We don’t want to play it safe here or chicken out on interesting, wild or unconventional ideas. The worst thing that can happen is to have bland and forgettable designs for crafting. Some of those examples are the antlers on the “Vanir” Medium Headband the hard to miss “nipple plates” of the “Derketo” Set or the luxuriousness of the “Lemurian Royal Gown”. Something that makes a set memorable and particularly interesting.

The team always tries to find a “hook” or a special unique feature for each design. A player that likes to play with daggers and high stamina might prefer a thief looking armor while another player might prefer a two hander and a heavier looking armor. The armor should have a good silhouette, so it’s easily recognized from the distance and it should appeal to a specific type of player and their unique play-style. An armor set consists of five different pieces which need to work both independently but also in combination with armor sets already in the game. This last part is especially important throughout the whole process.Īt this point, the team has to to take additional requirements into consideration. The artist will then bounce back ideas with Gavin, our art director and get more pointers from Joel about Lore and properly grounding it in the Conan IP. Which crafting materials are used, what mood should it evoke and what environment the players are supposed to use it in.Īll this information is needed to start reference gathering and to come up with initial concept sketches. You’ll get it around level 40.” The brief on the Lemurian Royal gown was more involved and would probably fit a whole blog post on its own 😉Īfter the brief, the artist needs to detail and narrow down what cultural influences they should reference, if it’s light, medium or heavy armor and how hard it is to get. She was kind enough to share her process of creating the Lemurian Royal Gown with us so we can share it with you! Armor Concept PhaseĬreative Director Joel Bylos typically starts the process with a brief such as: “We need a medium armor for the Vanir Faction, that’s used in the North and made with leather and fur. We sat down with one of our character artists who has almost single-handedly created every armor from concept art to finished in game asset up until Frozen North and beyond. We thought it would be interesting to share some insight on how an armor set in Conan Exiles is created. There is a massive amount of armor combinations possible even without taking dyes into consideration. Hopefully you also enjoy the unique, craft-able in-game armor Conan Exiles has to offer. We hope you’re busy exploring, dominating, surviving and building.

Conan exiles heavy armor