Hi there, I’m Ahlvie!
I’m the builder, modeller and map designer for Kingdom Life II and I’ve led the revamp from it’s near 10 year build to the high detail and realistic map it is today.
I’ve therefore decided to do a tutorial on how to design and build/model a large scale fantasy medieval town with nature as I’ve come to specialise in these two things with my job. This is because, with great map design, you can change your map from looking dull and flat (no matter how great your builds are) to making it blend together and creating a beautiful scene. I’ll be using KL2 as a case study.
You can view some other examples of my medieval or nature based work below.
Contents
I’ll divide this tutorial into 6 sections:
1. Stylization
2. Map layout
3. Terrain sculpting
4. Scene building
5. Lighting
6. Final details
Stylization and Inspiration
Stylization
Stylization is about geometry and colour palette. Geometry refers to ther 3D visuals. Which means choosing whether your map is low poly or high detail - or a blend of these. Colour palette determines the colours you’re going for as well as the general mood that you’re going for.
It is also important to consider colour palette when considering geometry. Stricly low poly builds tend to utilise lighter and brighter flat colours to make it cartoony and give a happy and bright atmosphere.
In comparison, higher detail builds tend to use more muted colours that are toned down. Darker colours are often used to show scarier and dangerous atmospheres.
For Kingdom Life II, I used a low amount of vibrant colours to keep it realistic. I also used unified colours that blend well together. Whereas, low poly builds tend to have bolder and brighter colour schemes that are more striking and stand out more.
You can see here I used a lot of the same shades of brown, white and grey for the overall build and props:
I also sticked to this general colour scheme with my nature scenes with the rare vibrant colour to make my nature such as flowers or mushrooms stand out.
Map layout
Deciding your map layout at the beginning is a crucial step to success with map design. You should decide the placement of your buildings, paths and landmarks before you make these assets. When sculpting out your map, you may find it helpful to include placeholder blocks with accurate scale representations for items such as houses/buildings, lanterns or trees. This is also useful for considering positioning and how everything else will fit into the scene. That way, they are accurate to scale and you can save a lot of time by not having to resize things later.
You can see an example here
Before I started the revamp for KL2, I created a little sketch over the previous town as a starting point for its design with ideas on what I wanted to change or add.
Most of the ideas that I wanted to incorporate in the original design here were added, but it is important to note that not all of them were. This is mostly because the houses I made were much larger than the old ones, and I wanted to stretch the map out more and include completely new locations. It is important to note that not all of your ideas will be represented in the final product - and that’s good, because your ideas should evolve over time as your vision becomes more clear.
When considering the placement of your map layout, consider the perspective of the player. I frequently go into test mode to check the scale of things in comparison to the player and to look at what the player will see. Based on this, I will make informed decisions - such as making the area feel more enclosed by filling the distant landscape with mountains, or adjusting the height of trees or buildings.
Considering this, you should also keep in mind at this stage what variations in terrain you want. I made the location with the inn and tavern slope downwards, because these were the tallest buildings and if they were on the flatter surface, it would be more imposing from a player perspective.
You may also want to mark your locations for water masses such as rivers, lakes, ponds, waterfalls or oceans at this point in time, as it is crucial to do these earlier on, before you have put all your assets in.
Terrain sculpting
Terrain variation is important because realistic and detailed land has a lot of variation in elevation. The key to a well designed map is through detailed and realistic land mass.
Even subtle terrain changes such as these will add far more detail than simple flat land.
However, it is also important to include more elaborate terrain changes such as this complete slope down or this hill. Note that it is not a straight slope, but a curved one, with variations. This is more natural looking than a straight slope.
As you can see here, it is important to use variation in terrain materials as well. I use a lot of cobblestone, grass (or leafy grass for when I need flat grass) and rock. You want to make sure your cobblestone isn’t too wide, or it’ll look unnatural.
To make realistic rocks, you use the Grow tool in the terrain tab and select rock. Make sure to turn the base size and strength down.
Add a little bit of growth in one area, and then slightly to the left or right, add a smaller amount to create something like this:
You may then want to paint behind it to make the back of it look more rock-like.
You can dot these around the map in areas that feel a little more empty to make it more realistic and aesthetically pleasing.
When considering water masses such as rivers, or lakes and ponds, you want to make sure that you first use the subtract tool with the square brush to create a deep gap in the terrain.
Note that it may take a few attempts to achieve the shape you want. It should be curvved instead of completely straight.
Then use the add tool and make sure the grid looks something like this so your water spreads evenly to fill part of the gap.
You may also want to consider painting the sides rock to make it more realistic. You can follow these same principles for lakes, ponds and rivers.
To make these types of walls with a higher terrain, you must create the path with the cobblestone paint tool first, and then add in the stone walls around it. Make sure that the stone walls are not too tall and are lower than your player.
Then use the grass add tool with the grid like this to fill the inside of the wall.
Then simply gently use the erode tool on bits that come out from the wall to get rid of any excessive terrain.
Use a mixture of these techniques and tips to sculpt your terrain and create a base for your props.
Scene building
I consider scene building to be putting all of the assets you’ve made (buildings, lanterns, plants, wells, etc) into the terrain you have sculpted. This includes positioning, scale, colour and angles, with the player’s perspective in mind.
Note: I will do a tutorial on modelling or building some of these assets if there is a demand for it.
When building a scene, it is important to consider colour palette and where you want your splashes of contrasting colours. For example, I have used bright colours with flags and flowers to contrast with the general muted colours of my build:
Variation is crucial when building your scene. If you have to use some of the same props, such as flowers, change their colours, size and angle to create a beautiful scene and display of nature.
Consider filling empty spaces with props such as barrels, crates, rocks, trees and plants - at different variations.
You can also use a mixture of meshes and terrain to create a realistic and detailed rock formation like this:
You should lay out high detail props around a scene to increase the level of detail like this. By copying and changing the angle of the axes or swords here and including different options, you make it seem like more of a weapons market.
When considering scene building, also consider how the things you have made will be animated and how this will bring life to a scene. Will the trees or plants move in the wind? Will there be NPCs walking around going about their day? What about butterflies or birds? Even the most subtle animations such as falling leaves or a day/night script will bring a lot more life to a scene.
You can see the impact of animated features in these gifs:
Examples:
Lighting
When it comes to lighting, there’s one key word: Atmosphere. You want the colour and brightness of your lights to work with your world. One thing to keep in mind is that in order to get a good atmosphere, you need more than just lights dotted around the map carefully.
You need to alter the settings in Lighting, and it’s advised that you use the Atmosphere object. The colour for your lights usually can be taken from your already chosen colour palette.
What we do to create a beautiful day/night cycle in Kl2 is:
We set up several Atmosphere objects, each carefully finetuned by hand for every key moment in the day (morning, midday, early afternoon, mid afternoon, evening, late evening, night). We then let the game cycle through a day. When the timer hits a certain point of the day, we use TweenService to tween the atmosphere to the appropriate Atmosphere’s properties. The main properties you’ll be using are Haze, Glare, Color and Decay. Experiment with these properties until you come to a satisfying result.
It is also important to put the Lighting properties to use. Animating the ColorShift_Top property during the day to make the sun feel warmer is one of the many tricks you can use to help shape your world’s atmosphere.
A good lighting setting is what makes the difference between these:
Final Details
One way to add some final details to your map is to use particle effects. You can use leaf particles near trees to add a beautiful falling leaf effect - shown in an earlier gif.
I recommend using these settings to create a good and realistic falling leaf effect.
You can also fill in any blank spaces with some of the tips you’ve learned earlier in this tutorial. Fill a blank space with a terrain rock, or some other fitting props like flowers, barrels or crates.
Now is also a good time to fix any final clipping issues with your build. It is important to always check that these issues are fixed when you’re done with everything. Make sure to go into test mode to get the player’s perspective of potential issues.
Thank you for reading!
Hope this was helpful, and let me know if you have any questions.
