Announcement Interview with our Lead Artist Mabruk – Post here your questions!

Dear heroes of Dracania,

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Mabruk, our Lead Artist, will feature in our next Dev Diaries series on our Youtube channel. Do you want to know how we create the monsters that you encounter in your adventures? Do you have specific questions for the animators or the concept artists? Are you interests in the visuals of Drakensang Online and would like to know how they came to life?

Then this is your chance!! Please post here any question you may have for Mabruk and some of them will be answered during our next interview!

Remember: a Lead Artist does not take care of game core dynamics but the in-game visuals (from early sketching and concept to realization).

You can ask how hard was for them to stage the whole Balor battle, for instance, but please do not complain here about the boss drop.
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Best regards,
Your Drakensang Online Team

 

Please tell us about frame rates, details about attack speed and movement speed as it relates to animation flow, how many animations it takes for 1 player/minion, how many animations in a battle or pvp scene, number drawings in average set, how you achieve 3-D effects, view angle, server size required per player, minimum requirements for DSO on player side (computer speed, graphics, etc.), size of department, etc.

Also, so many dungeons are now just too dark; not spooky, only ugly and awkward. Can you let the players determine the lighting level? Let us turn our player highlight off, or let us choose aura colors?

 

Your wish may well be granted sooner than you thought... Keep an eye on the patchnotes in a week or two.

 

I know this has been been addressed before, but in my opinion the changes that were made were still not enough. I am talking about the physical appearances of male and female characters. I feel that the differences between them are really subtle to detect, especially when DSO keeps the face of characters hidden/concealed or zoomed out and too small too see most of the time. Also the armors of male and female characters look very very similar, which makes it that much harder to spot the difference.

Would it be possible to further increase the femininity of female characters? By this I think you should primarily focus on the female versions of armors and gears instead of the female character body.

 

Roadmap - October. Feature#2

 

If it's possible can he gives us some tips or video classes, specially about color theory and pencils (I know I am asking too much), I must admit I am big fan of your DSO concept art.

How did you créate the protectors or guardians? I see some resemblance with the Toltec and Mayan culture in them. but they also look like a mixture between mesoamerican and indian cultures.

Edit--

Also I believe it would cool to have some official wallpaper from you guys, i have seen pósters of DSO in every twitch, perhaps you can share some of those concepts with the players

thanks!!!

 

Hi Mabruk,

Hope you are doing well. Well, what I have to ask may have some game dynamics involved as well. I am not too familiar with technical knowhow's of game desigining so forgive me for random questions. So here goes:

I know this game has a background, theme and scenery heavily inspired by one of the market leading games out there. Personally though I have played that game and didn't like it.
Coming to topic, Drakensang backgrounds and settings sometimes like the waterfalls in some maps, the graphics in the latest maps, the background everything is super beautiful. I understand that the story demands such a setting, but since the team is planning further expansions, can we at somepoint get out of the dark and dreary atmosphere in some of the maps and go into hard maps or end game maps which are more vibrant,energetic, brilliant in scope? The cradle of life map, cradle of frost, oceanus's opal shrine are good examples. cradle of life map is a very beautiful map and the idea of using a stepped slope for gameplay is quite nice along with the vibrant colours.. The cradle of death is nice too, only if it had a more engaging environment, it would be supercool. We shouldnt be able to stride around in the place where souls pass and where the shrine of the God of Death is, without having a random soul tug our feet during crucial battle or having random drainage of hp or somethings which would make us feel, no this place is for the dead. Currently we could just as easily have coffee with the protectors inside there or the dead bodies of the protectors if they don't like coffee

Well if I dont write what I imagine in points my post will become too long so:

1> See if vibrant maps with more interactive environment would work for the next expansion. Instead of only green lush fields also introduce deserts, open air huge broken castles, even if green sceneries, then trees(not only trunks like that of the ranger skill) which suddenly turn into moving monster trees, volcano slopes, underwater maps, floating air islands etc can be introduced into the game. This would also need underwater game mechanics and air mechanics like flying bird mobs and bird rides. Even the map eternal (? sorry forgot the full name) where the entrance to sigris is can be remade into a more vibrant, larger map, with more vibrant ice fields and blizzards The cradle of frost, fire are very good maps, more feel from the environment would bring the maps alive. If its possible to make those environments more interactive like the ice blizzards really push the character and slow them, the desert slows them, the feet can be seen getting stuck, and also there are random sandstorms and quicksand, traps in the broken castle, deep quarters etc, it would be supercool.

2> If possible please introduce periodic cinematics along with good sound when new events occur. Say the sudden appearance of a random boss, death of a boss, entry into special maps, beautiful maps, huge towns etc. Since this would become time consuming when farming a map, also give us an option to turn the cinematics off for those who dont want to waste time when grinding. Looking at a beautiful town/castle/scenery just from an isometric point of view always becomes boring after a point, also each time I fight a boss or mob I feel like I am inside a square if you understand what I mean.

3> Just Jumping within a flat plain is boring, There are many beautiful views when you stand of edge of maps like edge of herald chamber, edges of maps like pos, liar's lair etc, would it be possible to take the game to a next level with a earned ability to climb walls or jump across diff edges, eg: like the way balor climbs up the edge to join us on the arena, we could also do the same, infact make the environment active here too so that slips cause death in the middle of an important quest. (we have to really observe the surface and place our next step). (Imagine if balor slipped while climbing up...would be hilarious)

Well I dont know you are the right person to answer all my queries, but I would love if all teams of drakensang could work together to make the game more beautiful, vibrant, and engaging. Make the environment play a more important part than just new players breaking random woodwork outside swerfield gates.

 

Hello,

not sure if this question of the level designer, but maybe sometimes the dungeon sketches are made by the art team before forwarded to the 3D team.

When sketching a concept for a dungeon/map layout, why are they so unproportionate. What I mean is that when you start clearing the map, you have to go back through cleared path to reach the next populated area. Example is Mount Sivius.
Temple Sector is really good linear map except that you still have to pass through few cleared coridors.

What are your thoughts on more linear maps, and why maps arent sketched more like Halls of the Dead layout?

 

Mabruk, I'm not sure you have anything to do with this, but the one COMPLETE failure in the graphics art area is the mouse pointer. All the amazing visuals and effects during battle completely saturate and obscure the teeny wheeny step child of a mouse pointer that gets no love from all those skills you guys obviously own. It has been a player complaint for YEARS and never gets any attention from anyone with the means or interest to fix it. How 'bout some love for the overworked but totally ignored mouse pointer. You can do an easy search and find many threads with ideas for improvement.

 

If you have questions for the lead artist Mabruk please post them here, but please do not reply the other players.

Cheers.

 

Hi, Mabruk. As with the mouse pointer, sometimes it is hard to see the area maps. Depending on the color of the landscape (usually when light-colored, like in snowy areas), the map's pale white outline virtually blends into what's behind it. Try other colors (pale yellow? neon orange?), to see what contrasts best against a variety of backgrounds.

 

Just short question... why are so many maps so dark?

One of the things that I enjoy is wandering around in a (cleared) map looking at the various art work. One of my favorites is Dragon Caverns and their waterfalls. However, if they were to be as dark as some of the new maps it wouldn't be as enjoyable. I remember the first time I came to Atlantis Above Water and was so pleasantly surprised to see it so bright and airy. It was a needed change after feeling like I was becoming a mole....buried underground all the time, yearning to see the sun.

 

Thank you for the wonderful world you have created.

I have reached Thunder Crest and can not but wonder why would one introduce industrial junk map - in a magic world?