Studio Black’s 3D Artist Lead Akash Garg has dropped a new developer diary about the character designs of All Under Heaven for Crusader Kings 3, giving players a look at the inspiration found in the upcoming expansion.
Garg explains that the biggest inspirations for every aspect of character design were the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. By researching and reviewing art from the era, the team came up with a mood board that was the start of concept art. This fueled 84 pieces of Chinese culture assets for All Under Heaven, including 16 hairstyles, 21 pieces of clothing, 12 beards, 12 leg pieces, 18 headgear, 2 armor sets, and 3 map units.
The research can be seen in various parts of the designs, including the patterns and color palettes. Here are some of the concept art that Studio Black shared:
The design team went through this same process for other areas that are coming with the All Under Heaven expansion for Crusader Kings 3. This led to 47 assets rooted in Japanese culture, including 6 hairstyles, 18 clothing assets, 4 beards, 5 leg pieces, 9 headgear, 2 armor sets, and 3 map units.
A look at these can be seen below:
There were also two sets of clothes and headgear created for the Khmer Empire:
There were also several other improvements that Garg discusses, which include a range of new Asian ethnicities for characters and better-looking character models in general. Examples of these can be seen below:
Players can watch the developer diary itself below to hear about the changes and get more of a look at the character design process in All Under Heaven:
Crusader Kings 3 is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, though there’s no release date for the All Under Heaven expansion quite yet. The game just celebrated its five-year anniversary, sharing fun stats and impressive numbers to celebrate.
