Vikings: Valhalla
Vikings Valhalla is a base-builder game for mobile using Netflix's Vikings IP.
We were able to deliver a mobile game that looked like it could be a PC game; something we were all proud of. Not only that, but the project ran exceedingly smoothly, even though we were developing new workflows and tools for large portions of it.
Role: Lead Environment Artist
-worked closely with Alex Soria to develop tools for the maps and buildings.
-found reference, greyblocked, modelled, and painted the landscapes
-worked with Design to ensure the layout worked for gameplay
-worked with Narrative to ensure the landscapes fit their story
-modelled and textured buildings along with Gesy
-modelled and textured props along with an influx of artists later in the project
-oversaw prop production when several artsts were lent to us
-provided feedback and ensured quality of assets
-placed/composed everything in the scene
-prepared scenes for export
-ensured we were within budget
Gesy Bekeyei worked with me on Buildings
Zehra Khan was responsible for the foliage
Alex Soria was our technical artist
Mike Mccartie was our concept artist
Tony Tsang was the Art Director
https://www.artstation.com/mrgesy
https://www.artstation.com/zehrakhan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmccartie/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandre-soria-314594a7/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/silentt/
You might think you're looking at Age of Empires IV, but no, this is Vikings Valhalla :-)
As far as maps went, we had about six unique ones. A couple each in modern day Denmark, England, and Norway respectively.
We were able to create additional variety by introducing seasons, times of day, and weather conditions (not to mention architectural styles).
The ground plane was layered, using four textures, and employing height map information for blending between them.
Rather than vertex painting the blending I was able to paint directly on the mesh in Unity and export a 4-channel texture.
Real-time shadows are expensive for mobile, so for any non-destructible buildings and props on the map I'd paint in the shadows.
Again, this could be done directly in-engine, so it was really handy.
Here's an example of how the same scene can look quite different based on the time of day and weather conditions.
Sunny day for this one
Sunset
Night time
and typical foggy rainy North Sea weather
Thor statue
We used standard PBR texturing on this project for anything with a unique texture.
Weathered
Longship
Most of our buildings were built using trim sheets, like these ones. We did bake AO in a second UV channel, which got multiplied onto the objects later.
We used the remaining channels of that second texture to paint in a Grime map and Moss map.
Each building was upgradable, and here are examples of the what the different tiers look like.
This Great Hall is an example of one of the destructible buildings. You can see the cuts in the LP roof showing where it's going to cave in.
We also had to paint a burn mask to show how fire spread over time.
