Hello everyone,
I’m Eunyoung Choi, the art director of Warhaven.
I've had the opportunity to showcase Warhaven to you through a few previous playtests.
Today, I'd like to introduce you to the world of Warhaven through an artistic perspective, and I'm excited and thrilled to share this moment with you.
As you can see from the game video, Warhaven is an action PvP game based on medieval fantasy. Therefore it of course features knights, swords, and magic.
These classic elements are imbued with Warhaven's own unique world and style.
As you already know, "Medieval" doesn't always mean only the European medieval period, and "fantasy" has its own magical world depending on how you create it, too.
Our talented writers and members of our art team have worked hard over the past few years to create this unique and wonderful world to make it feel even more natural in the game.
First of all, the two main pillars of the Warhaven’s art design are "Swordpunk" and "Military".
Swordpunk refers to the use of olden-time, mass-produced weapons like swords and spears in all aspects of life, while Military refers to the incorporation of modern military elements into the design.
These two pillars weren't created in one fell swoop, but rather evolved alongside the game to become what they have today.
I'll explain a little bit more about how the two pillars evolved with the in-game world and how they were blended into the game.
The world of Warhaven is naturally full of magic. Just as our real-world Earth naturally has gravity, electromagnetism, and so on.
In the Warhaven lore, these magical, natural forces gave birth to transcendent beings called Immortals, and they are the supernatural masters of this world.
OK, we may have heard these types of stories before, and it also sounds like a common tale.
But ironically, in Warhaven, the rulers of the world; the Immortals, are created by humans.
In our lore, magic reacts differently with 'information' and ‘input’. When there is an external stimulus which touches on magic, something happens.
Sometimes, that external stimulus can be a physical phenomenon, like lightning, or sometimes it can be just an idea of a human.
The people of Warhaven are religious by nature. To survive in the ruthless wilderness, people long created stories to give themselves hope.
Such as praying for a successful hunt after days of failure, or crouched in a cave, mortally wounded, hoping for a miracle of survival,
The desperate wishes of many were soon fleshed out and told. When the stories grew large enough, magic responded.
Whether the story was simple or complex, when people believed in it, magic flowed.
It permeated various objects, creatures, and ideas, giving them life and entity.
Immortals are such beings who were created in these ways.
Reality blossoms from a strong belief. Don't you think that’s the essence of fantasy?
As befits the mythologies created by the imagination of people, Immortals have supernatural and transcendent powers. But they are not so-called ‘immortal’.
Immortals are born and die based on the beliefs and faiths of the people. When the faith grows weak and fades, their stories are forgotten and so are the Immortals, who simply fade away and die out.
That's why, despite their earth-shattering powers, Immortals are always concerned with their survival, too.
How do Immortals strengthen people's faith in them?
How do Immortals remove the voices of doubt that are sprouting from within and create blind loyalty from people?
We've also seen this method many times in real-world history.
It's by waging and encouraging war.
The Immortals intentionally split the world in two to remove any unholy suspicion of "aren't Immortals just magical entities too?". The Immortals created situations where peoples’ focuses were instead on hating their enemies, instead of pondering on the mortality of the Immortals.
The Warhaven was thus divided into two factions, the Mara and the Alliance, who fought against each other in religious battles.
The victor of the wars would establish the doctrine of the human world; justice itself.
Throughout the war, people's beliefs were hardened; whether through coercion or self-rationalization.
In a world where religion is everything, what's not to love about waging an extra crusade? In order to win, people in Warhaven produce an endless supply of weapons,
Technology developed disproportionately, focusing solely on warfare rather than human life.
During the long war, the overproduction of weapons and mass indoctrination of the culture of warfare permeated every aspect of people's lives.
This can be seen in many countries of the real world, and this is particularly true for Koreans. The 6.25 Korean War lasted three years and left many scars that remain till this day.
During the war, Koreans built makeshift shelters on top of tombstones because there were no other places to live amidst the devastation of war. The phrase "the cold dead body of a comrade-in-arms" came to be used in the lyrics of a folk song, and the culture of Budae-Jjigae (spicy sausage stew) was left behind by the American GIs who came to Korea’s aid during the war.
(Refugees have converted a cemetery for a shelter)
(Photo provided by Busan Seo-gu District)In Warhaven, swords and shields are familiar tools to the people. They came to symbolize power, victory, and people started to embellish their homes with old, leftover weapons as a sign or worship, or a will for victory.
People don’t just refurbish old swords to repair wartime weapons. They actually make household tools and decorate their homes with these weapons, and give them a strange new life.
This is the concept of Swordpunk in Warhaven.
You'll see it all over the lands in the world and maps of Warhaven.
Swordpunk can also be understood as being a medieval fantasy version of the modern day world as we know it. Elements of Swordpunk look similar to what we have in our everyday, modern lives, but their makeup, technology and operating principles are expressed through fantasy interpretations.
For example, this thing that looks like a dish-type radar tower of the modern day is actually a pigeon house for wartime carrier pigeons. It's a "communications center" in the Warhaven universe. We tried to create a new definition of fantasy which mixes modern and past elements.
There are also some fun and exciting ideas like the transport dragon carrier warship.
I hope our team has the chance to show them in-game one day.
(Warhaven's communications center; carrier pigeons are homed in a dish-type structure.)
(Transport Dragons Carrier Warship; similar to modern day aircraft carrier ships)
In these battles full of fantasy and warfare, you’ll live out your lives and play as soldiers such as Blade, Spike, Guardian, Warhammer and Smoke.
Although you'll also be able to experience the adrenaline rush of becoming an Immortal and have fun with them too, at the heart of Warhaven is the normal, everyman soldier. We play as them and we live as them, and we share shedding the same blood and tears of joy together in every moment.
So how were characters such as Blade, Guardian, Warhammer, Smoke, Spike, and more created?
To represent a world where war is everywhere, we brought in modern-day military designs.
This military, tactical concept is first applied to the soldier characters of our game.
In the early days of prototyping Warhaven, soldiers were not given individual characteristics; they were more generalized ad more grunt-like, more so your normal, forgettable figure.
They didn't even have individual names, and they were called swordsmen, guardians, priests, spearmen, etc.
We wanted to capture the adrenaline rush of finally becoming a super Immortal, after being thrust into warfare as a nameless grunt.
To emphasize the climactic feeling of heroism, we tried to reduce the human, individual elements of each soldier as much as possible.
We initially even covered their faces with helmets to give them an ordinary, bland appearance and a friendly, next-door neighborly look, which helped us hide their individuality but emphasize their roles.
We gave them each a more soldierly look and unique silhouettes with their weapons to represent being a soldier.
We planned the outfit concept by reinterpreting camouflage patterns and tactical vests from modern day silhouettes.
(When none of the characters had any names.)
(The completed appearance of the mil-sim tactical look)However, we realized that the more you spend time playing as a soldier in the game, and the more they’ll take up the majority of your gameplay time.
Soldiers indeed form the most important foundation of the game, and they became increasingly important as the gameplay design became more concrete and robust.
And then we started to wonder more deeply about them.
Don't you also wonder about the story of that one single Stormtrooper, wading through the thick cannon smoke? How he ended up on this battlefield? His or her personal backstory?
As the lore of Warhaven grew with the gameplay design, along with the stories of the Immortals and their struggle to survive, so did the stories of each of the individual soldiers.
Going back to square one, we decided to give them names and callsigns.
Then we gave them unique backstories for each of them. .
Each of their full stories can be found on the Warhaven Official Discord in the Dev-doodles (Told by the Warhaven Writers) section.
Here I’ll share with you some brief intros of some of the fun and unique Soldier characters we have in Warhaven, and whom you can play for yourselves.
Blade comes from a middle class family serving higher nobles. The king, coveting the nobles’ fortune, accuses them all of the treason and executes Blade’s entire family.
The young Blade is the sole survivor, and he is sent into exile.
Even in exile, he dreams of bloody revenge, but his enemy, the king, is now long dead.
Does this mean it is the end for Blade's vengeance?
While being held captive and ransomed as a prisoner of war, Warhammer lost touch with both fiancée and his best mate.
This was all because Warhammer's prison guard had lied to them, saying Warhammer had already died.
But Warhammer escaped, and was able to reunite with his friends, alive.
However, his friends were married to each other at that point. In an uncharacteristically optimistic manner, Warhammer gave his blessings to his friends and moved on in life.
Though he did take revenge on the prison guard who had lied about his death.
Smoke was once a noblewoman who had learned to read and write. She was someone who dreamed of freeing the serfs from the nobles. She had a strong and righteous cause.
She was also happily married, and gave birth to a daughter whom she eventually lost to a terrible disease.
She was blamed for the death of her daughter and was accused of not following the doctrine of the Immortals. Something inside Smoke broke that day, and now Smoke is clinging to the strength of her faith in the Immortals, her beliefs now stronger than ever. .
Is there salvation in sight for her?
Spike was once a well-respected peacekeeper. Her life was good, but with one misfortune; her partner was a skilled artist, but a good-for-nothing soldier.
When her partner was about to be sent off to the battlefields of the Immortals, Spike became concerned that he might get killed on day one. So, she confronted her partner, and the very next day, she herself decided to enlist in the army on his behalf.
They were once madly in love, but their relationship is now facing its doom now that Spike is out on the battlefield.
Guardian grew up in a mystical cult. He was indoctrinated from a young age by his overly pious parents.
War and religion in his childhood made for an unfortunate and heavy-hearted upbringing, but still has hope in his heart as he now acts a caring foster father to many children who have lost their parents to the war. He fights out on the battlefield to end the mess, confusion and attrition to protect the next generations of children.
The history of the Warhaven universe may be continued through the intrigues and political conflicts of its Immortals. Immortals dominate the hearts and souls, minds and bodies of the soldiers, and so history may be written only remembering them.
But in the midst of it all, Blade, Smoke, Guardian, and other soldiers are fiercely living their own lives.
Fighting deadly wars because of their own personal reasons, interests, and beliefs.
Aren't you curious to hear the stories of these small, everyday soldiers who will live on in the grand scheme of history? How they soldiers approach their futures?
Aren’t you intrigued to know what's inside the minds of our Immortals?
So far, we've given you a glimpse into the world of Warhaven and the basis of our artwork.
It's definitely a world that can be portrayed as gruesome and as miserable as it wants to be.
You could even think of it in a dystopian way, which fits the word "punk" in ‘swordpunk’, which is our theme.
But we wanted Warhaven to be approachable and agreeable, so we wanted to keep things bright and light for you in our artistic choices.
Today I was able to share with you all a very quick overview of the artwork and worldbuilding. I’d love to have the opportunity to talk about it in more detail in the near future.
Until then, please enjoy being a part of the world of Warhaven! We’re glad to have you by our side here on the battlefields!
