The Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen team has been grinding away, getting the test realm ready with the new art style and the 24/7 gameplay mode. Soon, our pre-alpha testers will get to experience it all first hand, and we could not be more excited to get them in the game.
In this month's Producer Letter, we talk about the details of the Pantheon art update, and explain why this move was so important for the future of the game. Learn the details of the decision process and get a look at the progress the developers have already made in this new style. You will also find updates to development and a calendar with important dates for October.
It should be a fun month ahead and we look forward to sharing more news with you next month!
"This is about 4 or 5 times more art than we were able to produce with the old style."
I imagine that this not only helps the team to feel more accomplished, but that behind this summary statement there is data evidence of how impactful this shift will be for progression. In that, I hope this milestone is celebrated.
So far, there are parts I like and parts I dislike about this change. Regardless, I can certainly understand why the change was necessary. I am keeping an open mind and looking forward to seeing VR's vision of this realm come to life.
I really really hope the team is taking feedback regarding lighting, cartoonish facial features etc. We realize you have to make this change because of time and we are happy you are making good progress on content. But not adjusting it or reducing the cartoonish aspect of it is not good. If you ignore feedback on this, then it tells me I shouldn't pursue the game any further because you will ignore feedback in other ways. I think if you handle this well it will be a good sign, otherwise it doesn't bode well.
After seeing this, I've got an awful pit in my stomach and I wanna vent somewhere. I'm probably going to sound like I'm trying to berate or hurt someone's feelings, and i'm sorry for that, I just feel immeasurably disappointed.
Let's start with this: I understand why you switched styles. Like, completely. The old style would absolutely age out (for example: every Korean MMO ever) and probably took insane amounts of time, money, and performance. Totally understand. But... you chose poorly drawn, budget Saturday morning cartoons/"Fortnite at home" as your style? That feels wrong. We've got to be seeing WIPs or something, because these abs look like they've been drawn onto the character models.
Furthermore, this style looks like so many of the shovelware, pay-to-win WoWclones from the late '00s to early '10s. There's very little character here. And the character that is here, tonally flies in the face of the world and lore you've built. I love what I've read of Terminus, the stories that Joppa has told in the various play sessions you guys have shown off. I love Faerthale's look. Honestly, so much of what you've shown off is beautiful, dark and gritty. This style cannot show that off. You can't make something as actually spooky as the Black Rose Keep.
I want to emphasize--realism and tone are very different things. They don't have anything to do with each other. The new style feels like a mobile game I saw an ad for on youtube yesterday, that I cannot remember the name of, for the life of me. WoW is, at least in the early to mid years, a good example of a stylized art style that takes itself seriously. You could have, and some people I'm sure have had, actually spooky experiences in WoW. I don't believe you can do this in pantheon's new style.
I'm sorry this was such a huge negative response. I'm sorry you guys have had so much backlash on this (outsided of the forums). I hope you realize that we aren't mad because we wanna see you fail, we're mad because this style change flies in the face of the tone of the world you've been selling some of us on for a decade. This feels like a gut punch. A betrayal. Like being told a gift you were given is actually for someone else.