In their latest Dev Update, Stunlock Studios interviewed Art Director Johan Wahlbäck about their upcoming open-world vampire survival game, V Rising, which will launch on PC on Steam later this year. Fans eager to learn more about V Rising have wasted no time in sending in questions ahead of the Beta’s release.
A lot of information is shared in this Dev Update from the ambiance of the game to the design of characters to the gothic themes in the game’s architecture to the violent contrast between humanity and the vampires. Although vampire visuals include bloodshed, the art director cautions that it is offset by the darkness and beauty of the vampires.
In V Rising, you play as a vampire in an open-world setting. Discover the perilous world as a vampire that has been sleeping for centuries. For a vampire to regain strength and satisfy their thirst, they must hunt for blood nearby settlements. Become a powerful empire by building your castle, inviting friends to join your clan, and converting people into servants. With PvP and PvE challenges, you can combat for world supremacy in real-time. Do you have what it takes to become the next Dracula?
Battlerite, the previous game from Stunlock Studios, is an intense tactical game where readability is critical to the game’s success. There are concerns that visual clarity may be affected by V Rising’s more detailed graphics and higher fidelity. In response to these fears, Art Director Johan says:
Even though readability isn’t as crucial as in a competitive arena game like Battlerite, we still work a lot with this in V Rising to make the player feel they are in control of the various gameplay situations. Since the world is high in detail, we chose to simplify the shapes of our characters to make them read better. We’re using an approach similar to what you see in traditionally animated Ghibli and Disney movies, where the characters are outlined to stand out on watercolor-painted backgrounds. This direction enables us to design more distinct characters for better readability without compromising the atmosphere-heavy and richly detailed world
Johan Wahlbäck, Art Director Stunlock Studios
