If you read our last post, we ended up with the Necromancer's concept art finished and ready to start the modeling process. To summarize, this is the image I am talking about:

Once we have the concept stage finished (that was fully explained here), it is the turn for our CG-artist to start working on giving shape to the new Archmage.

For this, there is a workflow that could be different depending on what is going to be modeled and the programs used by each artist. In this case, we chose to work from a meta-sphere base created with our sculpting program.

Once we have created our primitive model, we start sculpting with a system that allows us to freely change the model's morphology while we work, with no polygon restrictions. With this technique, we can dynamic retopology as we go. Its similar to clay modeling.

In this case, texture painting has been created with vertex color, that will lately be printed according to the low poly model's map thanks to the Xnormal software.

This is how the vertex color looks like:

Once the high poly model is ready, the next step is retopology, meaning to create a low poly model from the actual one, that may have up to several millions of polygons, because hardly any engine would move that huge polycount size.

As soon as we have the low poly model, we unfold the mapping to extract all the information from the high poly model: normal maps, high maps, cavity maps, occlusion maps, etc. That process is similar to peel the polygon skin that is the model itself.

Take a look at how many maps can use a character like this one. Did you ever thought they could be so many?

In the next image, you can see the result of applying all the maps to the low poly model.

And this is the final result:

What do you, guys, think? Would you choose this character as your main Archmage? We really love him, and are willing to see him in action, summoning demons (spoiler: we are already working in some drawings for its main summons!).

We really hope that you have enjoyed our post. It has been a pleasure to share it with you and remember that you can follow our project at this link from Steam Greenlight Concepts, where we publish all the details and try to answer all you questions about Archmagia. If you liked, and you have an Steam account, don't forget to favorite us, to be updated with all the news.

The Archmagia team

For those of us working in arts, it is well-known that a good concept requires a lot of effort and many attempts: the artist needs to learn to say good bye to a lot of ideas that doesn't fit properly in the project's needs. For they not dying away into silence, we've decided to show you some concept art that was discarded during the brainstorming stage.

After a bunch of ideas, finally we found the new Archmage. What blew our minds the most was the face design (take a look in the previous gallery, fourth picture, third character). It had something original and catchy, so the first step was to ask Adrián to detail the face features so we could properly see what he had imagined. This was the result:

Now that we have a definitive character, the next step was to do some clothing test to find out the style for our new Archmage. Here you can see Adrían's work. As you will appreciate, the customizable "soul lamps" and shoulders are also approached. They are the two interchangeable items that our Archmage will use.

And finally, these are the clothes we've decided to go with. Here you can see them, together with some details of hands and feet:

Now that we finally have our Necromancer ready, everything starts moving faster. Adrián is working in an action pose while Elias is studying colors and materials. These were some of our tests:

As we already told you, our new Archmage has two customizable items: the "soul lamp" and his shoulders. Both objects will provide different abilities, power ups or new spells, so it is essential to choose them wisely prior any combat. Take a look at some of the "soul lamps" drawings that Adrián made.

This is the action pose Adrían was working on. A much more elaborated pose, with our Necromancer in the middle of a summon.

Finally we joined our final character with the chosen color set and this is the result. With it, we immediately put our hands on 3d modeling. But it will be shown in the next post. We don't want to unveil everything at once! What I guarantee you is that the wait will worth it and that the result (in our humble point of view) is incredible!

Once more, we really hope you have enjoyed our post. It has been a pleasure to write it. In a very few days, we will post every detail in the Necromancer modeling process, so if you don't want to miss it, suscribe to our blog! You can use the form in the top right margin of the page.

Don't forget that you can also follow us on Facebook and Google+ and we also have a Steam Concepts project that we would love you to follow.

The Archmagia team.

The character we would like to write about today is a steampunk culture representative, a man whose force raises from a synergy with mystical powers, channeled through a variety of technological systems. These systems allowed him to become a hero from a simple mortal, and fight for his class in this apocalyptic duel of archmages.

As we wrote previously, we had already the final concept. It may not be very detailed, but it is enough to start with the 3d modeling.

In this simple concept, we can see how the character owns a pair of fundamental mechanical elements: the cannon backpack and the robot arm. As we already explained during the Rune Carver modeling process, this elements were modeled separated from the character, so we could replace them later during the game and allow you to customize your Archmage with unlockable skins.

For this character, we started creating the 3D model with a sculpting program, in such a way that an important part of the conceptual work was done directly over the high polygonization model.

We can see in the gallery above that the character was not fully defined from the beginning, as he was wearing several items, like a strange top hat or a big medallion around the neck.

This doesn't mean that the concept drawing was unnecessary, in fact, once we got the idea a bit clearer, we started to create the concept art, to define how was the character going to be, what clothes would he wear and what colors would use. This would be useful later for painting and texturing the model.

The arm was one of the most difficult parts to model, taking into account how detailed it was. Although everything was modeled at the same time, this mechanical arm will be interchangeable inside the game. The player will be able to choose from several alternatives that he will earn after battling long enough This will introduce an strategic component and it will allow customized Archmages.

In later blog posts, we will see how this arm will work and to deal with animations and visual effects. By now, we will have to settle seeing the result of the modeling process.

Now that our high polygonization model is ready, we start with the  retopology process (to create a model with a reasonable amount of polygons so we are able to move it with a real time engine). First step is to unwrap the mapping for texturing.

This time, I chose to texture in an external painting tool, so I could use all the detail extracted from the high poly model to guide me when drawing every part of the body.

Although the material of the character contains additional maps, the normal map and the color map have most of the job done.

And finally, the definitive result! Our model is ready to begin the next stage and come to life.

As we always say, if you enjoyed this post, please share it on social networks and help us to spread the word! If you want us to let you know when new material is added, type your email in the right side form and we will send you an email every time we update the blog.

Thank you for your time. We hope you had a great time!

The Many-Worlds team

After a crazy end of the year and the release of our first gameplay video, we are very excited about the path that Archmagia is taking. We now aim to grow our supporting community and show Archmagia to the world. With this idea, we have created an Steam Greenlight Concept to show our work.

If you are a Steam user and you like what we are doing here, we invite you to visit it and rate us positively. You might even follow and favorite us!

Thank you very much, 2014 promise to be a great year for Archmagia.

The Many-Worlds team

We need to clarify that this footage only intend to show the general way the game will look. This doesn't mean that things can't change anymore. In fact, they will probably do. The user interface was designed very fast, and it has shown to be very inefficient, so we need to simplify it. 

Yo will only see a couple of creatures (one for each faction) and a couple of spells. It was enough to test the spell and summoning system. There will be more. The same applies to custom items. Just a couple of them for each archmage, and a lot to come.

Anyway, this is a great advance, and we are very excited about the current status of the project. The next challenge is to add some multiplayer action. we are now working on it. As always, we will keep you updated!

If you look what you see, help us spreading the word. We need as many supporter as we can get if we really want Archmagia to become real. This is our Facebook fan page. Please like us on Facebook to support our development and feel free to share any comments or thoughts.

Enjoy!

The Many-Worlds team.

Remember to click on each picture to get a detailed view!

Enjoy!

The Many-Worlds team.

Last week, we showed up our preliminary work on our first environment: the Ancient Mines. After integrating it in Unity3D, we realized that it didn’t fit our needs, so we started over again with a new approach: a cleaner scenery with more space for the summons, and an interesting strategic component. We have been working on it for several weeks, and it is ready.

This week, we bring you a video about how our new environment has been developed. We have also integrated several of our units on it, so you can finally take a look at how the game is really going to look like. We wanted to take the chance to share it with you and get your comments.

Would you like to take a look at the concept artwork drawing? The next video illustrates the process.

Here you can take a look at some Unity3D captures showing our work progress at the scenery set-up:

The spell system is in an advanced state of development, at least the basics. In the video you will also be able to see some tests about how spells can interact with Unity 3d’s clothes system.

There is still a lot to do: 

• Our CG artist is currently working on the user interface design, 
• we are also working on adding advanced features to the spell system,
• and finally, regarding to criature design, we have great news to be confirmed along next week, with the incorporation to our team of a great character designer that will bring some new fresh air and great ideas to Archmagia.
  

Please, stay tuned to discover all this great novelties! Remember that you can subscribe to our blog by using the Feedburner form in the right column. You can also follow us on Facebook and Google+. Share your comments with us!

Enjoy!

The Many-Worlds team

Some additional images about the process:

Technomancers are the second class of powerful Archmages that can be found in Archmagia. They use Archmagia to create steam-powered devices, robotic creatures, nano-machinery, and other high-tech weapons and equipment.

By using steam-powered technology together with Archmagia, the Technomancer is able to cast such spells as:

• Brain hacks: increases how much it costs their adversary to cast a spell 
• Nanohealers: heal the Technomancer
• Proximity Mines: explosive devices that remain hidden until some unwary creature walks on them.
• Cobalt Armor: to increase target summon's [A1] defense, 
• Icarus Wings: to give the target summon the ability to fly, 
• Sensor Array[A2] : allows the Technomancer to detect invisible creatures

They also have the ability to build (and summon) steam-powered devices and creatures such as the:

• Surgical droid: heals friendly units deployed over the battle field,
• Machine gun turret: capable of firing at several enemies in the same turn,
• Steam mech: a fearsome biped fighter, capable of crushing their enemies,
• Mechanical Spider: It is equipped with a potent, debilitating venom, and is able to cast a web to immobilize prey.
• Battle Drone: flying explorer unit, with high mobility and optical camouflage,
• Crystal Sniper: a terrible adversary. Invisible to the naked eye, it is capable of shooting targets from long distances.

Mechanical Arm

Thanks to their technological advances, Technomancers have been able to enhance their bodies in several ways. One of the most important improvements is mechanical arms. The mechanical implant replaces the original arm when they are still children, so that they get used to it over the following years. When the initiation [A1] takes place, their mechanical arm feels just like the original one.

Technomancers can choose between a large collection of mechanical arms, each one having different abilities and strengths. Some of them are weapons, while others grant a defensive bonus or store a spell. It is important for the Technomancer to choose the appropriate mechanic arm for each challenge.

Electronic Warfare Tactical Biointerface

Every Technomancer has the option of being equipped with a tactical electronic warfare system, which is physically integrated into their neural system. These type of devices are placed in the back of the body, like backpacks, and they are integrated with the organism through connections to the spinal cord. There is an infinite number of versions of this system, and each one of them has different tactical attacking or defensive advantages.

Some bio-interfaces might create a fog to hide the Technomancer; others could carry a couple of lasers to be used against the enemies of the Technomancer; even their high-tech backpack could include a mechanism to deploy an energy shield to protect the Technomancer from damage over a certain period of time. With all the technology available to them, anything and everything is possible!    

With all of these ideas, our CG team started work in order to bring to us the following concept of the Technomancer:

We really hope you'll be as excited about Technomancer, the new Archmagia class, as we are. In a few days, we are going to show you the complete 3D modeling process (high-pol, low-pol, texturing, etc.). And remember, if you don't want to miss a post, then make sure you subscribe to the blog – the way to do this is by clicking on the form in the right hand column.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends! 

The Many-Worlds Team

Yesterday we published a new thread at the Unity forum, inside the Work in Progress section. This forum is very important at professional level, and it is a great place to show all the work being done with Unity.

Our plan is to keep posting on this development diary and also publish some fresh updates from time to time on this new thread. This updates will be related to Unity 3D and how we use it to develop Archmagia. Anyway, you are of course invited to go there, take a look at it and give us your opinion in a more professional environment.

By the way, a little secret: we have included in this thread some brand new material not shown here yet!

This is the link to the thread. Yo may go there too by clicking on the Unity logo. Please remember to share your opinion after reading it!

Enjoy!

The Many-Worlds Team