Star Stable September Blog - Medieval & Home Stable Customization

Medieval

By May Iren V. Lorentsen (3D Artist)

Strap on that armor, ready that shield, and hold onto that lance for dear life! Because this time, we are serving medieval fantasy and baby dragons on our long candlelit tables.

Permanent Content!

There are a lot of people out there who love all things whimsical, fantastical, historical, and magical. All the ‘’cals’’! And there are quite a few of us in-house as well; So when this project was up for discussion, we had a lot of passion, and we knew we wanted to make something a little different. The first idea that was up on the chopping block was the festival idea. Chop chop! We wanted to make this feature something permanent for you to enjoy it all year long. 

Location

We ended up choosing an area on the map called The Forgotten Fields in South Jorvik. Picking a good location isn’t always as easy as it might sound. Cause one must consider the accessibility of the place, and think about all the pre-existing content there, as you don’t want to build on top of something else! And we wanted to fit in a BIG jousting arena and tents after all!

What you see in the picture is the old map in the background, the area itself in the circle, and the updated look in the square. This is where you will find the new content!

Inspiration

Now, building all these things requires references and inspiration! And what inspo did we have, you might ask? Medieval fares in modern times. And at the place we are based in Sweden, there actually happen to be a few of them! 

My colleague Evelina kindly gifted these pictures from one of the fairs she went to. One called ‘’Medeltidsveckan’’. It is a whole week of medieval-related events, costumes, and shops. They even have a jousting arena of their own. How cool is that?

There was also a big campground with a mix of tents for those who wanted to do Medieval-style camping. Here we got to see those oh-so distinctive tents with the white cloth and pointy top. 

Long tables for lounging around, and a mix of shops and booths with wooden platforms and cloth could also be seen. Most of these elements were items that ended up making it into the game one way or another. 

Game Assets

Usually, when we set up shop so to speak; we go for the nice wagons, - here as seen in Fort Pinta. But that did not fit the aesthetic or vibe for medieval we were going for. We wanted something extra!

So wooden platforms, beams, and cloth rustling in the wind are what we ended up making instead! 

As an artist on the props and environment team, I felt very lucky to be able to work on things that I personally love. Creating props and textures is an iterative process that takes a long time, and can go through several rounds of feedback before it is finally given the thumbs up. But that is also what enables us to take an object that at the beginning looks like this: 

To something that looks like this:

There are a bunch of cool examples I could show you. And for those that enjoy pictures, much like myself; here are a couple more! Below you see an early iteration of the shields with no colour. Then comes a collection of all! Lastly a close-up example of a finished shield.

Here we see an early iteration of the flags and banners, with the wireframe on the model visible. 

Imagine that the 3d models are made up of small squares and triangles like this. In some cases, a model can actually have thousands! 

You get to be creative and smart working on these.

And lastly, but certainly not least, the bleachers! Here you get to see some of the logistics that went behind creating these pieces. It was approached with a modular idea in mind, enabling us to slot the different pieces together like so! Above is work in progress, and under you see what it looks like in game right now!

It is always a joy speaking to you all and showing a little bit of the behind the scenes. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for taking the time to read through, and I hope you have fun testing out these things while playing yourself! Maybe I will see you on the grounds later!

Until then, please take care.

Kind regards

May Iren V. Lorentsen (3D Artist)

Home Stable Customization

By UX/UI Team

Hi StarFam!

We are the UX/UI team at Star Stable. We are the ones that create all interfaces - like menus, buttons, icons, yeah you name it! - both in the game and on the web. It's great to be writing to you for the first time as a team!

As you know, Star Stable has been around for many years. We have many years of design experience in the game already and, of course, many more things planned in the future! Our team always aims to stay true to our legacy and to the future. Now that you can finally check out your new home stable, we want to tell you about the work we’ve done.

A lot of different things are important when you create interfaces. Is it easy to use? Is it nice to look at? Does it fit the rest of the experience?

The interface—what we write there, how players interact with it—is often where we help and guide you. We give you information and instructions and show you your progress. If that does not work, things will get confusing! 

The colors, tone of voice, and styles are also a big part of Jorvik’s personality. We are working on making sure it becomes even more coherent and reflects the game even better with every iteration we make. We always try to keep it modern while honoring our long history.

So, we think that the interface is a key part of the immersion of the game. It should not only be intuitive and beautiful, but it should also, when possible, add to the feeling of being in the game world. 

It's with that in mind that we have tried something new with the style for Home Stable Customization. The inspiration comes from the real world and tries to make it feel more like part of the stable itself. Wood, hay, and leather. Natural colours and a calming tone. The experience is about taking care of your own stable and making it beautiful, personal, and fun. We wanted the interface to add to that and not take away any attention from the beautiful design that our artists have made. Instead create a cosy and personal feeling, with colours matching the real world.

When it comes to how you move around and make choices in the interface we did several iterations. Our artists created many different beautiful styles. As there were so many different choices to make, it was quite tricky to decide how to best present it. It has to be easy to understand what is currently selected and what you already own, and at the same time, it has to make it clear how many other categories there are to try out. 

Work in progress screenshot of the interface.

We wanted to make as much as possible available with just one click, but after we did tests on people who had not seen the design we realised we had to sort things more and even give users separate steps to clarify the options. That's how we ended up with the current experience. 

We think there are more improvements we can make, and we aim to update the experience moving forward so that it is even easier for you as a player to understand what you own and what you can buy. We may even add additional elements such as filters.

So that is how we ended up with our current style. We really hope you love it as much as we do! And as for new things coming to the stable, we want to make sure they are consistent with that cosy feel so you can always feel you are in your home stable.

//the UX/UI designers of Star Stable