Area Design

Hero’s Journey is lush and dramatic, created with a prismatic palette and assembled with a fine eye for detail. Every area is extraordinary eye candy, from acres of forest to docile villages.

Simutronics’s lead art designer Tracy Butler and her staff have created thousands of set pieces, props, environments, and effects to bring the world of Elanthia to life. In-game developers -- called GameMasters -- employ this vast and ever-growing catalog of assets when building the various areas (levels) of the game.

HeroEngine, Simutronics’ proprietary world-building toolset, allows several GameMasters to work on the same area at the same time. One GameMaster may put in the ground, the sky, and the water features while another follows behind with trees, shrubs, flowers, or buildings. Some assets are designed or modified by the GameMasters themselves to fit a particular area, including particle effects and custom colorizations. With state-of-the-art heightmap tools built into HeroEngine, GameMasters can even create entire new areas that blend with existing tilesets from the art team.

It’s more than just snazzy graphics, though. Hero’s Journey has enlisted a team of multi-talented area designers to transform these graphic elements into eye-popping, jaw-dropping ensembles.

Coders and quest teams have a hand in each area’s creation, bringing certain details to the forefront or setting booby-traps in the shadows. There’s a potential quest in every asset, so players will need to stay on their toes!

The primary cities of Quillmore, Stal-Hagen, Oakhome, and Soarhaven are individually flavored to reflect the history of the inhabitants and their politics.

Stal-Hagen The last of the great Gearsmith cities, Stal-Hagen is the home of the leaders of the Gearsmiths. It is built over a huge chasm in the Crimson Mountains. Stal-Hagen is a proud, old city that would have been considered small in the Golden Age.

Quillmore The home of House Quillmore, one of the last of the great Human families. Quillmore is overseen by Lord Regas Quillmore IV, whose family was honor-bound to protect and serve the Arcanum in days of old.

Oakhome Founded by the Nature-wizards of the Kinnaes when they fled to Velzier Forest. Oakhome is a city of trees, built on the bones of an old, long-dead settlement.

Soarhaven Because it is not on one of the three major landmasses, Soarhaven is considered to be the ideal neutral territory for the Council of the Triumvirate. It was one of the first cooperative and restorative efforts of the three major organizations post-Sundering, built by architects and workers on all sides.