Immortals!

We continue our story about the creation of the Grovewalker class. Today we will talk about the work of our artists, the search for the visual image and style of the mage of nature. Additionally, you will learn whether the Grovewalker's costume is environmentally friendly, about the number of joints in the phytoform's arms, and what anise has to do with all that. Enjoy!

What makes the Grovewalkers of Skyforge different from similar creatures in other games?

In myths and legends, they are first and foremost mages of nature. They live in forests, can communicate with wild animals, and turn into them when necessary. However, nature on Aelion is neither hostile nor aggressive - take the Stobor, for example. Even if players could turn into a Menar or Ursun, they would not look particularly intimidating.

That's why we started to search for alternatives among the invaders. Aswangs were an option. The Grovewalker would turn into some insect and use poison or webbing in their abilities. But that appearance seemed too dark. The Revenant was already gloomy enough. We wanted something brighter and more positive. So we chose the Phytonides. Various plants, mushrooms, flowers, trees provided a good breeding ground for creativity.

Search for ideas Creating drafts Choosing an archetype The original idea was that of a tropical voodoo shaman.

Grovewalker Weapon

In Skyforge, sci-fi and fantasy elements come together, but the majority of classes have technologically complex weapons and use various devices. The nature magic of the Grovewalkers is too fantasy-like which makes this class different from most others. In most media, mages use a staff, but we wanted to make not just a staff, but a tree, so you could see that it's a mage of nature. All abilities emphasize that. We believe that fantasy fans will enjoy playing this class!

Shapes and Colors

We used various plants as a reference when creating class costumes. The Grovewalkers do not "wear" metal or plastic, so you could say it's the most eco-friendly class! The alternate costume was meant to be a spirit of nature, a living tree.

The alternate appearance is similar but a bit gloomier - the "dark side" of the class. The idea was to show the symbiotic nature of the class without making players think of it as a mutant.

The visual effects for the Grovewalker's abilities also contain nature elements and "phytogenous" colors - green and yellow hues. For Diocinia flowers, we used the shape of anise pods as a reference.

Phytoform Appearance

The phytoform's size had to be impressive - it's a defensive form, after all. It also needed to move quickly and deal great damage in an area. We had variations on the mushroom theme and swamp monsters, but in the end we picked the "plant" version. Lianas of the phytoform can extend and twine, and the body is encased in an armored shell that sprouts spikes. So the plant theme runs through all visual aspects of the Grovewalker. Phytoform and human form are different from each other in their structure: liana arms have no joints, and the legs are animal-like.

When animating the phytoform, we thought of animals and gorillas in particular. We wanted to make movement and all attacks different from those of a human, so the phytomorph often goes down on all fours. But it couldn't be on all fours all the time, because it uses its liana arms for attacks.

That's it for now, see you in the next developer update!