Hello Vikings! In today’s Sneak Peek, Art Director “Emak” lifts the curtain on how we design each clan with a unique identity in mind
Who is Emak??
Hello everyone, I'm Emak. I've been managing Northgard's art production for a few years now.
I started working in the video game industry 20 years ago, first as a 3D artist, then as an art director. I joined the Shiro Games team at the beginning, so I'm part of the "four old men" that created Evoland. I was in charge of the 3D part of the game.
I'm now the Art Director for Northgard, designing the characters, setting the mood for the clans and drawing most of the illustrations. I also do some animation and even some special effects.
The clan’s identity
The main difference between the upcoming Clan of the Hounds and previous clans is that it doesn’t have a warchief or traditional combat units (warrior, axe-wielder, shield-bearer). Much of the work revolved around the five special units - the Brawler, an unarmed fighter and shaman who can evolve into one of the four warrior classes (the Berserker). We took a lot of time and care to design l these units in order to maintain a graphical consistency between them all.
I started designing the Brawler as a Shaolin monk, because to me it captured the essence of a spiritually adept martial fighter. For the martial aspect, it was obvious to make him shirtless with lots of scars. His wristband designs are based on pads that boxers use to spar.
For the 'spirituality' part, it's a mix of many religious items: he wears a strong rope as a belt, like a medieval occidental monk. This belt is decorated with rosary beads. His head is covered with a scarf, like the spiritual leaders of many different religions.
To make his design more viking-like (this is Northgard afterall!), I added Celtic patterns to the scarf and belt buckle.
It's a very simple design because it has to represent an early version of the shamanic warrior he's going to become, something neutral where we could add elements of equipment to turn him into a unique unit.
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The clan’s units
Each berzerker is defined by the spirit of an animal that gives it its specificity. We have :
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| The Wolfskin, a classic warrior with a two-handed axe | The Boarskin, a savage warrior with a double-bladed spear |
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| The Foxskin, an assassin with throwing knives | The Bearskin, a strong shield bearer |
For each design, it was important that the connection with each individual animal was easily noticeable. I also wanted to avoid a "cliché" design with the bear's head as a helmet.
That's why each unit has some elements that refer to the animal it's associated with:
The Wolfskin’s design is more fluid. Long braided hair and long cuffs give him a more sophisticated look. He is the "DPS" type, but not the more robust one, so it was important to me to have these two aspects: the strong shirtless warrior, but with some more elaborate details that make him less primitive than the Boarskins.
The Boarskin hair is reminiscent of the animal's crest, the tusks he wears like a necklace and his tattered clothes give his look a perfect blend of savage and rough. Even in the animations, the fighting style is more "primitive".
The Foxskin's hair is reminiscent of a fox's tail and moves in the same way. Their design is more elegant than the other warriors, and the fact that they wear more clothing makes them look weaker than their peers.
As the defender of the group, the Bearskin should be as imposing as his animal. That's why he was designed with a very tufted cape and full leather armour to emphasise the defensive aspect. In my opinion , the shape of the character and his posture in the different animations have to work together. So the Bearskin's poses are more massive, more grounded.
As I said earlier, animations are very important.
The Berserkers are the most important part of the clan. It's a "small pop" clan and all your attention will be focused on these units. So it made sense to spend more time giving them a great look, attitude and pose. Each of the five units have unique idle and winning animations that give them more personality: some are more proud, some more rogue, etc.
Final word
It's always a challenge to create a new visual identity for a clan. For the Owl, the fact that the warchiefs were three priestesses and the mysticism of the clan led us to the Slavic design. Inspired by the spirituality of Bulgarian voices and the beauty of traditional Balkan dress, we created floral and colourful outfits for these ladies.
For the Clan of the Hounds we had to create a huge contrast to the previous one. The outfits are a declination of browns, we have leather, metal, furs... everything should be tougher and harder and make you think that "Hound" is a fighting clan.
Throughout the production of Northgard, we strive to improve the quality of the graphics: sometimes textures are reworked, renders are improved... For this clan, the 3D models of the five new units are based on the latest Warchiefs models, allowing us to add more detail. I hope you'll enjoy playing them as much as we enjoyed making them!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2946220/Northgard__Garm_Clan_of_the_Hounds/?utm_source=news&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=wishlist&utm_content=sneakpeek2_art_design
Thank you so much for reading our second and final sneak peek of the Clan of the Hounds! We're really happy you enjoyed them! If you want to see more of Emak creation, here is a link to his Artstation! We read the first feedback and it seems like the content in that form of "Dev insight" has been mostly appreciated. We know some of you are still waiting for patch notes detailing the incoming changes outside of the clan, but don't worry, it'll be here on release! See you on Thursday for the release of the Hounds! -Shiro Games Community Team