Interview with Kaj, 2D Artist ~ New Buildings in Path to Pandora

As you may know, one of the most exciting features of the upcoming annual special, Travian: Path to Pandora, is that every tribe will have its own specific art for the buildings. A major visual overhaul provides each tribe with a new look for their buildings to capture the individual flair of those ancient civilizations.

If you read about the , you will know that despite only being allowed to play one account per round, you will still be able to see all this amazing new artwork. Our Game Designers have decided to change the basic mechanics of conquering and make things more interesting. When you conquer another tribe’s village in Path to Pandora, the village will not change tribe type, except for the Natars. 

But let’s hear more about these amazing buildings from Kaj, one of the artists that worked on bringing those to life.

What was your major inspiration for the new style?

It’s hard to nail down one specific inspiration. We knew that, in general, we wanted to go towards a slightly more realistic style, but we didn’t want to lose the cartoony feel that gave Travian its charm.

After a lot of discussions, we came to this middle ground of semi-realistic rendering, but with slightly oversaturated colors to keep it from getting too gritty. All that was needed then was just a touch of linework to be faithful to the original style.

What was your favorite building to work on?

I think my favorite building would be the Gauls’ trapper.

I’m just really happy with how it turned out and I honestly wouldn’t mind living there. It feels typically Gaul, which works perfectly as it is the tribe’s unique building.

What about the most challenging building? 

The building that went through the most revisions and changes was the embassy. It was a huge struggle to make the flags prominent, without creating any awkward overlaps.

On top of that, it was also hard to decide on the actual shape of the building, since there is no real standard for what an embassy should look like in real life.

Now, give us a bit of behind-the-scenes. Any Easter eggs?

In the original sketches of the tournament square, we were planning on a little easter egg.

All the tribes had their arrows spread out randomly over the targets. The Huns however, being master archers and all that, had all their arrows right in the middle.

Unfortunately, during the chaos of trying to get everything finished, we forgot to put it into the final images. It’s still something I hope to fix if we ever have the time.

Thank you, Kaj! We will definitely keep an eye out for those arrows.

Do you want to know more about this major visual overhaul?

Stay tuned for more insights and interesting facts about the new buildings directly from our artists and designers!