thorough update on chanters and priests by Josh Sawyer.

 

Next week? It's been your trend for quite a while to release an update every other week. Do we actually get the treat of a new update next week? I won't complain .

[Bryy]

*bites lip*...

 

'Dat Artwork!

Giggity giggity.

[Lord Gorchnik]

Just wow.  Great stuff here.  Love the look of that full suit of plate mail armor.  The coastline looks like a cool place to settle down with a rod and go fishing.  Thanks everyone for sharing!

[tajerio]

Really like the progression on that plate armor.

[Silent Winter]

It all looks great

 

I hope that's a picture at high-tide - that hut already looks like it's going to get damp at the back

[BAdler]

 

 

That's it for this week. We hope you enjoyed this quick art update! Come back next week for a thorough update on chanters and priests by Josh Sawyer.

 

Next week? It's been your trend for quite a while to release an update every other week. Do we actually get the treat of a new update next week? I won't complain .

 

 

Oops... I messed up. We are going to do one in two weeks - not next week.

[Lephys]

Oops... I messed up. We are going to do one in two weeks - not next week.

It happens. No worries. Good to know, .

 

I mean, it would've been cool if there were one next week. But, it only would've been expected (and disappointing when there wasn't) if we went on believing it was next week. No harm done, ^_^

 

You aborted that launch sequence before that missile fired, haha.

[Tuckey]

"Here you can see the Hall of Warriors done by April Giron. This large wooden structure is used as a meeting place for visiting warriors within Twin Elms. It is here that the Glanfathan hunters gather and tell stories of past deeds, discuss upcoming events and hunts, and conduct friendly contests of physical prowess (arm wrestling, tests of endurance, etc.). Sometimes, a visiting anamfath will take residence in the hall when visiting the city."

 

Please tell me the party can also tell stories, engage in contests etc

[BAdler]

The art looks lovely, I just wish there were more of it.

 

What's the general status of the game right now? Is everything at alpha yet?

 

We are in our Alpha phase right now.

 

We are currently going through all of our previously created areas and revising anything that we think needs more work - both art and design.

 

Programming is nearing feature complete. We are tracking to be feature complete in a couple of weeks. This means that we are feature locked and most of the programming team will be diverted into bug fixing, feature polish, demos, etc.

 

Narrative will have a full pass done in a few weeks, as well. We are almost completely finished with the first pass on our crit path narrative.

 

Audio and VFX are still a ways off and won't be finished until July or August. They come onto the project later than the other teams because they require that content exists in a locked down form before they can do their work.

 

Character Art is working on creature variants, armor variants, and other miscellaneous items. Soon they will be adding in unique armors and weapons. Also, they will be creating head and hair variants in the next few weeks.

 

Animation is finishing up the last remaining A priority tasks and is moving on to some of our B priority animations (special attacks and whatnot).

 

UI/Concept Art has most of the UI in at an Alpha level. Kaz is finishing up things like Scripted Interaction slides and special UI screens. Also, he has a ton of portraits and areas to paint in the near future.

 

Production is figuring out project finalization, localization, Kickstarter rewards, convention plans, expansion planning, and a ton of other small things.

[Osvir]

Great short update tells and shows a lot.
 

 

Update by Rose Gomez, Associate Producer

 

Sometimes, a visiting anamfath will take residence in the hall when visiting the city.

This caught my attention, in a "in-between the lines" type of way...

Specifically the "Sometimes" in that sentence. Does this mean that there will be people in the world that appear at various locations at various times? I.E. an anamfath might be in the Hall of Heroes when I get there the first time, but for another Player there is no anamfath the first time they get there.

Or am I just reading into it?

[Ieo]

Shiny!

[Flow]

Any chance the art team could whip up some more wallpaper for us? I'd love to have the beach scene at a higher res.