So we began experimenting, which eventually led to all the images below. It’s not because it’s simple, that we can’t make it look more special, time to step up our game! This was due to two reasons: firstly, African feudal architecture was mainly mud-based, which has functionality over aesthetics, but secondly is because we made it look simple. The shape was right, but the building looked a lot more simple than the buildings currently in the game. Feudal Market V1 shows the market prior to our block-building analysis and V2 shows the revamped version with proper AoE2 proportions. A lot of improvements were made as you can see on the images below. This time we focused hard on the Feudal Age set. Now we had the basic shapes, we could start modelling again. Back to the drawing boards, where we analyzed the existing sets to turn all buildings into basic blocks. Although the market was “roughly” following the proportions of the existing markets, it wasn’t close enough, and it felt like the buildings stood out too much. All buildings in Age of Empires II have their characteristic shapes and sizes. However, we made a big mistake, which we didn’t notice right away. We jumped into our modelling software and came up with the following models: Time to turn this pencil & paper artwork into digital models. Secondly, it’s a big building with a lot of variety, which helps us define that proper style. First of all, the market is a building that changes in all ages, so we can use its style and texture as a base for the rest of the buildings. Time for concept art! We started with the market as our first building.
So we had to make a “generic African” set, which is not something that exists. However, here we met our first challenge: we’re not making a set just for the Malians, we’re having them share their set with another African civ.
The first task is to find pictures of existing African buildings, we gathered hundreds of pictures of Northern African architecture. Time to brush off our 3D modelling software! References & Concept Art The Italian set was masterfully photoshopped from the Middle Eastern set (with some exceptions) but we wanted to go the extra mile for the African set. Looking back at the new architecture sets introduced in Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, we knew we had to step up our game. New civilizations also mean… new buildings! And we were presented with a big plate of fresh challenges.
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