Hey, everyone! It's Mr. Dev. As Hollowed Woods 2020 comes to a close, we thought it was the perfect time to share with you some exclusive behind-the-scenes peeks at the development of Crystal Caverns and this year's Hollowed Woods update overall!
This was probably one of the most fun content updates to work on. I had the pleasure of spearheading this update, and am unbelievably lucky to have worked with a group of super talented individuals on our team. Our writers, 3D modelers, level designers, and programmers all poured their hearts and souls into this update, and we truly hope you enjoyed it.
Alright, let's jump right into it!
Crystal Caverns
Ah, Crystal Caverns, the centerpiece of this update. This is where the bulk of the work was focused for our update. We had plans for a cave inside Hollowed Woods for quite some time now. You may have noticed the entry-way to the mines has been in Hollowed Woods since 2019, and we've had the idea for the cave for a long time before that.
As always, story comes first for us. And as our writers outlined the story for the new quest, they came up with an initial layout for the cave. Yes, for the memes, it is literally just a Microsoft Paint drawing, but it got the concept across!
Off of that initial concept image, I worked closely with one of our level designers to add a base layout for the cave in-game. Next, the two of us made a mockup (pictured below) planning out the detail-work of the cave, such as where enemies would be placed, as well as where specific quest events would occur.
After this outline was shown to the rest of our creative team, our 2nd level designer, who goes by "Batman," got to work on fleshing out the cave! He added all the crystals, the detailing, and really made the cave come to life. (And yes, that Caribbean Night outfit was absolutely made for Mr. Batman!)
Hundreds of hours went into designing the cave itself, and for the first time ever, we recorded every single moment of it. Check out this (LONG) video below for just a sample of the process. It really is a labor of love, and we enjoyed every single second of it.
Staff of the Hollowed Gem
The Staff of the Hollowed Gem is a brand-new legendary released in this update, and a lot of time and care went into its design. We wanted something that really made a statement and would have a memorable look. For inspiration with a lot of our weapon designs, we did a lot of searching on Pinterest and Google Images, and we came across a really special website.
While researching designs for the staff, we came across The Griffon's Saddlebag, an independent website that makes unique imagery for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Much like TLOPO, The Griffon's Saddlebag is a volunteer project and runs completely off of donations from Patreon. While TLOPO does not and will not accept donations, we wanted to give a spotlight on this amazing independent website.
For the design of Hollowed Gem, we did a bit of "digital scrapbooking," splicing a few different images from The Griffon's Saddlebag and stitching/recoloring them into a unique design. From there, one of our amazing and super talented 3D modelers began to make the in-game weapon. (Seriously, they're AMAZING. We're blown away every time they show us what they're working on. We can't wait for you to see what they have in store next!)
Jumbee's Spiked Dagger
The Jumbee's Spiked Dagger is a new famed weapon that drops exclusively from Jumbees - you can even see some of them wielding the weapon! This dagger has a long history with TLOPO. Way back in 2017, before my time on the team, we were working on the Forsaken Shallows update, adding a bunch of new Davy Jones-style Cursed Blades.
You might be surprised to know this, but weapons like Bitter End, Spinecrest Sword, and the World Eater Blade are based off of props designed for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. When adding the new Cursed Blades, the team looked back at concept art for the film, and found the design you'll see pictured below. While the team ultimately decided to stick with swords for the Forsaken Shallows update, that piece of Disney concept art was stored away in a folder for a rainy day.
And, lo-and-behold, this past summer, while we were working on Hollowed Woods, I stumbled across that piece of concept art, and presented it to one of our 3D modelers. We all really loved its design, and just knew it had to have a home in this new update. Check out its design process below!
Boney Bayonet
Ah, the Boney Bayonet, this is honestly my favorite design from the update. It's just so striking, and honestly miles better in quality and detail than any other weapons in the game. For me, this quantifies what TLOPO is all about. Elevating the content that POTCO had while still staying true to the game's heart. Everything about this weapon was done in-house, from the concept, to the modeling & texturing. Check out some images from its development below!
Dolls & Staves
Alright, in this section I'll be condensing a few different items: the Scarecrow Doll, Vampire Doll, and the Staff of Shrunken Heads.
The Scarecrow Doll was the very first weapon made for this year's update. Our concept artist made a rough sketch for it, and in a WHIRLWIND, one of our 3D modelers just whipped out the complete model in less than 2 hours. And it was PERFECT. None of us had notes. It felt so uniquely POTCO. It was like seeing a new spotlight back on the Grog Blog when we were little kids. This kind of excitement is what keeps us going on this project!
For the Vampire Doll, we wanted to go for a really derpy look. Our initial inspiration was the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, which featured one of the earliest designs of Count Dracula. We really loved the funny fangs and really long claws. Obviously, the final design is a very loose adaptation of this film's monster, but we think it captures it well enough. We also did extensive research on vampire stuffed dolls and other trinkets. I personally think it turned out really well!
The Staff of Shrunken Heads was a later addition to the Hollowed Woods update. We had all the weapons mapped out and ready to go, and then a concept artist got a spark of inspiration. The rest of our 3D modelers had since moved on to other projects after Hollowed Woods (Coming soon! Wink wink), so this concept artist took the initiative and modeled the entire weapon! We think it turned out perfectly splendid (If you've been watching a particular Halloween show on Netflix, you'd get that reference).
Tattoos
One of our illustrators handled all of the new tattoos that came with the Hollowed Woods update, and let me just say that we couldn't be happier with them! She handled concepting, design, and coloring for these. These designs rival anything else in the game, to be honest. She's just so talented. We're really lucky to have her on the team!
Dry Rot Tattoo
Oh, you thought I was done with tattoos? NO. There are MORE! The below designs are for our Dry Rot tattoo set that you get for completing the new quest. Yes, I know it's just one design, but you can put it on your chest AND arms (oooh... so fancy) so it's a set, okay!?
But in all seriousness, this design probably has my favorite behind-the-scenes story. On our Test Server Discord, tester Jeremiah DeckHazard (yes, I know his name is spelled differently in-game, I'm going by what he's called in our Discord <3) has been posting so many cool sketches of piratey content.
One of his designs was a sketch of a stump, and it was just so striking and monstrous that I just knew we had to use it for Hollowed Woods. So, I sent him a DM, and the rest was history. Our illustrator did an absolutely lovely job capturing the likeness of Jeremiah's initial sketch. She even added a little red hue on the outline to mimic Dry Rot's special red boss color outline in-game! Pure magic.
Thanks again for letting us use your design, Jeremiah! Love you... I mean... yarr!
Scars
Alright, this is the last section. I know this thing is getting a little long, but I just love gushing about all the amazing talent on this team. Seriously, it blows me away every day.
So, as you know, we introduced some stitched scars in the Hollowed Woods rewards store a few years back. Those were actually found in some 2009 game files. Seems like Disney changed them up to the final scar designs that you have at Infamy vendors somewhere along the way. Since those scars were such a hit, I asked our illustrator to make a few new ones, and she knocked it out of the park! Check it out below:
Conclusion
Well, this got really long, but I don't care. I'll talk about this team and our creations all-day, any-day. Seriously, I could not be more proud of all the talented, smart, funny, and amazing people on our team. I'm really lucky to call them my friends. They blow me away and inspire me every single day.
I hope this look suffices. We really wanted to give you all a peek behind the curtain as much as possible. The love we have for this game really can't be described, but I hope this shows a little bit of how it feels. Every time one of our modelers comes up with a new weapon, or a level designer completes a new area, I just get so emotional. It really brings me back to being a kid again, running around on Raven's Cove for the first time and getting blown up by a Rage Ghost. We really want to capture that childlike wonder that POTCO had, and I hope that this year's Hollowed Woods event did that for you all.
One of the other devs sent me a video of a player listening to "Randy-Dandy-Oh" from the Musicians in the taverns, and the guy's face just lit up the moment it started playing. That kind of joy is what we want to bring to each and every one of you with this game. The road may be bumpy along the way, but that's all we ever hope for. That is the core of The Legend of Pirates Online.
Thanks for reading, and for putting up with my mushy sentimental self. Hope to do another one of these at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, but we have to have the content released first!
~ Mr. Dev