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We’re working on new boss fights to add more variety to our endgame content and once again raise the standard of our boss encounters. A couple of these feature particularly impressive models which you’ll hopefully enjoy seeing as much as we enjoy designing them!
As we’re not ready to begin showing these off just yet, we were inspired to look at some of the creatures we’ve added previously, and their journey from initial concept to implementation.
Only the most powerful of Necromancers can create such a foul construct.
In Patch 0.7.9 we implemented the Assemble Abomination skill for Necromancers. Already a large monstrosity, its appearance varied depending on which minions were unfortunate enough to be involved in its dark summoning ritual, rendering it one of the most complex models to have been created for Last Epoch to-date. Let’s explore its ideation!
Designing The Base Model
Initially we did some exploratory concept art to help us decide what kind of shape and size we wanted this minion to be. Sergey produced a variety of different designs - some focusing on the horror of multiple minions being stitched together, others iterating on the idea of a lumbering brute, and others still exploring the idea of a large devourer of bodies.
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Our preferred fantasy for this minion was to have a large behemoth ponderously approaching enemies, visibly in a state of undeath but not completely losing the idea of a menacing beast descending upon its prey. With this decision made, we began refining the idea.
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As our designs consolidated towards a single concept, Sergey worked on increasingly detailed sketches to further flesh out the minion. Details such as asymmetric limbs, a visible rib cage, and the minion’s palette began getting locked in at this stage.
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We then began creating other art for the minion, such as this material reference sheet which is created to help the 3d artists better understand the vision for the model. While mostly referenced by our modelers, these can also help our animators.
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Designing Minion-Specific Appendages
With a firmer idea of what the abomination itself would look like, it was time to focus on how the model would change to reflect the ‘ingredients’ used in its construction. There was minimal iteration needed here - the first round of designs were very popular internally.
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We hope you found this post interesting! We look forward to being ready to start talking about the contents of Patch 0.8.2 in detail later in its patch cycle. We currently anticipate this update taking a couple of weeks longer than most of our content patches.