The artwork path for CATAN: Dawn of Humankind got here as a response to the unique sport, The Settlers of the Stone Age from 2002. That older sport was a daring venture of its personal period filled with artwork and historical past that completely captured the methods of its time.

When we revamped the sport design, we knew we wanted to make it equally up to date in inventive path. We wished to showcase the unspoiled great thing about the world with vivid flora and hanging fauna earlier than people had left their indelible mark.

A notable characteristic of the artwork on this sport is that the duvet and totally different components of the inside artwork have been achieved by a number of artists. Generally, CATAN video games are illustrated by one artist and a graphic designer. This sport broke that mildew and nonetheless managed to have a totally cohesive feeling, for which we credit score our superb artists.

Cover Art: Across the Bering Strait

We reached out to quite a lot of totally different artists to see their visions for the duvet artwork. While we adored all of the totally different takes, we agreed that Quentin Regnes‘ work on the duvet artwork was excellent.

CATAN: Dawn of Humankind tells a narrative of the enlargement of people from Africa by means of Asia, Europe, and out to Australia and the Americas. With that historical past in thoughts, we selected to have the duvet characteristic the First Peoples coming to North America close to the Bering Strait to indicate that the Ice Age remains to be very a lot related to our sport.

Looking again on the sketch course of, totally different figures within the foreground and center floor have been moved round barely from iteration to iteration, however one factor at all times stayed the identical, which was this beautiful sweeping view of the mountain valley and the intrepid people forging a path whereas the Smilodons lurk ominously behind.

The Game Board

We wished the board to really feel natural and reflective of the native fauna from every area of the world. We reached out to Andrew Bosley (Everdell) who creates superb animals and understands learn how to body your playspace in unbelievable flora. He delivered a contemporary and thrilling tackle a traditional CATAN fashion format. It feels alive and thrilling.

Below you possibly can see the evolution from shade palette to evolving iterations of the landscapes and animals on them, and at last the entire board. Someone with a pointy eye will discover that we did some tweaking of the terrain preparations on the board from the primary sketch to the ultimate product…

Components

We reached out to Naomi Robinson to create all of the artifacts, meals, icons, and megafauna. Her agency grasp of practical illustration allowed for us to have clear graphics that really feel like you’re actually dealing with these items. We wished somebody that may immerse you within the time and place of these items, and she or he knocked it out of the park.

An instance is the Glyptodon that’s featured within the South America portion of the board. We did analysis into the looks and measurement of this fascinating animal earlier than Naomi sketched and completed it. The finish result’s an odd creature that appears cute and cuddly, however should you met it in actual life, it could have been a surprising expertise.

Sculpts

Finally, our work with Niklas Norman on sculpts was a enjoyable journey. We did a number of analysis collectively on the shape and construction of the camps, what folks carry, and what Smilodons appeared like. He actually offers a way of interactivity together with his pleasant items.

In the primary picture, you possibly can see that the Smilodon seems slightly extra like a contemporary lion with its massive mane. In the second, the mane has been tamed, however the tail remains to be a bit too lengthy. Finally, within the third, now we have the ultimate Smilodon determine, however it’s standing on this plain round base, so we labored so as to add the textured base to make it seem like standing on an outcropping of rock. The ultimate result’s a correctly threatening prehistoric cat whose job is to rob your assets and block your manufacturing.

Morgan Dontanville