Magic: Legends Offers Players a Look At The Region Of Benalia And Zone Creation

As we draw closer to... whenever Magic: Legends exact release date is sometime later this year... Cryptic Studios is offering another look at what players can expect from the game. This time, the game's Lead Environment Artist, Matt McCulloch, provided players with a look at one of the most well-known settings in Magic: The Gathering and how it is being interpreted for the upcoming ARPG.

Benalia is a powerful nation located on the contient of Aerona where most citizens worship the planeswalker Serra. It's one of the first regions the Magic: Legends team decided to add to the game and as a result has affected the development of other regions in the game. The dev blog explains the approach that the team took with Benalia, trying to bring the art of the card game to life, ensuring they have a painted look and an "otherworldly atmosphere" and making sure the colors of the environment don't override the action taking place with it.

The post also discusses the "instanced object" -- an object that can be nested in a tile due to being instanced. The end result is that the developers can create consistent but varied content on a rather large scale. It also explains the process behind blending material into the environment -- say... moss on a wall -- and how everything is pulled together to create a cohesive experience for players.

Overall, it's an insightful post for those interested in how game developers pull the environment together. For those interested, the entire post is available on the Arc Games site.