El Dorado 2nd Anniversary w/Lead Modeler Edward

“Something I really enjoyed working on was the monkey headed statues, which were done early to explore the style that we wanted to go for with the level, looking at what we could push in what directions and why. We also made use of some new and experimental systems with this level on the art and modelling side. Things that would allow us to age and weather the rocks and sculptures more easily and quickly, along with internal tools that we could use to create "moss clumps" in our style on top of objects.El Dorado also showed what our internal wind system could do when pushed to more of its limits. The system was built for Quixote Valley, where wind was an important gameplay element, along with being a strong thematic element of the level.

For El Dorado hard mode, we wanted to show an incredible storm, where the wind system was used to really throw the plants and environment around. One of our more chaotic hard modes, but an incredible space to be in. For the storm we also tried to build a system that would allow us to have dynamic lighting and shadows, created from the lightning flashes. Sadly, this was not able to be done while still maintaining performance on the headset, so it didn't make it in. We kept working however, and the lightning lighting saw the light of day (night?) in Widows Walkabout!

The level was a huge amount of fun to create, with just about everyone on the art team getting to do at least one of the animal sculptures. The need for lighting in hard mode allowed us to create our storyline of modern explorers, which we thought was a fun counterpoint to the ancient civilization you find yourself in. The modern equipment also allowed us to play with amazingly harsh and varied light elements, which helps El Dorado feel apart from some of our other nature heavy courses.”

Edward Felix

Mighty Coconut, Lead Modeler