#qasir

A question of setting

As mentioned before, Qasir’s development follows directly the pre-production of another game we were working in 2009, the Tsar Project. And since Qasir is a prequel to that story it seemed logical at the time to carry along Tsar's art direction to the new project. But when released Qasir’s first teaser it received so much positive feedback for its Arabian setting and use of folklore, that we decided to, quite literally, go back to the drawing board.

We've kept though Tsar's main visual guideline: that the more Subtle empathizes with something, the more realistically we should represent such thing. You can see this above, with concept art for the Tsar Project showing a progressive stylizations from left to right, with the Goetians at one end and the matryoshka-inspired Russian countryfolk in the other.

Graphics for an Arabian tale

Changing the setting from Moscow to the Syrian Desert we had to find another reference style to apply in the more stylised elements of the game. Now, there was a strong visual tradition in the Middle-East during pre-Islamic times, and in some places, not only did illustration survive, but it flourished under Islam. And around the 12th century this was especially true with the Persian Miniatures:

But why have a Persian style if the story takes place in the Levant? In fact, one could say that what you see in the game is not the action as it happened in Syria, but the story someone in Alamut or Shiraz put down in an illustrated book, years later. That's why rooms have decorative borders with golden foiled margins, characters are so contrastingly flat and architecture bends itself in unrealistic geometry. 

Keeping it authentic

Having the art direction rooted in traditional style, it was not enough to just have characters and objects painted based on history – their very clothes and decorations should fit the setting properly. That's why the bulk of our palace was inspired by two real Syrian Palaces: Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi and Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi. Clothing and customs were (even if briefly) discussed and verified with historians. Each individual jar, plate, box and statue in the game was carefully hand painted, inspired by examples displayed in museums around the world [1, 2, 3]. Everything should resemble objects that could be dug off the ruins of an ancient red brick palace, if archeologists were ever to find a palace at the bottom of a dam near Palmyra.

Keeping it painterly

Hand painting props and backgrounds guaranteed a realistic and crafty look we were going for, but also brought some challenges to the game design. Tiling painted images can be much more complicated than pixel art, for instance, and this is why we've built Qasir's level design with soft edged pieces. There are over 60 individual wall pieces, more than 20 floor tiles and a plethora of set pieces scattered through the palace to break patterns and make rooms unique.

Even some of the animations in the game were hand painted, frame by frame. This was achieved with bitmap-based software, and most of the time in the least automated way, so that the final result felt organic and kept that slight unevenness of handcraft.

Character personality

Characters, on the other hand, should feel more constrained, stylised and abstracted than backgrounds. With a volume of characters enough to overburden a single animator we decided to go with skeletal animation. After having the ones animated frame by frame, this technique allowed us to swap textures and have many different characters animated at once. The separate textures for each character were done in vector art, resulting in the flat and crisp look that allowed for many variations of details and palette.

Lastly, Qasir is a text-heavy game, presenting two great opportunities. The first one was to bring onboard two talented calligraphers, Marcelo Perin and Marcel Bruschi, that created the scribblings you'll find in the many letters and notes around the palace. They worked from Arabic, Paleo Hebrew and a peculiar medieval script sources to create unintelligible yet visually fitting texts. The second opportunity was to use a variety of typefaces, giving each character’s group a different voice. We were fortunate enough to find some great open-license fonts, and will make a Tumblr post dedicated to them very shortly.

More to come!

There's so much more we could go in depth with the visual development! Check regularly for more updates in this and other topics. As for these letters, expect the next one shortly after the game release, with a look at Qasir's game design and mechanics!

- A creature from another world

As we mentioned in previous letters, Qasir al-Wasat began with the concept of an invisible protagonist and all the implications that it brings. This trait would become the core influence on the game’s creative decisions, especially the character's personality and the game’s narrative.

It is only natural, then, that we began the development of Qasir´s narrative by understanding Its protagonist as best as we could.

Being invisible and wishing to remain unnoticed, Subtle’s possible interactions with the human world would always be cold and distant. But more than Its physical relation to this world, our protagonist's detachment became reflected in Its reproachful opinions of humans. In this way, It always takes the role of an outsider.

The invisible nature of this creature and the medieval setting we had in mind implied some sort of supernatural origin, a dæmon from another plane of existence. In researching suitable options for Its home dimension, we came across this occultism manual called Ars Goetia. Through it we gained understanding of the 72 governing spirits and went on to establish Goetia itself as a full-fledged world. A warring realm, where other Goetians would be fighting an endless war, result of their strong individual personalities and a complete absence of self-restrictions. A strong and yet delicate hierarchy is in place, as these powerful, and mostly brute, spirits keep struggling for power and supremacy.

Different from Its compatriots, we decided Subtle would have a fragile constitution, making It much more careful about Its actions. To survive in such a world It must observe, be furtive and make the right decisions. That doesn't mean It is less ambitious than Its compatriots, as Subtle is definitely up for challenges and isn’t afraid to take risks.

- In the eyes of a demon

When taking a creature such as Subtle to the human world there is a cognitive shock that keeps the spirit distant and critical of humans and their behavior. In the eyes of this Spirit, humanity, in general, is weak willed and unable to do what’s necessary to effect into the world their true desires.

Nonetheless, Subtle is curious about their way of living (a singular trait in a Goetian), and even more curious about human creations, objects of art in every format. This is Subtle’s redeeming trait.

To use this during the game development, we created a scale comparing things Subtle would distance itself of (seeing them as caricatures and archetypes) and things It would see with fresher eyes, in more detail, and with more praise. This way, humans would be at one end of the spectrum, and objects of art at the other. This would become a central influence in the game’s creative development, especially when related to the asset’s creation.

- Building a fortress, stone by stone

In parallel to the protagonist development, there was also the process of creating a mysterious palace. The setting to which Subtle’s would be summoned to should be an interesting one, from the spirit’s point a view. Therefore, it should be somewhere it would like to explore and understand better.

Having decided for a medieval Syrian setting, it was only natural we would take inspiration from the One Thousand And One Nights tales. All of this made o Qasir al-Wasat a palace of wonders, with infinite treasures and a deep mystery. Ancient forces that are built into the fortress, creating and unknown territory even for those who think they know the place. To this setting, we added a powerful wizard, one with the knowledge that might be useful to our protagonist, and several inhabitants from different backgrounds and with singular stories.

- How we told the story

As the players go through Qasir al-Wasat, they walk alongside Subtle and follow what interests It and what It would normally do or react. Apart from inlaid elements, the narrative is revealed through three main avenues.

The first one is navigating through space. By exploring the palace the player creates its own narrative. As the player walks around Qasir and decides to pay attention to some objects or to listen to some of the inhabitants, a new story naturally emerges.

The second is listening to dialogs and monologs by the other inhabitants. Some of this stories are only musings about the inhabitant’s life, but sometimes Subtle might discover important information on the central narrative. Having several narratives inside a central story corroborates to the A Thousand Nights feeling, as traditionally a character inside one will be the narrator to another, and in this one there will be another story, and so on.

The last way in which Qasir’s tells its main plot is through what we called Remarkables: objects and letters that might catch Subtle’s interest and which help in the exposition of deeper or simply more complex information. Doing so through beautiful artistical objects not only keeps the spirit interest’s in character, they also establish an atmosphere of magic and wonder.