Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Details Practical and Creative Reasons Behind Change to a Painted Art Style

mmorpg.com:

As with many MMORPGs, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’ s development journey has seen its fair share of changes and evolutions. One of the most recent and significant changes was highlighted in the September Producer's Letter: a brand new art direction.

The letter began by addressing the unveiling of Pantheon 's new art direction through a 5-minute video. The team explained why they decided to go  in a less realistic art style. Some of it was for creative reasons, but some of the decision was strategic. Not only is is less costly to produce, it’s faster to work in this new style.

“A simpler style is less taxing on hardware, making it much easier to hit faster frame rates and less likely to slow down performance in busy areas. Additionally, the style is much quicker to create and implement. In August, for example, we were able to add models for Gadai camps, crafting stations, 3 new creatures, 4 armor sets, miscellaneous environment objects and textures like stumps and dead trees, ground textures, bushes, grass, several player and NPC animations, six new creature concepts and more. This is about 4 or 5 times more art than we were able to produce with the old style.”

In addition, they are able to get away from the limitations that their previous aesthetic, primarily using Unity assets, entailed.

Visionary Realms, the developer behind Pantheon , is a crowdfunded team of around 30 members. The shift to a more efficient art style aligns perfectly with their budgetary constraints. Beyond the practical benefits, the new art style also gives Pantheon a unique identity, setting it apart from other RPG-style games. The team believes that this distinctive identity will enhance the game's recognizability and appeal to a broader