“After gathering references from the game, I started gathering real-world references. I used a lot of Arabian, African, and Native-American buildings as reference for my own building, as their shape language came very close to that of the game.
I also gathered references for the landscape I wanted to go for. I wanted the terrain to be lush and grassy so I could play around with natural colors coming from trees, flowers, and other vegetation. I tried to look at both landscapes from the game and real-world locations.
Finally, I borrowed the game’s official art book from our school library and looked at concepts for the architecture. One particular building, concepted by Miguel Bouchard, stood out to me because, even though it had a very simple silhouette and minimal decoration/set dressing, it offered a lot of room for expansion and personal touch. I then took some rough measurement estimates of the building and broke down the modular kit.”
