BioWare has posted news about Onderon. What is Onderon you ask? Well it is one of the new planets players will be able to experience with the with the launch of the ‘Onslaught’ Expansion this September. 195v4x
If you played KOTOR 2, you know that Onderon whas one of the planets in the game.
Here is an interview with art Director, Carrie Meade, about pulling back the curtain on bringing this iconic planet to SWTOR.
For starters, what is your role here on the SWTOR team?
On the game editor whispering.
What lessons or aspects from the creation of other planets came into play when bringing Onderon to life?
Lots of things! For Onderon we had a wealth of reference to something we really honed when we were building Copero. We made sure we utilized all directions, not just left and right but we wanted the floor/ground and the above areas to be visually rich as well.
For the jungles outside the Onderon cities, we took a look at how the jungles were done on environment and the creature reference from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, really trying to craft lifeforms that harken to the established creature look and like they would be at home in the jungle biome.
One thing we are doing new on Onderon is we are trying out a more modular approach to our city building – meaning the city is broken up into several sections. This allows for more variety and options, instead of doing fully modeled single structures with limited options. You’ll have to play Onderon and let us know how you think that worked out!
What type of environment will players be experiencing on this planet?
On Onderon, gameplay in an Onderon city as well as visit the Onderon Palace. There are lots of exciting places to go and see.
With all the planets to choose from, what was it about Onderon that made the team want to include it with the expansion?
Onderon is a planet that is visually dense with nice variety in its locations and creatures, and is very beautiful. It affords us many unique game and story opportunities, including a moon that players visit for the new Operation.
Building off of that last question, how did the team go about adding a unique touch to the planet?
The team really loves when we get a chance to do our interpretation of an existing planet. It is a challenge to take something existing and give it our own end product for this process:
Once we have the environment look, then we branch out into deg the characters, trying to think about our reference and challenging ourselves to make unique, fresh designs that look like they would exist in those locations.
Okay, last question – what are you excited for players to see while traversing and exploring Onderon?
The whole thing, the planet, the characters, the creatures, the story and the gameplay! I hope the players have as much fun enjoying the planet as we did making it!
