Greetings! Today, we will be diving into the art behind our most recent set, the Flame Wreathed Reaver. If you’ve been with us for a while, you might recognize that this set looks very familiar to our Season 1 ‘Reaver’ set, except with a bit of additional style.
This set is what we refer to as ‘Reclaimed Gear.’ It is a set visually imbued with new elemental flair and re-released with modern stats.
When we first released our ‘Flame Wreathed Reaver’ set, there was some concern about its creation. Our Associate Artist, Cirque and Advanced Live-Ops Artist were happy to discuss the details with us here!
Cirque : “Over the years, we’ve released over seventy gear sets, each with a full set of unique art assets. Over time, more recent sets’ stats replace the older sets, which often lead to these older sets spending more time sitting in the Armory than being displayed on an avatar. We wanted to give some of those older sets a chance to shine again but with a fresh new twist.”
Advanced Artist: “…We sought to capture the unique mythical qualities that define the world of Westeros. From the haunting power of the White Walkers to the ancient fire and spells of the Lord of Light, R’hllor. Then to Pyromancers and their creation of the high volatile damage dealing substance, Wildfire.“
Join us as we dive deeper into the process of creating Reclaimed Gear!
The Approach
When we first learned of Reclaimed Gear, we wondered how this process would differ from usual gear creation and how it fit thematically into Game of Thrones: Conquest. Cirque was happy to explain those differences to us.
Cirque: “This process is very different from our usual gearset creation, which typically begins with historical reference research, costume studies, and concept sketches to depict gear that fits into Westeros and the mood of the shows. For Reclaimed Gear, we instead turned our focus to choosing sets that would be fitting for certain elemental effects. Would the lore behind the original set make sense for its wearer to have come in contact with dragon fire, R’hllor’s blessing, or the icy North? How would the set’s overall values and color palette need to be adjusted; how would the materials change?“
Cirque:“We spent significant time iterating on how we wanted to style the elemental effects on the new gearsets. We wanted to make sure that they fit into the world and the established art style of the gearsets and explored how they would affect each set, from wisps of fire to crackling embers and singed fraying.”
What to Expect
Cirque: “The Game of Thrones universe has no shortage of fire and ice – elemental disasters and phenomena which affect both people and their gear. So, instead of just updating our older gearsets, we wanted to affect them with these elements in order to breathe new life (or fire) into them.”
Advanced Artist: “By drawing inspiration from these elements, we want to pay homage to the rich lore of Game of Thrones and also provide a visually captivating, immersive, and unique experience. Each enchanted set will reflect a distinct magical theme and add onto the iconic symbols of the series.”
Though these are still concepts, you can put a name to these four potential Reclaimed Gear types below.
Standard: This gear icon background indicates that this set is a completely new release and not a visual enhancement of a previously released gear set.
Aflame: This gear icon background is inspired by the ancient fire spells of the Lord of Light, R’hllor, Milisandre’s enhancements on the battlefield, and the fire of Dragons.
Frostbitten: This gear icon background pays homage to the ice north, the wall, and the white walkers that come with it!
Volatile: This gear icon background will be inspired by the volatile substance known as Wildfire.
Cirque: “As part of the elemental effects, we chose to change the color of the icon backgrounds to match the set’s element. These backgrounds raised some challenges, both technical and artistic, as we created iterations to find a background style that didn’t distract from the gear but complemented it in color and value. We also wanted to ensure that these effects could be replicated and leave room for the introduction of more effects, such as Wildfire, in the future.“
Road Ahead
What can you expect to see about Reclaimed Gear in the future?
These Reclaimed sets will begin to appear more frequently month to month, but we will not cease creating new sets entirely. Rest assured, this change won’t affect gameplay; these sets will only have an extra touch of enchantment.
We want to extend our thanks to Cirque and our Advanced Live-Ops Artist for their valuable insights on Reclaimed Gear. Look forward to more sets like this in the future!
Have any thoughts or questions about this or gear in general? Make sure to head over to our #gear-discussion channel on Discord!