by Cody Bye on Jan 11, 2008
by Michael Wolf Visser,
Lead Content Designer for The Chronicles of Spellborn
It is not quickly that I sit down to write a dev journal. It's not
because I do not want to or that it takes too much time, it's that I
simply have other stuff floating in my mind that I'd like to put to
paper first.
So, now that most of the characters in my head are asleep and the
office is still devoid of life other than me and the critters in the
carpet, I thought I'd take the chance to explain how I personally, put
things from my mind to paper and how that eventually becomes something
you can walk through in a digital world.
The Shards of Spellborn
There are numerous examples of what comes into your mind and what makes
it to paper in the Shards of Spellborn. The main idea and story line is
so befitting freedom of thought and implementation of the weird and
wonderful twists of a human brain that whatever you can think of can be
accomplished.
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Michael Visser
discusses how the world of Spellborn goes from his imagination to
reality.
This is also true for The Green District of Quarterstone, and this
district will be the main focus of how some of my ideas became
reality... to some extent of course.
When we first started off with Quarterstone, it was a city split into
four different districts all of which connected to the main platform on
which the Oracle resided. But after some thought and some time passed,
more districts were put to the test and bridges leading from the Oracle
to these new districts were built. The last district to be added to the
whole of Quarterstone was the Green District, a place where the
forgotten inhabitants of most of the city's populace still roam, albeit
a bit mutated, and where the endless fires of the AIOR infestation
still burn away at everything there.
A black hole is what the Green District was until a colleague and I sat
down to discuss what could possibly fill this hole. We covered
collapses, drowned villages and huge temples, but in the end we decided
to uphold the main function of Quarterstone as a city and make it a
suburb for the blue collar workers and a place for research and
development for some of the High Houses. All in all a good idea, for it
gave us something more to work with. But twisted as we were, we turned
it sour for those living amongst the narrow alleys of what was lovingly
called 'The Stacks' as a magical experiment deep within the bowels of
the districts main research facility, the Citadel of Ail, went terribly
awry. Tons of magically infused ore residue, known as AIOR, spewed from
the massive hole that was torn out of the building. The crystalline
fragments nestled itself into living tissue and started mutating the
populace. The Enclave in their panic closed off the Green District for
fear of spreading this mutating disease and all hope was lost for those
desperately trying to escape the explosions aftermath. The Arcane Surge
as it was called was the end of life in the Green District, but also
harboured new life, for the empty and tormented husks of those
unfortunate to be in the Green District at the time, still lumber
through the empty streets as the Shunned.
Confrontation
Now it all sounds nice and comfy there, mutated people scavenging empty
streets and burning ore residue spewed from large holes in giant
structures, but this was all in our heads. After we put it to paper,
read it again ourselves and decided to hand it over to the Art
department, people started to look at us questioningly. 'You want to
make all this?' was the question that first came from their lips and
both my colleague and I simply nodded...
Two days later, Romano Molenaar our Lead Concept Artist came up to me
and showed me the first concept drawings of the Green District. And
although I expected nothing less from him, I was still awed by the
perfect vision he and I seemed to share when it came to the
visualisation.
Creation and
Implementation
After the initial design had been handed over and the first concept
drawings were made, signs of the Green District started to emerge from
the modellers and texture artists. The level designers came up with a
basic shape and I sat down to add lore and ideas to the various areas
that made up the Green District. Adding lore and ideas also contains
the naming of the areas and being the weird guy that I am, I added a
little homage to a man that I respect a lot, Chris Metzen. So somewhere
in the ruined debris of this once splendid district he has his own
retreat. I doubt he'd like to dwell there now, but at least it looked
nice prior to the surge.
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The world of
Spellborn is a dangerous place crafted by a host of creatively
brilliant minds.
The first thing that made it into the map, were the two separate
housing areas. At first they were not ablaze yet so the impression they
left was rather cold, but I knew the guys over at level design would do
the fires soon enough and when they did... well it all changed really.
The fires added an atmosphere so compelling that I could almost feel
the claustrophobia the inhabitant at the time of the surge must have
felt.
Next came the Empyreal Parks, located on both sides of the grand walk
that lead to the main entrance to the Citadel of Ail. The large
Philosophers Labyrinth with its hedges and massive statues, the empty
animal pens and the cascading ruins of all sorts of beautifully crafted
structures added the final touch. But the art guys had one little
surprise up their sleeves that I had not dreamed of was possible at the
start of writing the design. A massive twisting maelstrom of AIOR
particles twists and turns above the Citadel of Ail's main spire. A
storm so violent that all over the district ash and soot falls from
it's long reach. As an added bonus, the guys even made the eye of the
storm visible from the Councillor's chambers within the Citadel.
Needless to say.. I was relieved and awed to see that what gets written
op paper really makes it to something digitally.
Breathing atmosphere
Now that the time for the release of the game comes closer and closer
and talks of the closed beta reaching its new state of operation is
being whispered amongst the various departments, my hopes are such that
everyone setting foot inside the Green District, actually set foot
within a small part of my mind. There you can see for yourself how
twisted thoughts can become and how skilled professionals can create
something unique from a bunch of words on paper.
The
screenshots that have been recently released show you a small
part of the district, the burning roofs, the centre of the Labyrinth
and the ravaged bodies of the Shunned. I hope that in the near future,
you yourself can venture into the dank and moody, yet dark and
breathing atmosphere that still haunts the Green District.
How interested are you in The Chronicles
of
Spellborn? What additional information would you like to see about the
game?
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