Hello hunters,
Welcome to this week’s status update. Today we wanted to let you take a deeper look at the upcoming sub-arctic reserve with another series of short behind-the-scenes interviews with our devs.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, the new reserve has finally been named – Whiterime Ridge! It was slightly adapted from the original suggestion by bowhunter93 “Whiterime Peaks”, which we also liked but the rough sound of “ridge” has ultimately won us over. Plus, we also have a beautiful ridge of mountains in the new reserve. “Rime” means frost formed on cold objects by the rapid freezing of water vapour in cloud or fog, which you’ll see a lot in our new sub-arctic reserve. All in all, we thought that this name suits the new location perfectly and it harmonizes with our existing reserve names. As a thank you to bowhunter93 for this great suggestion, they’ll receive a cool new rifle for free, for hunting bison (once released).
A couple of words about suggestions; there have been a lot of cool sounding names in the Inuit language (I personally liked Tatanka a lot) but like it was also the case with the Australian reserve, we opted out of giving an EHR reserve a name in one of aboriginal languages. The reason is that we have to be cautious when naming our locations and it’s actually difficult to prove what those words actually mean.
Now, to the behind-the-scenes. This time our producer Hannes, game and level designer Daniel and environmental artist Sandra, will tell us a bit more about how the new reserve is being born.
Behind the scenes – Sub-arctic reserve
Hannes, producer
Q: This is your first reserve as a producer of theHunter, right?
A: Yes it is, fingers crossed!
Q: Every producer is different and, with you launching your first reserve in theHunter, the community must be curious how you produce, how you tick?
A: For me producing is to choose, and to be able to do that I need a strong vision in my head. When I started on the EW team I was pleasantly surprised how the theHunter team work together. What I’ve brought on board (at least I hope I’ve done ;)) is the vision implemented in the best possible way. Striving for collaboration without prestige with an ear listening to the end users. It’s all about nourishing, strengthening and refining that vision during the hell of production. And every day I am working with a vision strong enough to survive a couple of fights in the pit.
Q: Are there any differences to the production of, let’s say, dogs?
A: No, a great vision and an exciting goal always have to be present.
Q: What excites you most about the upcoming reserve? What are you looking forward to the most?
A: I love when the environment is harsh and unforgiving… So, I have to say holding my breath aiming at a mighty bison and noticing that I have cold shakes after having forgotten my gloves in the warm cabin.
Daniel, game and level designer
Q: Why a sub-arctic reserve in the first place?
A: Well, the main reason is that it was the most requested type of reserve in the last survey. It also seemed like a really cold reserve was missing from the EHR.
Q: Are there going to be any gameplay novelties in this new reserve, similar to climbing in Val-des-Bois, or absolutely dry weather, like in Bushrangers Run?
A: Yes indeed. The reserve is going to be cold, around -35°C (-13°F), and this will affect the gameplay.
Q: You are not only the game designer, but also the level designer for this reserve, right? Can you tell me more about what we can expect in terms of terrain?
A: I’ve tried to create a feeling of vastness in this reserve. That and remoteness. It will hopefully feel more like an untamed wilderness than any other reserve.
Q: How will leaving tracks work in the new reserve?
A: All animals, including dogs and players, will leave a trail of tracks behind them in the snow. These are purely visual and are not trackable with the Huntermate. They will also fade away after a certain time.
Q: What excites you most about the upcoming reserve? What are you looking forward to the most?
A: I’d say the hunting. Hunting is always our first priority when making a new reserve and it is going to be really fun and challenging to hunt in this reserve.
Sandra, environmental artist
Q: What was the most fun part for you to work on this reserve?
A: The most fun part for me was just making the models and then actually seeing it all put together in the reserve.
Q: And the most challenging one?
A: Trying to make believable environment with the time and resource restraints that we have.
Q: What types of vegetation will we see and what made you choose those particular types?
A: Looking at subarctic biomes we chose to use mostly conifer trees (both deciduous and not).
Q: How was it to work with snow? Is it going to be different from the snow in Hemmeldal?
A: Well, Hemmeldal wasn’t really packed with snow, was it? This reserve is! It’s much less forgiving than other types of terrain, our biggest issue has been to make everything blend together but still give some variation and the right feel to it. Still working on it!
Q: What was the biggest challenge with the forests?
A: For me as an artist, giving it a convincing feel. Everything from making the trees, i.e. how many variants and how they will look, to making a forest with interesting silhouettes and enough variation for it to be believable.
Q: What inspired you? Did you use references from a specific area of Alaska or other sub-arctic regions?
A: We looked mostly at Alaska, which was the largest inspiration for this reserve, but we of course looked at things from other areas of the world that we found interesting. Main goal for me is always making something that looks and feels interesting and fitting it into the world that we’re trying to create.
Q: What excites you most about the upcoming reserve? What are you looking forward to the most?
I want to shoot me some bison!
That’s it today, happy hunting!
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