Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Development Info Expeditions: Rome Dev Diary #4 - Visual Style

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Expeditions: Rome; Logic Artists; THQ Nordic

The fourth dev diary for Expeditions: Rome is about art direction and visual style. With Rome, Logic Artists are aiming for a more colorful and vibrant look than Expeditions: Viking, in accordance with the game's slightly reduced adherence to historical accuracy. The dev diary is particularly focused on the in-game region of North Africa, which exemplifies these qualities.

We consider the Expeditions series of games to be a kind of historical fiction in game form - a fictional story and series of unusual dramatic events set within the framework of real-world history. This means that while the narrative and the events of the game can be entirely fictional, we always try to keep it grounded, and if not realistic per se, within the boundaries of historical plausibility. We try to never go too far, too over the top, or create elements that are truly fantastical.

This was also the basis for the artistic vision of the game. The previous game in the series ‘Expeditions Viking’ represented a step up in visual quality for us, and when we started work on the project that would become Rome, improving the visuals of the game was on top of our list. The basic overall concept was the same; we wanted to create an exciting and appealing visual representation of the adventures and exploits of legendary generals and explorers, that will be perceived as authentic and immersive, but without being subjugated to absolute historical accuracy.

Creating this kind of authentic historical setting in a top-down computer game, which is inherently unrealistic in nature, is a core challenge of working on Expeditions: Rome. Compromises had to be made, but we always aimed at making the visual design naturalistic and grounded - enhanced with a measure of stylization and idealization, but not fantastic exaggeration. Stylized pseudo-realism, if you will.

One of the visual aspects that seem quite common in historical games is that they tend to overall not be very visually exciting, but instead rather drab, or even colourless. It is as if visual blandness equals realism, and this is something we wanted to avoid at all costs. We wanted our game world to appear as vibrant and appealing as any fantasy setting; something that will excite and immerse the player and make them want to explore our world. In Expeditions: Viking we were fairly strict about historical accuracy, but in Rome we have loosened up on that a little bit to make room for more of the fantastic and extraordinary.

A huge challenge for us was tackling the visual design and presentation of the Northern African region in the game, a sizable part of which is barren desert. One of the risks we faced was that the environment could end up appearing boring and repetitive, and without much color variation or other elements to visually please and excite. This could potentially be very counterproductive to our goals of creating a vibrant world that the player would want to explore and become immersed in.

The first stage in this process started with a lengthy period of research, to gain an overview of the North African landscape, it’s flora and fauna, and finding out just how varied and interesting deserts and their surrounding areas can really be. On top of that North Africa was a lot more fertile two thousand years ago, but since there are unfortunately no photos available from that time, we had to rely on written sources and artistic discretion instead.

Once we had gathered enough material that we felt we had a good basic overview, we started translating it into simple concept sketches to explore the visual opportunities that the limitations and properties of the natural environment afforded us. We asked ourselves “how much can we push this visually and how interesting and magical can we make it look, while still depicting a believable real-world environment ?”

After this initial stage, the next step was designing the specific environments and locations in the game. We realized early on that lighting would be a critical factor and that we could use it to infuse the desert environments with some much needed color, vibrancy and ambience.

Levels can be explored at different times of day, and we wanted the lighting to be distinct and to almost transform each level; creating a different visual experience depending on the time of day the player visits it, despite everything else in the level staying the same. This can be directly traced back to the early explorations we did, but revised and refined to find a balance that would work for us.

An example a game location is the Court of Heaven, which is an oasis settlement of the Nasamones - a mysterious tribal people, about whom very little is known. This afforded us a lot of freedom in the visual design of the faction and inspired by present day Bedouin and Berber peoples. We settled on a very colorful style which would not only provide an interesting visual contrast to the Romans, but also allow us to infuse their desert settlements with vibrant colors that provide yet another layer of contrast to the natural desert environment.

Attempting to create the most exciting and cool visuals, while simultaneously keeping it grounded and authentic is a constant challenge, but it’s one we’ve put a significant amount of effort towards. At the end of the day it is up to the players to judge if we did a good job or not, and we hope that they will enjoy exploring the world that we have created.
Naturally, this particular update is worth reading in full for the screenshots and concept art. There will be a dev stream about this topic with the game's art director on July 7th. The next dev diary is about the music, but it doesn't have a date yet.
 

Larianshill

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
1,719
One of the visual aspects that seem quite common in historical games is that they tend to overall not be very visually exciting, but instead rather drab, or even colourless. It is as if visual blandness equals realism,
That's one thing I loved about Vikings. Everyone is very colorful there - just as vikings were in real life. Movies and TV shows would have you believe that vikings all dressed in black biker jackets with studs.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,165
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
One objection is that the historical Romans were extremely colorful and interpreted colorfulness as a sign of wealth and success (as did nearly all ancient people, compare peacocks). They put up mosaics and murals everywhere, wore the gaudiest clothes they could afford, loved graffiti, and painted nearly every square inch of marble they could reach the same way modern people paint houses.

Those plain, pure white togas we associate with the Romans were worn mainly by Senators and only as a uniform from Rome's ancient, poverty stricken past (like a business suit) and only on formal or official occasions and public holidays. When in leisure, Senators dressed as colorfully as they could.

The Hollywood image of Romans as an austere colorless people derives from the fact the paint they out on all those statues and buildings faded away. Whenever you look at the marble grandeur of a Roman statue or sculpture, remember that in its own time it was painted with as much detail and color as the Romans were capable of.

But, I'll grant Logic Artists that Roman military was more spartan in style and attitude than the rest of Roman society.
 
Last edited:

Dr Schultz

Augur
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
492
But, I'll grant Logic Artists that Roman military was more spartan in style and attitude than the rest of Roman society.

And only to a certain degree.

A few weeks ago I've stumbled in this video from a usually well documented channel about military history on Youtube. It's conclusions are quite interesting.

 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom