OBSIDIAN
PARADOX INTERACTIVE
PROJECT LEAD BRIAN H EINS
G USTAV G ROTH
PROJECT LEAD
PRODUCTION
LAYOUT AND DESIGN
ROSE G OMEZ
C HRISTIAN G RANATH
ARTWORK
EDITORS
B. R. G UTHRIE, B OBBY H ERNANDEZ, P OLINA H RISTOVA , L INDSEY L ANEY, B RIAN M ENZE , MITCH L OIDOLT , K ELVIN N AKAMURA , P AUL F ISH , H ECTOR E SPINOZA , D EMI W ARREN, J OHN L EWIS , J AMES M ELILLI CONTRIBUTING COMMENTARY
B. R. G UTHRIE , B RIAN M ENZE, R OBERT L AND , L INDSEY L ANEY, M ATT M AC L EAN
MARCO B EHRMANN, T OMAS H ÄRENSTAM THE TYRANNY BRAND TEAM
MARCO BEHRMANN , BRAND MANAGER | GUSTAV GROTH, ASSOCIATE BRAND MANAGER S TAFFAN B ERGLÉN, LEAD PRODUCER | A NGELICA U HLÁN , ASSOCIATE PRODUCER MALIN S ÖDERBERG, MARKETING | F ILIP S IRC , MARKETING | NIKOO JORJANI , MARKETING MAGNUS E RIKSSON, ANALYTICS | M IKAEL B ERG , TECH AND DEVELOPMENT PONTUS A NEHÄLL, QA PROJECT COORDINATOR | LOKE N ORMAN, QA PROJECT COORDINATOR
TYRANNY LEADERSHIP
B RIAN H EINS , PROJECT LEAD | M ATTHEW S INGH, LEAD PRODUCER BRIAN M ENZE , ART DIRECTOR | M ATT M AC L EAN , LEAD NARRATIVE DESIGNER
SPECIAL THANKS TO J OE F RICANO
THANKS We’d like to thank the teams at Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive for all of their hard work and dedication in bringing the new world of Terratus to life. To our friends and f amily, thank you for your overwhelming support during the development of the game; we couldn’t have done it without you. To our fans, thank you for joining us yet again! We’re excited and thankful to be able to share the story of Kyros’ Tiers with all of you.
OBSIDIAN
PARADOX INTERACTIVE
PROJECT LEAD BRIAN H EINS
G USTAV G ROTH
PROJECT LEAD
PRODUCTION
LAYOUT AND DESIGN
ROSE G OMEZ
C HRISTIAN G RANATH
ARTWORK
EDITORS
B. R. G UTHRIE, B OBBY H ERNANDEZ, P OLINA H RISTOVA , L INDSEY L ANEY, B RIAN M ENZE , MITCH L OIDOLT , K ELVIN N AKAMURA , P AUL F ISH , H ECTOR E SPINOZA , D EMI W ARREN, J OHN L EWIS , J AMES M ELILLI CONTRIBUTING COMMENTARY
B. R. G UTHRIE , B RIAN M ENZE, R OBERT L AND , L INDSEY L ANEY, M ATT M AC L EAN
MARCO B EHRMANN, T OMAS H ÄRENSTAM THE TYRANNY BRAND TEAM
MARCO BEHRMANN , BRAND MANAGER | GUSTAV GROTH, ASSOCIATE BRAND MANAGER S TAFFAN B ERGLÉN, LEAD PRODUCER | A NGELICA U HLÁN , ASSOCIATE PRODUCER MALIN S ÖDERBERG, MARKETING | F ILIP S IRC , MARKETING | NIKOO JORJANI , MARKETING MAGNUS E RIKSSON, ANALYTICS | M IKAEL B ERG , TECH AND DEVELOPMENT PONTUS A NEHÄLL, QA PROJECT COORDINATOR | LOKE N ORMAN, QA PROJECT COORDINATOR
TYRANNY LEADERSHIP
B RIAN H EINS , PROJECT LEAD | M ATTHEW S INGH, LEAD PRODUCER BRIAN M ENZE , ART DIRECTOR | M ATT M AC L EAN , LEAD NARRATIVE DESIGNER
SPECIAL THANKS TO J OE F RICANO
THANKS We’d like to thank the teams at Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive for all of their hard work and dedication in bringing the new world of Terratus to life. To our friends and f amily, thank you for your overwhelming support during the development of the game; we couldn’t have done it without you. To our fans, thank you for joining us yet again! We’re excited and thankful to be able to share the story of Kyros’ Tiers with all of you.
Kyros has no desire to rule an empty wasteland, nor would we wish to build a game with a colorless landscape for you to explore and conquer. When we embarked on Tyranny with the operative phrase “What if evil won?” in our minds, we knew we wanted a cast of evil villains that the player would have to work for and then most likely kill in some delightful fashion, and we knew world-shaping curses from some distant and calculating Overlord would be the big, devastating backdrop. With those principles in mind, a bleak, depressing art style might have been a tempting fit, but we also knew we wanted to make a game with a darkly optimistic tone — not a world where good will necessarily triumph in time, but a world where life goes on no matter how many times evil keeps doing what it does best. The Overlord’s Edicts gave us nearly limitless possibilities for treacherous, challenging landscapes. The lava-drenched lava-dren ched Burning Library and the storm-blasted storm-blasted landscapes landscapes of the Blade Grave we re born from some of the earliest pieces of concept art dreamed up by our art team. The world we sought to portray needed to be more than just ash and ruins: it needed to have life flourishing between the cracks of the epic devastation. And from this ambition came the ragtag settlements bristling betwee n the crags of t he St one S ea, and t he de nizen s of Lethi an’s Cr ossin g f indin g she lter in th e Matt MacLean, Lead Narrative shadow of the foreboding Oldwalls. Designer Tyranny’s isometric view makes for great RPG adventure, but it doesn’t let you pitch the camera up to see the true height of the Oldwalls, nor pitch it down to see the terrifying plunge from atop a Spire. Thankfully, this book is a chance to show you those landscapes zoomed out, to provide glimpses of characters and factions in their conceptual stages of growth, and to show you more of the rich world we’ve built for you to light on fire. While the world presented in Tyranny may be a terr ible place to r aise a f amily, it’s certa inly a won derfu l pl ace to be evil , adve nturo us, o r — ideally — both. We hope your sagas in Tyranny are as memorable and rewarding as creating this game has been for us.
—
MATT MACLEAN, LEAD NARRATIVE DESIGNER
“Tunon the Adjudicator is primarily a creature of law and reason. He is not a soldier and so does not wade into battle swinging his hammer. He is the Judge, Jury, and Executioner behind all things in the Tiers. We wanted him to always be in a higher position than everyone else in a scene to emphasize his position as the Adjudicator. This is why he stands on a pedestal of black smoke and floats while he moves.”
”Tunon’s mask was meant to convey a nonemotional approach to his judgment — he’s always stony-faced, not letting emotions get in the way of his rulings on Kyros’ Law.”
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“Graven Ashe is a general — a commander of military forces. He can engage in direct combat, but h e knows that a general’s place is to observe and direct his troops, not wade into the fray. When designing Graven Ashe, we wanted him to feel almost like a fortified castle, which is why all you see of him is his head peeking out above the fur-lined collar. It was important that at first glance you get the feel that you’re looking at an experienced war veteran, so we aged and scarred him.”
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“The Archon of Secrets known as the Voices of Nerat is the leader of the Scarlet Chorus army. Unlike Graven Ashe, he isn’t a regular military general: he’s more akin to the charismatic leader of a violent mob. He has absorbed the personalities and knowledge of several military leaders, giving him expertise to lead an army — but these personalities often have conflicting methods of conducting war. Nerat prides himself on his personal skills as a torture artist, mystic, and warrior. Though his work as Kyros’ spymaster revolves around convincing others to die for his purposes, the Archon is a fearsome combatant and finds de ep, personal satisfaction in the practice of bloodshed. We wanted him to appear crazy from first glance. We convey the idea that there are many personalities — or ”Voices” — in his head by having multiple faces on his helmet and weaponry.” “His helmet was inspired by Gemini from Thundarr the Barbarian, whose helmet spins as he talks.” PROCESS PIECES
“Bleden Mark is Kyros’ Assassin, bound to eliminate those who defy the Overlord’s will. At the beginning of the Conquest, Mark’s leash was given to Tunon the Adjudicator to enforce Kyros’ Law. Mark took this as a sign of disrespect and has chafed at Tunon’s rule ever since. We wanted Bleden Mark to encompass the feel of ancient magic, as if he’s from a different era. If there’s an ”Old Guard” to the Archons, Bleden Mark would be a part of it. We tried to convey an earthy, tribal appearance, reflected in his clothing and facial markings. Bleden Mark can strike anywhere at any time, and the commonfolk of the Tiers fear him as they would a ”boogeyman”: a shadowy enforcer dedicated to ending any treason against Kyros, whether deed or word. Fortunately for most commonfolk, their crimes are usually beneath the Archon of Shadow’s attention, for Bleden Mark’s attention is primarly focused on the Archons that refuse to bow to Kyros’ rule. Bleden Mark’s a veteran, professional assassin who’s lived for several centuries and spilled an immeasurable amount of blood, and he’s not very torn up about it. Cynical, roguish, and calculating, he’s an overall unconcerned and often unaffected person. He’s become bored with life but is looking for entertainment — namely in the form of the player, in whom he’s taken a special interest.”
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“By the time she was six years old, Sirin had already killed over 70 people. Granted, all of these deaths were accidents, but that just proves how powerful she truly is. Bl essed and cursed with the ability to control people with her voice, she inadvertently forced people to perpetrate some terrible act s before she learned how to control herself. Now fifteen, her tragic upbringing has left her defensive, scarred, and unwilling to trust anyone completely. To give Sirin the proper attitude in-game, we utilized the animation department to ensure Sirin stood and moved like the powerful-yet-vulnerable teenager she is. As the Songbird, we were visually playing up the idea of a bird as much as we could. You can see this throughout her design, starting with the feather motif on her dress. Her helmet was inspired by the flare of a peacock’s tail, as were the feather-like fabric pieces draping from her collar. The red stone on her forehead was originally intended to be a collar piece, but it was moved to her helmet for better visibility — the challenges of an isometric game.”
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“Barik is an elite Stone Shield (one of the Disfavored’s iron-clad warriors) fallen from favor and trapped in a suit of armor. He resembles a walking version of the Blade Grave: weapons and armor interlock, surrounding a human core. Imagine a walking, talking Iron Throne that serves as his mobile prison. Barik is sealed inside several sets of Disfavored and Unbroken armor. They are mystically fused to be his protection or prison — he himself is unclear which it is meant to be, or if meaning has anything to do with it. Barik is a true believer in the Disfavored legion, adoring their traditions and forgiving any and all flaws or hypocrisies his position invites.”
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“Verse is designed to give context to the Scarlet Chorus. She believes in the egalitarian promise of the Scarlet Chorus: that effort and merit are all that matter, birth and status be damned. She is a Scarlet Fury — one of the Scarlet Chorus’ elite fighters. Verse’s armor is a bit of a patchwork, because it is made up of pieces of her fallen sisters’ armor. You can see this in the different colors of leather that she uses. It’s a way of keeping pieces of her sisters with her at all times. Verse is the only survivor of a disgraced unit and, through some unknown means, is able to wield the weapons of her dead comrades with the same skill they once did, as if able to draw upon their training. Verse reads her opponents in combat — often sensing far more than where they will strike next or if they are considering a feint. Unable to reign in this eye for intention, Verse has a complicated relationship with violence, finding it enlightening, exhilarating, overwhelming, and violating all at once.”
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“We needed to visually differentiate Lantry from the other Sages you see in the game. To so do, we aged him, giving him a shock of white hair and a beard to make him very easily recognizable. After going through the events of the Vellum Citadel, Lant ry has suffered some damage. He’s burned, bandaged, and bruised compared to the other Sages you’ll encounter in the game, who are relatively well-kept. Lantry isn’t actually the oldest character in the game age-wise, but he is the oldest character in terms of being one of the earliest concepts on the project. Creating a game in a brand new world means bombarding the player with details, so it’s just good sense to make sure one of the characters in your party happens to genuinely enjoy being asked simple questions about history and current events. His look (and the look of the Sages as a whole) started around an avian theme, because much of the Sages’ work requires a good feather quill, something to carry a message across the mountains, and eggs, which make a great binding agent for ink.”
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“Kills-in-Shadow is a monster. She’s frightening and hairy. She stinks of wet animal and has an insatiable bloodlust for violence and slaughter. She’s also a clever hunter, and a brutish, skilled fighter. She is tenaciously loyal (unless, of course, sh e has sensed a weakness) to whomever she chooses to follow, whether that be her ruthless sister — Creeping-Death, who was the last leader of their tribe — or a human Fatebinder stronger than even the toughest of Beastwomen. As the last surviving Shadowhunter, she’s on a single-m inded hunt for blood and vengeance, and will not be satisfied until each and every Disfavored has been wiped from the Tiers.“
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“In our earliest plans for the game, we knew that we’d want one of the companions to be a representative of Tier’s culture: that they are a bronze-age, maritime people who are overly proud of their ”unvanquished” status (or so was the case before Kyros’ Archons invaded). We also wanted to make sure the Tiersmen weren’t the obvious good guys, but rather a group of people with their own bigotries, hatreds, and contradictions — and from this ”are you sure you want to rescue these people?” notion came Eb’s salty, abrasive personality. Eb is a water mage, so we could have gone the classic mage robe look, but that seemed tired and inappropriate for such a nomadic mage. To that end, we went with ship rigging as the visual hook for her look. You can see ship knots and ropes throughout her costume, and a unique use of a stingray as a cloak.”
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“We knew right away that we wanted to go with a stylized approach to our characters, initially taking our cues from Batman: The Animated Series, Hellboy comics, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.”
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“Player portraits went through many iterations before we decided on the final art style you see in the game today.”
“With each portrait, we wanted to reinforce the tattered nature of the player’s clothing — nothing is pristine in this war-torn world.”
“The Disfavored are one of the smallest of Kyros’ forces. Because of their elite nature, they do not accept everyone into their ranks. Every soldier was well-trained before joining the Disfavored. After joining, they must master the squad-based discipline of the Disfavored before they’re allowed to join any conflict. While their numbers are small, they are the most well-trained military force in in the known known world, world, with a reputation reputation as an unstoppable unstoppable military juggernaut that crushes all resistance. Much of this is due to the powers of the Archon, Graven Ashe, but it’s also due to the quality of the soldiers and their training. The overall look of the Disfavored was inspired by Ming the Merciless’ guards in the 1980s Flash Gordon film. They’re meant to look intimidating and strike fear into the hearts of an opposing army.”
“We wanted this helmet to look like flames coming from the mouth of a demon.”
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“The Scarlet Chorus is the largest of Kyros’ forces, mainly because the bulk of the army is made up of conscripted troops, outlaw gangs, the scum of prisons, and the insane. The goal of the Chorus is to inspire fear and overwhelm their opponents with sheer numbers. Voices of Nerat doesn’t care how many die in order to accomplish his goals. There are always more prisoners and many madmen left in the aftermath of his attacks, both of which make good new recruits to the Chorus. The only thing that keeps the Chorus in line is their collective fear of Nerat. The Scarlet Chorus is typically made up of conscripted people from the conquered areas of the world. All of their armors are meant to be pieced together from the various armies they’ve fought, or taken from the people that they’ve killed.” They are designed to look crazy, barbaric, and uncivilized — men and women who look like they will do anything to win. The red war paint is meant to symbolize the blood of past victims of battles won and raids completed.
“Their appearance was meant to look just as erratic as the appearance of Voices of Nerat, further signifying his insanity and chaotic ways.”
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“The Bronze Brotherhood are the last of the Free Cities mercenaries to survive Kyros’ invasion of the Tiers, which is something of a dubious distinction considering the Brotherhood survived the war by taking a contract with the enemy. Now the last of a centuries-old tradition, the warriors who make up the current company have no home under the new regime, and few friends amongst their own kind. As career warriors who take the study of violence quite earnestly, the Brotherhood worship and admire the Scourges. While sane human beings live in fear of these magical monsters, these sellswords find inspiration in the Scourges’ rage and tenacity, and you’ll see the Scourge face and talons used as visual elements in the Brotherhood’s weapons and armor.”
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“The nation of Stalwart has a proud military tradition, going so far as to name their citizen militia “the Unbroken” to boast of how they have never lost a war on their own home soil ... a boast Kyros’ forces intend to discredit. The Unbroken appearance is modeled after the other Tiersman factions (the chief detail being bronze armor), but with everything dirtied up and given touches of desert nomad fashion. This is because the vast majority of Unbroken whom the player will meet have been living life under the extreme conditions that the Edict of Storms has inflicted on their lands.”
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“When the realm of Apex fell to Kyros, the remnants of its most elite fighting force, the Vendrien Guard, refused to accept defeat. Composed of battle-hardened veterans and idealistic young adults too naïve to understand the meaning of hopelessness, the reborn Vendrien Guard are less a proper fighting force and more akin to a gaggle of desperate partisans. Kyros’ invasion of the Tiers is one of iron-age belligerents invading a weaker, bronze-age opponent, so it was important that the Vendrien Guard (being the player’s first introduction to the Tiersmen) showcase lots of bronze armor that contrasts with the iron of the Disfavored.”
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“Beastwomen do not think the same way that humans do. As wild, animalistic creatures, their experience of the world is extremely visceral and sensory-related. They consider themselves apex predators, and they take great pride and exhilaration in their ability to stalk and kill creatures of all types, humans sometimes included. However, they form strong emotional ties with their own kith, and will often express a range of complex, intense feelings within their speech, from thrill, to fury, to easy-going contentment.”
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“We wanted to convey a drab pallet for the poor, with the clothing becoming brighter and more garish as a person’s wealth increases. Nobles are the brightest because they can afford the dyes and expensive textiles in this world. Basic villagers have little in terms of patterns, layers, and accessories, due to their limited resources.”
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“We wanted some sort of non-human enemy for Tyranny, and we knew we didn’t want to use orc-like or zombie-like monsters, but something in stark contrast to the bipedal, generic human form. We went with a more ethereal look. We knew early on that we wanted different sub-species of ethereal monsters, each a different flavor of unsettling.”
“We wanted the weapons to feel like they fit into a Bronze Age world, but not be very culture-specific.”
“The world of the Tiers isn’t very advanced compared to ours, so we wanted to stick to a simple armor set — helmets, chestplates, shoulder guards, and greaves. This world is just beginning to leave the Bronze Age, so iron is extremely rare and valuable, and steel is unheard of. To help sell the time period, we wanted to make sure our armors did not look technologically advanced.”
“Here we wanted to encapsulate all of the visual pillars of our game — the world is war torn, magic is heightened, and there’s a long history of the world before the Overlord conquered the area. To help sell this, we included the statue of Queen Lycaereus weeping blood. The area is heavily shadowed to make sure that it’s clear from the opening environment that this is not a happy world.”
“The Spires are towering structures created by the same civilization that engineered the Oldwalls, and which has remained a mystery for all of recorded history. No one has ever seen the top of a Spire until the player gains access to the Spire in Vendrien’s Well. These Spires are tied to the magical energy generated by Belief and allow the player to begin issuing Edicts on the world.”
“We wanted to give a feeling of ancient technology and ancient civilizations through these Spires. These are objects that have been around much longer than the current civilizations in Tyranny. They have their own runes, design motifs, and shape language that differentiate them from the rest of the world.”
“The nation of Stalwart was once a proud country with a powerful army known as the Unbroken. Now, nation and army are no more, and the area is a rust-filled wasteland known as the Blade Grave. A massive tornado rages in the center of the region, spreading out rust storms in random directions for miles and miles. While it is commonly believed that Kyros’ Edict created the storms that displaced the armies and formed the Blade Grave, nobody truly understands how the storms sustain themselves or where the soldiers went. Within this wasteland, opportunistic scavengers mine the old battlefields for scrap, and local Rebel groups clash with Kyros’ forces in a show of defiance. This particular scene was our visual target during pre-production. We wanted to hit our core pillars of war-torn areas, heightened magic, and grand scale.”
“The Blade Grave is a scarring of the earth on a massive scale; it’s a huge stretch of land devastated by magical forces. The idea behind the visuals here was to convey blasts of power that solidified the earth into a horizontal tornado of destruction — fusing the armors of the fallen enemy army into the ground spikes.”
“A small trading settlement before Kyros’ invasion, the discovery of iron in the nearby mountains turned Lethian’s Crossing into a center of commerce. This independent settlement was built against the Oldwalls abutting the Sunset Spire. Though an outpost of humble origins, it has since grown into one of the premiere trade centers of the Tiers, prized by merchants that prefer to conduct business beyond the reach of royal decrees. The prominent Spire acts as a beacon for travelers and traders alike. Being that our world is war torn and devastated, this is as large of a city that we wanted to portray in the game so that we would never display prosperity throughout the world. These aren’t the typical big cities you see in RPGs, and these people are poor and beaten down.”
“The Burning Library was formerly known as the Vellum Citadel. During Kyros’ Conquest, the great Citadel was reduced to an inhospitable sea of liquefying masonry. Undamaged in the miasma of fire: the books. Though their pages burned, they did not blacken, crisp, or crumble. Floating on rivers of molten shelving, the books bore the thousand-degree heat thanks to the ancient Sorcery that protected the written word. While protected from the direct ef fects of flame, many texts were physically displaced in the chaos. Scrolls and loose pages not properly weighed down became airborne embers, borne aloft by the warm air to the surrounding regions — sparking a thousand small fires in those areas.”
“When we came up with the original design of the Burning Library, we wanted it to be an actual, functioning citadel. The first step was to create the floor plan for it in the editor and then to destroy it, to make the levels you see in-game. Working with our artists, we took the parts of the building that were below the main floor and actually rendered them in the scene so we could put effects and lighting on them to make them look right. If you reconstructed the building from the pieces in-game (plus a few that were lost to the volcano), you could see how the library looked before the Edict destroyed it.”
“The Stone Sea takes its name from the shifting tectonics that occurred as jutting pillars smashed up through the ground and sinkholes appeared in the wake of Kyros’ Edict of Storms. The Edict has turned this realm, once a fertile expanse of rolling plains, into a jagged wilderness, causing massive pillars and plateaus to erupt from the surface ... and causing other parts of the ground to fall away. The Stone Sea is home to roving tribes of Beastmen, who have been instructed to surround and isolate formerly rebellious communities in the area. These communities stood firm against the armies and, while brave, Kyros has left them to ’stand their ground, even if the ground wouldn’t stand with them.’”
“One of our goals with the Stone Sea was to create an area with a great sense of verticality, immensity, and hardness. The region predominantly features kicked-up grit, craggy bluffs, and steep drop-offs that embody the perilous nature of traversing the war-torn Tiers. Once a rolling landscape of winding rivers and fertile plains known as Azure, the realm has since been utterly ravaged by a series of devastating tectonic shifts and magical ecological transmutations in the name of Kyros’ conquest.”
“Vendrien’s Well was once a frontier outpost of the Northern Empire, and the size and scale of the structure should raise eyebrows in players’ minds that such an “outpost” says a great deal about the scope and size of what a true fortification must be in the Northern Empire. In the Conquest, many soldiers being driven from the north and east found refuge in the citadel and became part of the famed Vendrien Guard. They fought fiercely, with no place to retreat to. In a series of bloody battles, the Well was broken once, twice ... and, just before the Conquest, it rose up a third time, the remaining Vendrien Guard casting out the Disfavored occupiers. We really wanted to reiterate that the people of this world aren’t as sophisticated in their technology and architectural advancements as those in our world. So you’ll notice that the stones of the walls aren’t evenly cut, and overall the buildings are crudely made.”
“Named for its position between two realms (the Northern Empire and the Southern Tiers), the Bastard City (and its surrounding lands, known as the Bastard Tier) is a melting pot of cultures, and a place of commerce and intrigue. The Tiersmen of the south view the Bastard City as a place of wealth and excess; to the people of the Northern Empire, however, the Bastard City is little more than a sprawling slum. Tunon the Adjudicator established his Court i n the Bastard City. From this foothold in the Tiers, he and his Court of Fatebinders impose Kyros’ laws upon the conquered land.”
“Tunon’s Court, like the Archon that inhabits it, was designed to look regal but unsettling. Tunon maintains the veneer of an orderly environment, but the shadowy pits that flank the hall’s petitioners remind us that a cruel end is but one judgment away. In many ways, the court is an effective metaphor for life under Kryos’ rule: society appears well-governed and stable, so long as you ignore the gaping abyss that can swallow you at any moment.”
“The Oldwalls are one of the most enigmatic elements in Tyranny and were always meant to b e imposing, ancient spaces that raised more questions than they answered. When concepting the space, we tried to find ways to impart a deliberate creepiness to the area. Elements like the eerie, unnatural lighting, the maze-like construction, and the ritualistic decorations in the chambers were intended to convey a felt-but-unexplained purpose. The Oldwalls are indeed old, and they house many secrets.”
“The Oldwalls were meant to feel maze-like, almost like an M.C. Escher drawing, in that the player and the dead that reside within could feel lost once they’ve gone inside, trapped in a never-ending maze. The interior of the Oldwalls is massive compared to what the player is able to walk through in game. To portray this to the player, we made backgrounds to show multiple levels of the Oldwalls that are inaccessible. The player is never meant to know how high up they are inside the walls.”
“Here you can see a variety of concepts for areas that we were considering using, but which didn’t make it into the final game.”
“Greek and Roman drawings were the inspiration behind the cinematic and Conquest imagery. We added color to the drawings, rather than just going with the original monochromatic style. It’s sort of an amalgam between the stylization of the game and the Greek and Roman pottery drawings and stained glass windows.”
“Because the art style is kind of flat — like paper cut outs — the challenge was to keep things interesting. We did this by creating interesting and challenging compositions.”
“The challenge with these was figuring out how to make a dynamic composition that could be reused to display all of the possible choices that the player can make at the end of Act II, while making them unique enough to feel different.”
“For these we needed to pick a composition that would show off the Spires, but which would also work from a middle-ground perspective to show off both Edicts that affect the ground and the sky. It was challenging to depict a very vertical object from a horizontal aspect ratio. Figuring out the dominant colors in each piece to make them distinct from one another was another challenge. We wanted the colors to thematically represent the Edicts, rather than directly represent them. We reinterpreted them in a way that worked for a 2D stylized image.”
“We also tried to reuse as many parts as possible, to allow for all of the possible faction combinations.”
“These cinematic slides were also one of the places where we were able to ’get gory.’ Even though we were using b righter colors, the overall imagery was rather dark.”
“Developing a believable world requires using every opportunity to bring it to life, which is why we chose to use the Conquest illustrations as a means to show what kind of art the people in the world of Tyranny might be creating.”
“A hieroglyphic approach reflects how they, the denizens of Tyranny, haven’t yet reached the point at which we, in the real world, began to understand perspective drawing.”
”Art from the Bronze Age sometimes takes the form of symbols or pictographs, with some cultures utilizing almost stamp-like repetition. In the same vein, we used repeating elements where possible, be it in figures or patterns.”
”These tight, noisy patterns (and emphasis on line art and color) evoke comic book half-tones: another source of inspiration for Tyranny’s art style.”
“A favorite challenge was finding a way to abstract the figures so that they had the simplicity and stiffness of a pictograph, but also the flexibility to be posed whatever way we needed to keep the illustrations from becoming repetitive.”
