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Stretching the Genre: Creating Cimerora

By Keith Cross on May 21, 2008

With the release of Issue 12: the Midnight Hour for City of Heroes and Villains, NCsoft has prepared a non-exclusive dev journal by Senior Art Lead, Ken Morse, which looks at the process behind creating the new Greek and Roman inspired area of Cimerora.

As the Senior Art Lead, it’s my job to figure out how to turn Positron and the rest of the team’s ideas into visual realities. Coming from both a film and environment art background, I am always excited when the opportunity to create new settings for the game presents itself. A Task Force inspired by ancient Greece and Rome, however, was genre-stretching territory we’d never ventured into before, and presented some serious challenges.

Could Heroes and Villains of every imaginable variety fit into an ancient, fantastic setting? Would Cimerora feel as connected to the Hero and Villain experience as Atlas Park or Mercy Island? Would it be exciting to see super powered battles between leather and bronze clad warriors in sandals versus Heroes and Villains in tights? I’d like to give you a glimpse into the process that took Cimerora from concept to completion!