Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games E-Book

Paul Davies

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 114

Beschreibung

Explore the world of all three Total War: WARHAMMER games in this stunning compendium, packed with concept art, final designs, storyboards, and artist commentary.Total War: WARHAMMER is the award-winning PC strategy game trilogy from Creative Assembly. Set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, it combines grand campaigns of epic empire-building with battles of breathtaking scale, brimming with the warriors, wizards, and monsters that fans know and love.Delve into the rich lore of Games Workshop's world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, as viewed through the Total War lens. Total War: WARHAMMER – The Art of the Games offers Creative Assembly's insights into the development of the series. Pore over concept sketches, texture studies, character art, and fully rendered paintings, accompanied by commentary from the artists themselves. Featuring artwork of iconic characters and scenes from parts I and II, as well as never-before-seen art from the trilogy's thundering grand finale, this coffee-table tome is an essential collector's item for any Warhammer or Total War fan.

Leseprobe

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMERThe Art of the Games

Standard edition ISBN: 9781803361697Limited edition ISBN: 9781785652738

Published by Titan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd144 Southwark StreetLondonSE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

first edition: March 20222 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

© Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2022. All rights reserved.Warhammer, the Warhammer logo, GW, Games Workshop, The Gameof Fantasy Battles, the twin-tailed comet logo, and all associated logos,illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons,characters, and the distinctive likeness thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world,and used under licence. Developed by Creative Assembly and publishedby SEGA. Creative Assembly, the Creative Assembly logo, Total War andthe Total War logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of TheCreative Assembly Limited. SEGA and the SEGA logo are either registeredtrademarks or trademarks of SEGA Corporation or its affiliates. SEGA isregistered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other trademarks,logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

Did you enjoy this book? We love to hear from our readers.Please e-mail us at: [email protected] or write toReader Feedback at the above address.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior writtenpermission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form ofbinding or cover other than that in which it is published and without asimilar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Paul davies

Contents

6

Foreword

Total War:WARHAMMER

10

Warhammer

12

The Empire

22

Dwarfs

32

Greenskins

40

Vampire Counts

48

Bretonnia

54

Chaos Warriors

58

Norsca

62

Wood Elves

66

Beastmen

Total War:WARHAMMER II

72

Warhammer II

74

Lizardmen

84

High Elves

94

Dark Elves

102

Skaven

110

Tomb Kings

118

Vampire Coast

128

The Hunter & The Beast

130

The Shadow & The Blade

132

The Warden & The Paunch

134

The Twisted & The Twilight

136

The Silence & The Fury

Total War:WARHAMMER III

140

Warhammer III

142

Nurgle

150

Tzeentch

158

Slaanesh

166

Khorne

174

Kislev

180

Ogre Kingdoms

186

Grand Cathay

192

Acknowledgments

Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games

Foreword

And so we come to the end of the Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy.

The team here at Creative Assembly has talked on and off abouta fantasy game since the inception of Total War over twenty yearsago. Shogun: Total War, the first title in the series, actually beganlife as a concept for an RPG based on Wu Cheng’en’s sixteenthcentury novel Journey to the West, so it’s been a long and windingroad to get to where we are today.

After completing Total War: ROME II in 2013, we’d built theconfidence to branch out and work on something new. The timewas right for us to see if we could expand the appeal of Total Warfrom history into the realms of fantasy.

However, we weren’t quite so confident that we couldsuccessfully develop our own fantasy IP… What if everyonewanted to pull in different directions? The prospect seemed riskyfor a team so used to making historical games.

Many of us grew up playing Games Workshop games. It’s aBritish institution (or in Kev’s case, Canadian!). Games Workshophelped shape our upbringing as gamers, developers, and artists.

We’d been in light contact with Games Workshop for a numberof years, so we met up with them to discuss the prospect of doinga Total War game set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.They’re a great bunch, and we all got on well. The idea hit anemotional chord with everyone, so we enthusiastically agreed tomove forward with the idea.

Back in 2013, we had no idea of the potential scope, scale, anddiversity within this world. While a plethora of ideas were thrownaround, I think the team’s expectation was, ‘Well, we’ve made somany Total War games in the past, how hard is it to take what weknow and add dragons to the mix?’ As it turns out, it took a bitmore than that, and it was a lot harder than we thought!

What started as a smaller, single-game project soon tookon a life of its own, and we quickly realized we’d need a trilogyto do Warhammer justice, and to a level that matched ourambition. Once we got cracking and re-immersed ourselves inthe Warhammer world, things really took off. We split the TotalWar team into separate historical and fantasy teams. We had abig hiring challenge on our hands then, and we scoured the Earthto hire for an extended fantasy team, looking for the best, mostcapable artists with a team mindset and a positive outlook.

As work on the first game began, we tested different artstyles, ranging from straight reproductions of the miniaturesto something ultra-gritty and grimdark. Applying the samefastidious attention to detail we learned making historical games,we settled on a plausible-yet-cinematic image of the tabletop IP,which we thought best represented the living world that tabletopplayers hold in their imaginations.

As the team adapted to the unique styling the Warhammerworld is built upon, we started to get a handle on just howmuch we needed to learn. We needed to push ourselves andour capabilities. Bringing Vargheists, Wyverns, and giant StoneScorpions to life was completely out of our swords-and-sandalscomfort zone. But the passion of the team prevailed – we learned agreat deal as we progressed, and we carried those lessons into eachsuccessive game, constantly refining the art style into what theplayer sees today.

Given the breadth, complexity, and novelty of the IP, theseprojects have helped us develop our approach to making games.We’ve grown hugely, both as individuals and as a team. The

legacy of this epic journey is that it has opened our eyes to newpossibilities, and left us as an energized and hugely capable team.Our creative confidence has grown, and our vision for the futurehas expanded.

We’ve faced a lot of challenges along the way, but overcomingthose challenges has been immensely rewarding. The team’soutward-facing profile has changed, our industry colleagues areaware of us now in a way they weren’t before the Warhammerseries – plus they seem to like what we’ve been doing!

The team has gone through many changes since the beginning.

6

We’re all proud of the effort and achievement that went intobringing Warhammer to life – while retaining that special saucewhich defines a Total War game.

We owe a debt of gratitude to each and every artistand animator who had a hand in creating the Total War:WARHAMMER series. We’ve had the honor of working with avast array of over 200 artists, each a skilled expert in their field.So to all our animators, our motion capture team, environmentartists, technical artists, technical animators, character artists,concept artists, illustrators, cinematic artists (2D/3D and in-

game), VFX artists, UI Artists, and graphic designers: we couldn’thave done without each and every one of you.

We also owe a huge thank-you to Games Workshop, whoworked tirelessly to help us bring their world to life in all its glory.Without their constant close assistance, their depth of insight, andall the primary-source material we could possibly need, Total War:WARHAMMER would not be the epic experience it is today.

Blood for the Blood God!!—Baj Singh, Chris Waller, Greg Alston, Kevin McDowellAugust 19th, 2021

7

Total War: Warhammer - The Art of the Games

WARHAMMER

This is one of the greatest ‘What If…?’ moments ever tohave seen reality.

Just like legendary Ghal Maraz from the Forgeof the Gods, Total War: WARHAMMER stands as aunique manifestation of inspiration and ingenuity.Bearing the truest hallmarks of destiny, it is the resultof a collaboration between two strategy gamingpowerhouses with longstanding reputations and armiesof loyal followers.

Games Workshop launched Warhammer as atabletop role-playing game in 1983, seventeen yearsbefore Creative Assembly would bring its ambitiousShogun: Total War to PC. Within a similar timeframe,the Total War series grew to claim exulted status on itschosen battlefield.

When Total War: WARHAMMER was unveiled in2015, the unified potential of these two titans of tacticalcombat was readily apparent.

Mike Simpson, executive producer at CreativeAssembly, shares the origins of the studio dreambehind making ‘fantasy Total War,’ and a veryparticular common interest, “When we were lookingfor a fantasy strand for Total War, we thought aboutmaking our own, and honestly we would have neverstopped arguing about it. It’s difficult to create afantasy world. It takes a huge amount of effort. It’smuch easier to take one that’s already been arguedover and [has] matured over a long period of time.Warhammer certainly satisfied that aspect – a hugeworld, a huge amount of content.” It was a world thatMike Simpson knew very well, having been “dippingin and out of the Warhammer franchise from the verybeginning; mostly playing their RPG stuff rather thanthe tabletop battles.”

The franchise’s appeal for Creative Assembly wastwofold: an established lore and the battle-orientedfocus that showed signs of being ideal for Total War.Simpson was not the only Warhammer aficionadoeither, with game director Ian Roxburgh among thosethrilled to pursue the lead.

Similar enthusiasm was brewing elsewhere too,fortuitously, as art director Kevin McDowell explains.While Creative Assembly deliberated over this newfantasy direction for Total War, under a mood thatKevin McDowell describes as “hesitant,” owing to therisks involved in starting something so substantial fromscratch – “we’d never done that before; our designerswere focused on history” – Games Workshop had beenactively reaching out for a conversation.

“Games Workshop and ourselves had been in touch,once every year or two, saying, ‘Hey, what about doinga Total War: WARHAMMER game?’” says McDowell.“Previously, we’d not had the right space to do it, butit came to a point after Total War: ROME II where webecame big enough and confident that we could splitthe team into a history stream and a fantasy stream.”

A licence between Games Workshop and CreativeAssembly was agreed, and the rest as they say was history.

10

WARHAMMER

11

Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games

The Empire

Among the early challenges facing CreativeAssembly were it’s art style and picking a roster ofcharacters and troops for each race – channelingdecades of awesome Warhammer content into thegrand Total War design, starting with franchisecornerstones that included the Empire.

The Empire territory offered a wealth ofarchitectural variety, contrasting city edifices withrural elements. “The key was careful exaggeration,”explains technical art director Chris Waller. “Theoverhanging tiered construction of period citybuildings is pushed to the limit of plausibility, andnumber of tiers increased. Things are a little stackedand cluttered. The top-heavy and unstable themeis extended to ‘hero buildings’ which create pointsof interest in the city, both for visual impact andas a navigational aid for players: observatories andcrooked towers. They share the core principles of thecity architecture. Our rural set combines Europeanbuilding style elements from farmhouses and barns.As a counterpoint, military buildings are stoicand strong, less whimsical and more serious. It’simportant to have contrast, since it feels unnatural ifevery building is the same type in a settlement.”

Richard Aldridge, lead designer on the firstgame and DLC game director, recalls those earlybrainstorming sessions and settling on the rosters:“That is the hardest job – still the hardest job – inwhat we do, because there’s a lot of cool stuff. Whydoes that get in and that not get in? A lot of the

ABOVE: Sketch and concept of Balthasar Gelt.

BELOW (left to right): Karl Franz, General,Game Advisor, Captain.

12

Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games

ABOVE: A variety of the different Empire Wizards.

ABOVE AND BELOW: Concepts ofdifferent Empire Troops.

14

The Empire

time, it comes down to who the main players are in this race andcreating a strong theme around them.”

Chris Waller was tasked with figuring out how to bringthe myriad personas of Warhammer to life. “In the end, wewent with something close to our house style, but it wasn’t a

completely rigid thing where, with humans, we stylized thema little bit,” explains Waller. “A certain amount of that camefrom the [Warhammer] IP, but pushed slightly more in termsof exaggerating proportions. Stepping away from the morerecognizable ‘humanoids,’ we would push things farther so that,

BELOW: Detailed facialconcepts of Empire Nobles.

15

Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games

16

the empire

17

Total War: Warhammer – The Art of the Games

ABOVE: Sketch and color concepts of Empire citybuildings.

BELOW: Concept painting of an Empire city.

for Orcs or crazier creatures, we kept them realistic in termsof surfacing and plausible proportions and anatomy. But thenwe would push them, because… we could. We wanted to make