Dragon Raja

Hello everyone, I'm Chaser, the artist of Dragon Raja. I've held a paintbrush since I was little and harbored a passion for games. I'm a bit socially anxious but still a member of the Dragon Raja’s development team.

The reason I'm writing this article from an artistic perspective (though I'm not really good at writing articles) is because a teammate suddenly called me: "Players have raised a lot of questions and they all want to know how we did the art." "Do we really need to?" "Let's just give them a glimpse." "Alright..."

In the scorching August of Beijing, "Dragon Raja" went online as scheduled after three years of polishing. As one of the participants, watching this game evolve from nothing to what it is now, from piles of discarded drafts to the game world presented to everyone, I feel a mix of emotions. There are still many areas where we haven't reached perfection, but I just want to say thank you. Thank you for choosing to join the world of dragons. There are many details that could have been better, but we will continue to polish them in the future to make the world of dragons even better. After all, game development never stops after going online.

Establishing a Style: Youthful, Reflective of Memories, and Evolving with the Times

Since we're discussing art, the most frequently asked question is: How was the art style of Dragon Raja determined? As everyone knows, the game's universe is based on the Dragon Raja novels, which embody youthful fantasies. Everyone's youthful fantasies are different, so what kind of style can truly capture each person's understanding of youth? To be honest, this was a rather arduous process.

Reflecting on the original intentions of the project, a concept brought the entire team to a high level of consensus: If the overall tone of Dragon Raja is youthful fantasy, then the art style of Dragon Raja hopes to reinterpret the reconstruction of trends and modern technological culture.

We hope that the art we present is highly integrated with the world of young people.

[The words from Renata has always left a deep impression on me]

In today's fast-paced life, young people have quicker and more diverse access to trend culture (fashion trends, clothing combinations, anime culture, dance, daily life) than ever before. This is akin to this year’s variety show “Summer of Bands” much of which is rooted in the youth of the 1970s. However, the youth of the 1980s, 1990s, and even the 2000s have integrated more technological art forms, similar to the transition from Beatles to Alan Walker. With economic development, an increasing number of fusion cultures in various forms have entered our modern society, indicating a trend in historical development.

Therefore, throughout the entire project production process, we constantly remind ourselves of two points: What do young people like? What do we want to express? Both are indispensable, and their integration has become the foundation of our current design.

With 5 garbage drafts, we hope players will be willing to take leisurely strolls in the world of Dragon Raja.

Once the style is determined, the first step in building this world is to return to the worldview of Dragon Raja itself. Many players have read the Dragon Raja novels, and the span of scenes in the novels is vast, ranging from Siberia to the Cassell Academy in the United States, to the traditional Snake Qixia families in Japan and the modernized Tokyo, and so on. Therefore, in constructing scene designs, we aim to reconstruct the rapidly changing cultural elements in these scenes, much like our real-world development, while creating a world that is familiar yet full of fantasy for players.

[Office of Angkor Principal]

Of course, the creative process was far from smooth sailing. There were frequent discussions with the producers, planners, and even artists like Jiang Nan. Whether it was the architectural style when restoring original scenes (for example, for the Snake Qixia families, we ultimately chose to reference the feel of Kyoto, while for the Cassell Academy, we learned more towards European manors), or the meticulous arrangement of details and items, everything was handled with strict attention to detail. Of course, the most crucial aspect was the design of key IP character appearances (almost one-third of the garbage drafts were related to character designs). It was through these endless discussions that we gradually outlined the complete picture of the Dragon Raja world, bit by bit.

[Kyoto style reference]

With the advancement of technology, more and more high-tech products have integrated into our lives, such as touchscreen smartphones, VR, AR, electric cars, touchscreen computers, and holographic projection technology. These rapidly evolving cultural products are omnipresent. Therefore, in the worldview of Dragon Raja, we conducted a comprehensive reconstruction of the world by combining current trends in technological development: preserving the familiar structures and urban planning of traditional architectural forms while delving deep into the design of all rapidly evolving cultural products and integrating the two together. We aim to recreate a world with vivid fantasy colors, providing players with a refreshing experience.

[A glimpse of Cassell Academy]

In the character design process, we conducted our designs based on modern fashion trends. We aimed to not only adhere to the iconic character image designs but also ensure consistency with the game's stylistic worldview. Although, due to personal interests (my biggest hobbies besides work are photography and browsing fashion magazines), I have delved into fashion photography quite extensively. Nevertheless, for this project, we collected a large amount of data from street fashion photography, brand showcases, and even observed trends in trendy attire by spending time in bustling commercial districts to understand the preferences of young people. This allowed us to design fashion that suits the needs of various players. Just to clarify, we're not out of touch, we're just too busy to keep up with the latest trends!

[The design of wind wing]

[Concept design: stylish haircut]

[Concept design: costume]

In the world of Dragon Raja, the destined struggle between the hybrids and the dragon clans has endured for millions of years under the shadow of human civilization. The innate bloodlines and speech gifts of dragons and hybrids grant them powerful abilities such as freezing time and summoning flames. Amidst the millennia-long evolution of technology, humans have also mastered a series of black technologies. The collision between ancient alchemical civilization and modern scientific technology sparks splendid fireworks, and the product is alchemical technology weapons.

[A series of alchemical black technologies in the equip dept. from the original work]

In terms of mounts, we adhere to the principles mentioned earlier. We categorize mounts into three main types for design. The first type is the realistic mounts, which are based on real-world concepts such as motorcycles and sports cars. These mounts are seamlessly integrated into the story and scenes, providing players with a realistic and immersive experience. The second type is fantasy mounts, such as magical balloons and dragon-shaped flying devices. These mounts satisfy and enrich players' imagination of magic and technology, enhancing the overall fantasy of the game. The third type is personalized mounts, like a grandmother's pushcart, which offers players a more relaxed and enjoyable traveling experience.

[Taking a hot air balloon ride is indeed a romantic experience]

In the specific design process, we extensively studied industrial concept designs of motorcycles or real motorbike reference images. Based on these, we created dozens of different directional design drafts for each vehicle in the game. The advanced concepts contained in these images are invaluable for us and for those involved in related designs in the future. To borrow Newton's words, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Moreover, considering the freedom and personalization of players, various parts of our vehicles can be dyed. For example, a motorcycle can be entirely black, and a sports car can have a silver-black combination, allowing players to express their individuality.

[Some concept designs of motorcycles in the industrial ear]

[Motorcycles sketches]

[Motors in game]

[A sports car designed by a female artist]

Making the world more complete with realism: motion capture and animation artists

Actually, I grew up playing console games since I was a child, and I'm a very discerning player. Therefore, I really hope to create a world that every player will love.

It's like when I was young, every time my parents caught me playing games, they became more convinced that gaming was a form of laziness: "All you know is playing games, you won't be able to find a job in the future!" -- This actually made me more determined. I hope to recreate the real artistic world of games, just like anime or movies, so that players can enjoy entertainment while also gaining something. So being able to join the project team of "Dragon Raja" is one of the happiest things for me in over thirty years. We're actually quite ambitious; we hope to create a mobile game that can be on par with PC games, and truly achieving an open world. We hope players can immerse themselves in the world of Dragon Raja, where they can have a mindset like “watching fish while idly floating on the water" during every quest, dungeon, and social interaction.

Therefore, we've made the greatest efforts in artistic design. Apart from leveraging the PBR effects, particle effects, and other technologies achievable through the Unreal Engine, we've invited top international artists to collaborate and employed "optical motion capture" to realistically portray character forms.

Top tier international artists

During the production process, we also invited some top-notch artists to join the Dragon Raja design team, such as HICHI from "Blade & Soul," MLIN from "Dungeon Fighter Online (DNF)," and YATO from "Echo of Soul: EOS." It's our honor to work alongside these outstanding individuals.

[The artist's Dragon Raja works are shared on Facebook]

[Artist HICHI, involved in the production of Blade & Soul]

[Artist MLIN, involved in the production of DNF]

[Artist YATO, involved in the production of EOS]

Motion Capture

In fact, technologies like "optical motion capture" may sound familiar, as they have been extensively utilized and developed in the film and gaming industries abroad for quite some time. While the gaming industry in China has gradually started adopting such technologies, the extent of their usage varies significantly. We still lack systematic accumulation in this regard, and through project development, we deeply understand that there is much for us to learn and accumulate.

We are grateful for the existence of many excellent games and movies, as well as platforms that promote them. They continuously broaden our horizons and point out the direction of our learning. As a game company focused on research and development, we must continue learning and trying out various game production methods.

[We have integrated motion capture into the game engine]

[The actions of combat, daily walking, and other movements are all sourced from motion capture technology]

[We also referenced a considerable amount of choreography to conduct the “learning to Meow” dance]

When designing this animation, we hoped to include some actions in our game that are closer to players' lives, such as the 'Learning to Meow' dance, which is a heated topic at the moment. We collected many related videos and poses uploaded by netizens. Of course, the most famous one is FMT's 'Learning to Meow' song video (chuckles).

In the end:

With just a few words, it's difficult to express every detail, but thank you for patiently reading through my somewhat awkward expression. Regardless of being in the gaming industry or not, I'm just an ordinary player, like you, who loves and eagerly anticipates better gaming experiences. The most charming aspect of games is that they keep the passion of everyone involved, whether players or developers, burning bright. We will continue to invest our efforts to make the world we share even more complete.

Thank you for entering this world, let's explore it together.