IGG’s forthcoming Lords Online browser-based strategy game combines a number of RPG elements to achieve a unique balance. A key element is the look and feel of the fantasy-style design. Recently the Lords Online team has been working to optimize the art and UI design, resulting in an almost total redesign of the UI. Several areas of the game have benefited from these improvements.Stunning Elemental Magic
Magic in Lords Online is both awesome and dazzling. Including four schools for Ice, Fire, Earth and Air spells, each type has its own distinctive effects to make the players’ hearts thump and blood boil. Using 3D rendering, the designers created memorable visuals to match the power of the spells. For example, when a hero casts flame spells from his hands, they set his enemy afire.
Monster Matters
In the hero adventures, players can take their champions into the wilderness to complete missions, but in testing the monsters inhabiting these areas didn’t make the grade. The team redrew the monsters and modified their 3D models and motions. In one case, a stiff, three-headed Cerberus changed from its ho-hum initial design to become an imposing beast with a huge mouth, bloody teeth, and flames along its body. As the work continues, the goal is to imbue each monster with appropriately fantastic qualities.
Player Profile Gallery
Since each player is the lord of a castle, the art team based their default pictures on famous historical figures to give them all an air of dignity and prestige.
Making Heroic Heroes
The initial hero system UI only showed a hero’s head. Now heroes of different races and genders each have their own distinctive style. A human male hero adopts the armored knight image, exuding confidence as a force for justice. A female hero assumes the aspect of a mage, impressive in her shining elegance. The team created all the hero images using advanced technology to achieve dynamic effects.