Happy Thursday, and welcome to the Art & Music developer diary. I am Karl, Art Director, and the less I write, the better. Let’s get started.
As usual, to avoid this turning into an interminable list of random things, we have to break this down into two general parts: 3D Art, which encompasses the character art, the 3D map buildings, the seasonal visual effects, and the table assets; and 2D Art, which includes the 2D map, the interface, the event illustrations, and the main menu illustration.
Also as usual, too many things have been added for us to bring them all into this diary, and we look forward to you discovering them in the game.
With that, let’s begin with the 3D category, and a brief look at architecture.
The sun shines on a snowy Sankt Peterburg on a mild January morning.
Urban and Civic Architecture
Much like our previous release focusing on Japan, one of the central visual themes of State and Revolution is the contrast between the past and the future, the wealthy and the poor, and the cities and the countryside. For Russia's urban architecture, we drew inspiration from the monumental neoclassical buildings of St. Petersburg, the ornate architecture of Moscow and the more eclectic styles of provincial cities. From lavish palaces and imposing civic buildings to crowded working-class neighbourhoods, we wanted to capture both the grandeur of Imperial Russia and the enormous social divisions beneath its surface.
Civic buildings stand in stark contrast…
…to the low income urban housing.
Some of the tiles for cities…
…and their application in the game. I am sure the eagle eyed among you will be able to spot a few real-world architectural references.
Rural and Vernacular Architecture
In the countryside, the contrast is striking. While the cities increasingly embraced modernisation and European influences, rural Russia remained deeply rooted in centuries of tradition. Our references focused on vernacular timber architecture, from humble peasant izbas and agricultural buildings to the larger, elaborately decorated homes of prosperous farmers. With their distinctive log construction, carved wooden details and traditional rooflines, these buildings represent a very different Russia, one where the past still dominates, even as the winds of change begin to blow.
There’s poor and there’s really poor.
When I saw that windmill I knew we had to have it, even though it needed a code fix to animate.
Assorted rural tiles. As usual this is just a fraction of what is in the actual game.
Autumn afternoon somewhere in the Russian countryside. Looks like the rye harvest is overdue!
Character Art
Besides the usual batch of garments, hats, and beards, we’ve also spent some time improving the character art pipeline, with updates to textures, lighting, and backgrounds. Our goal was to bring the overall character presentation closer to the visual quality and consistency we strive for across the rest of the game. These are relatively small changes individually, but together they make quite a difference, and best of all, the improvements apply to every character in the game, not just the new additions. We hope you’ll agree that the results speak for themselves.
Updated character panels with better lighting, updated textures, tweaked shaders, depth of field, and togglable character panning.
A haberdashery of hats
Table assets
As has become tradition, we have some new food for the table. Also drinks, and (keeping with tradition) something to smoke. Furthermore, there’s a non-edible egg, with a delightful surprise inside, I’m sure, as well as a revolver, a pair of spectacles, and what looks like a rather urgent telegram. Nothing out of the ordinary, really.
Egg and smokes and vodka. What more can you ask for?
Caviar and Oladyi. Looks like someone already stole one!
The shader for the refraction is quite… spectacular
Seasons
Finally, we’ve also added a little more life to the world with the introduction of seasons. As the year progresses, you'll see the landscape change around you, from the fresh greens and flowers of spring to the warm colours and falling leaves of autumn, before winter covers the landscape in snow and the lakes and oceans start to freeze. It's a relatively simple visual addition, purely cosmetic, but one that makes the world feel that little bit more alive, and gives you a better sense of time passing as the decades roll by.
Leaves flying through the autumn breeze, flowers (and pollen, be careful) on the alpine meadows, butterflies in summer, and ice, snow, and cozy snowfall in winter.
Furthermore: Migrating geese! Sea ice! Tropical cyclones! And more. (Those are used during naval battles, so those battle conditions finally have visual representation. Nice!)
2D
Revival and Grandeur UI Skin
When brainstorming concepts for a UI reskin, we typically turn to the region’s architectural heritage for direction, which proved essential for State and Revolution. From the outset, the guiding concept for the UI was “grandeur”. The 18th century Elizabethan-Baroque aesthetic captures this quality perfectly through its scale, intricate symbolism, and elaborate iconography, with St. Petersburg standing as an quintessential showcase of the style at its most grand.
Seeking a style with stronger ties to the game's era, we turned to Russian Revival (or Neo-Russian) architecture. Borrowing heavily from traditional wooden village buildings, medieval Orthodox churches, and historic Muscovite palaces (terems), this design direction gives it an unmistakable Russian visual identity.
We also explored architecture that blends elements of both styles. A couple of other things we explored were some truly gorgeous interiors of Russian palaces, and on the more subtle and foolish end of things, some traditional wooden slavic furniture. Another interesting thing we looked at were some graphic designs that were quite ‘Imperial’ in style.
Another smaller inspiration was the Kasli cast iron frame-highly ornamental shapes in black cast iron. We use this for the Pause frame.
There is also the balance of not going too far into the Russian Revival elements as they can appear to look medieval or archaic. What we are going for is a blend of the Russian traditional look with a more modern Imperial style, while also taking in some of the iconic pastel colors of the Elizabethan Baroque style.I will let the images speak for themselves now.
Some early explorations on the different styles mentioned above
Exploring different color schemes -some more earthy while some incorporating the pastel colors of the Elizabethan Baroque style.
Frames have highly ornamental art nouveau ‘Imperial’ style designs
The main UI frames combines the grand columns from the 1700s with the roofs and onion domes of the Russian Revival style.
We settled for a deep green hue for button colors which goes well with the gold trims around some of the buttons.
Revival and Grandeur Main HUD
Peredvizhniki Paper Map Skin
The papermap depicts a timeline based on historical events that led up to the Russian revolutions and their aftermath. The events and images are partly influenced by the artist cooperative Peredvizhniki. Peredvizhniki portrayed the many-sided aspects of social life, often critical of inequities and injustices. Their art showed poverty but also the beauty of the folk way of life as well as their fortitude and strength of characters. Some of the events that are inspired by the artists’ paintings are on the right side of the map, along with lifestyles and cultures that were prominent during that time and the revolutionaries facing the Russian bear.
The left side of the papermap depicts “old Russia”, along with The coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, the orthodox church, the railroads and the military.
The holes in the map show signs of the Romanov family beneath, hinting about their fate.
The map is torn and weathered as an effect of the boiling revolution.
Unique art for the Tsar
A new unique Journal Entry gives us the opportunity to include some new ‘Tsar’ related art to the Entry Panel. We have added a fancy Imperial style new frame to really emphasise that this is not just a Monarch but the Tsar of Russia. The new Entry also required several new icons and art showcasing the imperial ukases.
The Emperor and Autocrat journal Entry. The journal entry also received a facelift to highlight some Journal entries more unique to your country.
The very extravagant frame to show people that this is the Tsar!
If you have been playing Japan, you might have noticed new Japanese themed Imperial palaces, pre and post Meiji restoration. We jumped at the chance to include a new background for the Tsar as well and it is inspired by that of the Winter Palace.
Icons
We do have the usual additions of new Prestige goods, new Laws, sometimes new ideologies and character traits and a whole bunch of miscellaneous icons that can't be categorised.
I think I have that pair of scissors at home.
New law icons. Can you identify the film scene that inspired the Extraordinary Commission’s icon?
New buildings
New character traits
New Ideologies
Miscellaneous icons: From left: Notable character, Favourite character, Establish Cossack Host, Seek Royal Marriage, Install Subject, State Value, Frost value, War Stalemate Alert
Also a new paper background for the Glossary
Event Illustrations
The event illustrations for State and Revolution encompasses the general themes of the immersion pack and also a peek into what’s going on within the Russian Empire.
The rural countryside procession was chosen because scenes like these were really interesting to portray especially since we haven’t done any religious themed illustrations for awhile now.
On the opposite end, we have a peek at the extravagance and opulence of the upper class and possibly the nobility enjoying the fine arts from the Russian empire…
Which leads to the unhappy blue collar workers gathering in factories listening to the speeches of a charismatic leader who may be inspired by a certain famous figure.
Seasons and especially winter are a feature in State and Revolution so it seems obvious we need to have one illustration showing the harshness of winter. For army related event illustrations, we usually have soldiers in all their glory or in the thick of battle. The only other image featuring soldiers suffering is of the one with Ottoman soldiers in the trenches. Thus we are adding a new one of soldiers struggling in deep winter.
Main Menu illustration
Perhaps the most striking thing in the new main menu illustration is the dark winter night with the Aurora Borealis in the background. This was chosen specifically to contrast from the brightly lit daytime look of the previous illustrations. The night also allowed for some really beautiful lighting especially when the warm lights from the buildings are reflected on the characters.
Rendering in progress using a combination of 3d pre renders and paintovers
The final art!The Aurora Borealis is an animated effects layer so you don't see it here!
Music
Aiming for a style inspired by the Russian nationalist composer collective active in mid- to late 1800s, "The Mighty Bunch", composer Richard Beddow took on the challenge with not only curiosity and positive energy, but also seriousness and deliberation. Richard really nailed it across the board. It should be underscored that the references given in the brief were pretty specific, and capturing the individual essences while preserving the sound of Victoria 3 is a commendable feat. In addition to the full soundtrack, short thematic echoes of individual instruments were produced, to be played over musical drones as part of our low intensity ambient music system. Here are a few words from the man himself:
“As composers we’re often asked to write music that evokes a sense of mood or of particular styles. Often too this extends into establishing time and place. Every now and then a project comes along that pushes things a little further; the latest instalment of Victoria 3 did just that.
It was a pleasure to be asked by the Paradox team to score their next project in the Victoria 3 series - State & Revolution. Set across periods of unrest, civil war and beyond, the broad musical task was to get into the mindset of the nationalist composers of the time; who developed a classical music language that was uniquely Russian, and deliver a score that would feel forged in that world.
The team provided me with an excellent range of period reference material, enabling us to dial in to the tone they wished to capture, which then led to a deeper stage of research. During the course of the project, I became immersed in the musical worlds of luminary figures such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Cui, and Mussorgsky. Understanding and writing music that could belong to this world was both a creative and technical challenge, and, as it turned out, occasionally daunting yet incredibly rewarding. It was also important, however, for the music to still feel like it belonged within the wider framework of the Victoria 3 family.
The final score embodies a range of material including orchestral works, string quartet, trio and duet compositions, creating an eclectic listening experience, immersing the player deeply in a nationalistic Russian musical aesthetic.”
Song Excerpts
Notre Pays - Borodin Influenced
Rêverie - Inspired by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky
Fantaisie - Inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky
Click here to checkout a playlist featuring a snippet of the above songs or one of the song names above if you just want to listen to that specific one!
"Richard Beddow is an Ivor Novello Award-winning and two-time nominated composer whose work spans video games, film, television, and trailers. With a career spanning nearly three decades, he has helped shape the musical identity of major game franchises, combining distinctive musical storytelling, cinematic scope, and a deep understanding of how music supports narrative and immersive worlds.
That’s all from us for this weeks Dev Diary, join us next week for Tunay to cover all new things Modding coming to Update 1.15.