We have nearly made it through the concept phase of all of the races and the designs of the equipment for each gender. At this point, you’ve had a chance to see almost all of the core archetypes in previous playtests. Now that we are coming up on the remaining few, expect to start seeing these gender variants come online as well!
Character customization is crucial for players to create an identity that they can connect with in-game. It’s been very important to us here on the Crowfall® team to give you all a sense of choice when creating yours.
Here’s a first look at concepts for the male Assassin and Druid archetypes along with some insight about how we approached the look for each.
MALE ASSASSIN
Son of Fae, half-breed and destined to be killed upon birth. His mother betrayed her kind to save his life, and as a result he’s grown up without a family, without a tribe, and has survived by any means necessary. Living in the shadows, he slinks through the darkness and kills without remorse, taking what he wants. He is the Assassin.
The Assassin is our fastest archetype. His gear needs to allow him to move swiftly and quietly to sneak up on his enemies and kill them without a sound. Since the male Assassins were not raised with their sisters, their gear would not have been made by the same craftspeople or have the same cultural inspirations. For that reason, we wanted the designs to reflect a more rogue-like quality instead of their Fae heritage. They grew up as outcasts and would naturally want to hide themselves from the world as much as possible. We gave them hooded helms so they could remain shrouded in mystery. Lurking in the shadows would conceal his black wings. By the time you recognized him for what he was, you’d already be dead.
MALE DRUID
The Druids are the healers in the Dying Worlds. Mother Gaea is dead and the Druids can do nothing to heal the worlds themselves. They attempt to slow down death for their brothers and sisters as they fight the immortal Hunger and will, in turn, take the life of any enemy that stands in their way.
The Druid equipment was designed to reflect this life and death cycle. We chose to use more organic elements to show a connection with the natural world and with the goddess Gaea. Bone is fashioned and used much like plate armor. It’s also indicative of death and decay. Fur and hardened leather reflect his connection to the living beasts of the worlds, as if he was being reborn a bear. Leaves, vines and scaled bark reflect the rebirth and growth that the Dying Worlds once experienced each spring, now only witnessed in the Eternal Kingdoms.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these swappable pieces are in addition to customization options: hair, skin tone, hair color, and material colors on the clothing and armor itself.
Remember, each individual piece of armor covers different areas of the body and offers different levels of protection/resistance versus the different damage types: physical (slash, piece, blunt, bleed), organic (poison, disease, plant) and elemental (fire, cold, lightning). The armor pieces can be mixed and matched, as well, allowing you to pair scale gloves with a leather hauberk and a plate helm.
We hope you like what you see and as always, please feel free to leave feedback for the Art team. Exciting things are coming your way soon, so keep your eyes open for more examples of this in the future!
Thanks,
Mellissa Preston
Art Director, ArtCraft Entertainment