As soon as the team had finished designing and implementing the Samhain event they didn’t even pause for breath before diving straight into Yule. As with all the seasonal events we’re continuing to give them each a narrative drive as well as unique and valuable rewards and this Yule is no exception. We see the events as an ongoing struggle against the forces of good and evil and how each side marshals allies to fight in their aid while providing some fun and engaging activities over their duration. Of course players need something else apart from glory and the gratitude of Bellenus after the struggles against Taranis and his cohorts.
As is traditional we’ve got some great fashion items for the new Yule Mystery Chest and this is your chance to get a sneak preview of them before launch.
John’s had an impact on various areas of Celtic Heroes including the interface and its icons and the cool special fx you seen on the weapons, clothing and skills throughout the game so we were very excited to get him involved in the Yule event.
What was your inspiration for the winter fashion items?
First of all, I had the task to keep the tradition of the winter outfits, where elegance is a must. The fashion set must be something you can wear to a huge Yule celebration and feel proud of the appearance of your Celtic Hero. There are two driven forces in this event that made my imagination run wild. One being Jack Frost, such an interesting mythological deity sets the bar into the realm of the whimsical, subtle and fragile. The father of Cold inspired me to work with thin silver metal and crystals so the outfit looks mystical, elegant and refined. Celtic Heroes would wear this with pride in the presence of an entity like Jack Frost. Second, it’s winter. It’s cold outside. You should be wearing something cosy and warm. It’s good to wear silver and crystal diamonds, but you shouldn’t be freeze to death in Lir’s reach doing so. So I sketched some thick pieces of dense wool, something practical but elegant nonetheless. The result of this mix is the Fashion outfit you can see in the screenshot!
Can you give us an insight into your workflow?
Everything begins with a research phase where I look at a lot of images, keeping in mind the needs of the game. I try to inspire myself looking at photos of snow covered landscapes, warm clothes, fashion collections, cosplay and all sorts of cool stuff so my imagination starts running. I don’t want to deliver something boring so this already motivates me to reach a higher standard. Shapes, colours and all sorts of interesting bits and pieces start to make sense in the first sketches I do. At this stage it’s very likely that something will go through the entire process untouched. But that makes a nice base to work from, and the final concept has a huge inspiration from those early sketches. From this point on, I draw and draw more producing variants and exploring different possibilities, jumping from the male outfit to the female one, until I like what I see. Is this shoulder pad too small? Does this belt need to be wider? And questions like these help to refine the outfit until we are happy with the looks of it. Then I pass my concepts to be modelled in 3D.
What tools do you use to create the concepts?
I draw on a Cintiq tablet from Wacom, and I use Photoshop as my bread and butter. All of this was completed in a digital environment!
The Yule event and its rewards might not be the only things you’ll get this holiday season. If you look on the forums or here, you’ll find a link to a form that heralds the expansion of the current iOS Destiny engine beta program. You’ll need to have an iOS device running iOS 8 to take part as we’re making use of the new Beta testing program that Apple have recently introduced. For those of you already on the beta it won’t be too different as it still uses Testflight but now it’s integrated into iOS 8 as a standalone app and the whole process seems to be a whole lot less fiddly.
We are aiming to have an initial 3 day open beta test next weekend so please get your response to the survey in as soon as you can for a chance to be included. We want this open beta to be a stress test for the new server infrastructure so please join in if you can.
The progress on the iOS Destiny engine hasn’t abated. The coding team has been doing some of the less exciting but no less vital tasks such as provisioning and setting up the new server structure for the open beta which will be expanded once we’re ready for full launch and ensuring our patching system is working as efficiently as possible. They’re massively excited to get the iOS version of the Destiny engine out not only as it represents the pinnacle of all their hard work for two years but it also frees them up to work on other projects we have waiting in the wings. The new engine also provides us with a platform to improve the way we work and how we create content.
I’ll go now before I let too many cats out of the bag.
Wrap up warm and I’ll see you in Dal Riata, fellow heroes!