Mysterious whispers, deep in nature's embrace An ancient threat awakens in this wondrous place Hey there, game director Angelica speaking. Things are starting to heat up over here! Even though the announcement was just a small glimpse of what's to come, we have been getting so much positive feedback from you all. We can't wait to share even more! While most of the team is very busy polishing those pixels to perfection and implementing new features (or ironing out a few nasty bugs) I was still able to convince our talented artists to take a moment and share their progress in this environment-themed development blog. There will be plenty of time for us to talk about things like the campaign, divine quests and new features later on. For now, in order to tell this Odyssey of our development adventure, which in time will reveal completely new and bigger threats, I would like to start from the beginning with the foundation - the world. What does it take to bring our Greedified version of ancient Greece to life?

Hello from the Mediterranean - greetings from the art team!

More precisely, from sunny Croatia! Hello everybody, today you are greeted by some of the members of the art team. We are Sara and Valentina, and we will tell you a bit more about your Greek adventure in Kingdom Two Crowns. Living in Croatia was a huge plus for us while working on the Greece setting because we share some similarities with Greece, especially the natural coastal parts. Both of us could draw from our experiences of going to the seaside and capturing the natural beauty of this part of the Mediterranean.
We couldnt solely rely on our experiences, so when we started working on the new Kingdom biome, we first set out to gather plenty of references for anything ancient Greek- related. We brushed up on our art history, relearned Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, pediments, triglyphs, metopes, etc. We did the same for the vegetation, googling all kinds of flora that were present in ancient Greece and tried to learn more about them: olives, pine trees, juniper trees, oleanders, laurels, asphodel plants, etc. If it was in ancient Greece, it would be added to the game. That led us to the new Kingdom look which should evoke the feeling of a Greedified Mediterranean vacation. You will find yourself exploring dry forests with those iconic cicada sounds.

In the midst of the Greek forests there are small patches of civilization left, the mysterious statues by which the ruler can make their subjects stronger and increase their chances of survival in the face of Greed. Inspired by lifelike statues of ancient Greece, we tried incorporating some classical poses like contrapposto and letting a wide variety of sculptures found in temple pediments influence the identity of our magical ones. One of my (Sara) favorite concepts was an archer statue inspired by the marble archer from the west pediment of Temple of Aphaia. (Un)fortunately, to resolve for more variety of units in this setting, sometimes things had to get cut like a Gordian knot. In place of the archer, what we needed was a slinger, so the archer sculpture got booted and replaced by this lil stone throwing guy. To blend these marble structures with the environment, we withered them down and covered them with Dionysion, or if you wanna be nasty, Ivy.
While working on nature for the game, we went for the classics of the Greek vegetation. We wanted the players to immediately sense that they are in a sunnier, slightly drier and coastal environment. Everything is a bit rockier, with bushes being more compact (except for the oleander bushes) and somewhat scarcer. We toyed with the idea of having foloi oak forest, but it detracted from the coastal look we were aiming for, so we decided to stick with the types of trees found near the coast. This decision put us in a bit of a pickle because we lost our only deciduous tree, and as you all know, winter does come to the Kingdom. What is a dead giveaway for winter, you ask? Trees without leaves. So, we went on a hunt for an acceptable tree that would still feel coastal and shed its leaves, and we came up with the wild pear, or its grander name, Pyrus spinosa. By the end of working on all the trees, I (Valentina) developed a "professional disorder," as we say in Croatia, of checking out every single tree I see in real life and turning around just to gaze at it. It has become a joke at this point when I nudge Sara and say, "Hey, check out that good-looking canopy."

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We trust these glimpses into the enigmatic forests of Call of Olympus have stirred your spirit for the journey ahead. A loyal steed and a fiery torch shall be your steadfast companions as you venture into the verdant wilderness. Perhaps that mount is closer than you think? You just need to somehow figure out how to free it from its petrified prison. Yet, be wary of the foreboding purple lights that shimmer along the winding path... who knows what wonders and trials lie in wait?

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