Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment have announced that their upcoming free-to-play online Action RPG Magic: Legends, will feature Magic:The Gathering's Tolaria, the legendary island of the plane of Dominaria and home of to the original Tolarian Academy, a renowned place of study where talented spellcasters and researchers from all over Dominaria come to study.
In the latest Magic: Legends blog post, the developers revealed our first look at the game's depiction of Tolaria from the lore of the popular trading card game, showing screenshots of the iconic region.
"Tolaria's unique aesthetic comes from the striking juxtaposition of the Academy's architecture against the stunning vistas created by the land, all of which is surrounded by a cerulean ocean backdrop," Magic: Legends Lead Environment Artist Matt McCulloch said. "We were confident in our collective ability to translate the beautiful area in our minds but, like the rest of the areas we had built out, unique needs challenged our existing implementation processes."
McCulloch went on to talk about the outstanding challenge in developing Tolaria:
"The outstanding challenge we faced with Tolaria was one of structure. While we had established strong processes for regions filled with natural elements, Tolaria would serve as our first journey into an area that featured a massive quantity of detailed architectural work. In order to reach the visual bar we had set for our other spaces, we would need to further define existing processes to intersect with Tolaria's unique visual needs."
McCulloch also explained the process of designing the map filled with architectural structures:
"Our level designers worked with our team of environment artists to come up with an incredible design for the Academy. Most importantly, they developed a method that would enable us to create the entire region. Each section of the academy was created by level designers on metric squares we internally refer to as "ground tiles". One of the greatest benefits to building a region with these is that the space created with them was immediately playable. This allowed our other teams, including content, to iterate on the map while the final assets were still in development."
The official description of Magic: Legends reads:
An ancient force moves in the darkness, requiring adventurers to traverse various planes of the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse and gather the power needed to fight this evil. Developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment, players will choose their path through the planes while collecting and upgrading a multitude of spells to create a powerful spell library. Players control the chaos of spell-slinging combat as they fight to save the Multiverse from its greatest threats yet
Magic: Legends will be available for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in Spring 2021. It's currently in Close Alpha.
Related: MTG In-Store Play Suspension Extended Until January 2021
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!
Fandoms