Request for a State of the Hearth Address

[Vigilance]

It's worth mentioning, if I haven't done so already, that Paradox decided to replace Jorb's art with art from some professional studio,

MY GOD! NOOOO!

[Fharlanghn]

Thanks, Loftar.

Out of curiosity, what direction is the new studio taking? I can imagine the Paradox people taking issue with the Animal Crossing-esque look, if only because they don't want to get sued or something like that, but I wonder how they want it to look.

[loftar]

Out of curiosity, what direction is the new studio taking? I can imagine the Paradox people taking issue with the Animal Crossing-esque look, if only because they don't want to get sued or something like that, but I wonder how they want it to look.

To the best of my knowledge, they haven't actually even found a studio yet (though Jorb may have more detailed knowledge; he's handling those affairs). They've stated that they explicitly want to retain the cutesy look, however, so I don't think you need to worry about that. Jorb is still in charge of the actual graphical style; I think they just wanted someone able to execute it better than him. Or something. To be honest, I'm not quite sure just what their motivation is. :)

[Fiction_Stick]

Thanks, Loftar.

Out of curiosity, what direction is the new studio taking? I can imagine the Paradox people taking issue with the Animal Crossing-esque look, if only because they don't want to get sued or something like that, but I wonder how they want it to look.

I am also curious about this, can we have an example of this studios previous work? You would be allowed to do that wouldn't you? I will really miss Jorb's artwork, it's what makes this game so unique. But I am very glad to know that this game will not be forgotten about. I hope Jorb and Loftar make good choices in the future, and don't forget about the people that have been here from the beggining.

[Manson]

It's worth mentioning, if I haven't done so already, that Paradox decided to replace Jorb's art with art from some professional studio

so does that mean no more subliminal dicks

[sabinati]

what it means is that jorb is now the art director instead of the artist. i'm sure there will be plenty of dicks.

[Mitudev]

I really wanted horses and wolves. Ah well, it is enjoyable already. I am 'this' close to a silk cloth.

This may mean world 4 will be around for a while. Buckle down kids.

[evilrich]

It's worth mentioning, if I haven't done so already, that Paradox decided to replace Jorb's art with art from some professional studio,

MY GOD! NOOOO!

this

[Jackard]

Don't get me totally wrong, though; Salem is also an awesome game, I'm enjoying working on it a lot, too, and I can't wait for the day that allows more public testing of it. Testing and release planning and such things are more up to Paradox than to Jorb and me, however, so I can't really comment much on it (if it were only up to me, I'd have you all playing it already, incomplete though it may be). It's worth mentioning, if I haven't done so already, that Paradox decided to replace Jorb's art with art from some professional studio, and that's making the whole development process quite a bit more complex. As a consequence, they don't want us to show any more footage of the game until such time that the graphics have been properly replaced. It seems to be one of those things I have to deal with when dealing with corporations.

Did Jorb make this image? Because it's pretty great. Reminds me of Tim Burton.

[ImpalerWrG]

Ceriously no one expected 1 man to actually create all the art Assets in 3D no less for an MMO game on a commercial scale in 1 year, thats WAY beyond any persons capability, it would be like asking one programmer to write the next version of windows in a year. The art Jorb made and which we saw in screenshots was placeholder stuff done to give the engine somone to show durring development and to explore the overall mood and 'look' he wanted which is the job of a lead artist durring the pre-production phase. Final production artwork will be churned out by junior artists who will simply make more polished higher res versions of whats already been drawn and the lead artist will oversee all this and see the final art maintaines his desired look.

P.S. That is almost certainly the work of another concept Artist, Jorb probly did a rough draft and directed the concept artist or did a feedback iteration loop with said artist to arrive at the final image.