Climbing the Volcano (Fire Zone previews and the making of) (Patreon)

To recap, the fire zone is based on Pompeii in concept and set in the rocky surrounds of an active volcano. I mean where better to set up a town, right?!

So James and I started off with a pretty crude hand drawing of a layout based on the story elements and deciding on what is needed to fit in with the various quests we've planned out.

The bottom gives you some idea of scale of some very crude tiles I hand drew and repeated the pattern, mainly so we could get that sense ourselves. There are some key locations, like the Goddess status, the amphitheater and alike that we jotted down to ensure we've thought through all the elements.

Then, someone with some actual talent takes over and sketched over the top with the volcano head itself, and things like that base cave (which you can see in Taps of Eradine) again gives you an idea of just how enormous this volcano actually is.

We then agreed on some sketches and concepts for the houses, again really heavily influenced by some Pompeii documentaries! If you have time, check out the Sex in Pompeii History Channel documentary on YouTube as its a fascinating watch, so long as you ignore the cheesy cutscenes!

You can see we have a few variations and discussing the events in the various buildings helped come up with the types we needed here

Last but not least are the finished pieces. I'm a huge believer its the little touches that make all the difference and avidly encourage the detailing on these buildings, like the marble engraving of the entrance and little cherub-style roof touches.

I hope you agree it's definitely worth the extra effort to create a truly stunning zone. Next up is the animated statues, and some other elements found in the zone, then a full map preview!

PS. Massive thank you for the influx of new supporters, and your continued support!

PPS. The latest build of the public PC demo for the intro is with me and is painfully close to release ready. Just one major showstopper stopping an early access release and then our first full public showing since the artwork overhaul.