Bringing Shiv to Life

Shiv is one of many iconic lands that players will have the opportunity to explore in Magic: Legends. The continent is a tempestuous hotbed of volcanic activity that serves as an enormous source of red mana for the plane of Dominaria. The inhospitable landscape is pockmarked with crags and mountains that serve as home to numerous and equally unwelcoming creatures such as goblins and kavu. 

The Landscape

The development of all environments for Magic: Legends begins with visual references from MTG card art and our incredible concept team. To start the process of building Shiv, the concept team sought cards and art that spoke to the lore that defined the land. One shining example we landed on is the legendary Shivan Gorge card which features classic art from Adam Paquette. Once our concepts have been informed and fleshed out, our team of environmental artists extrapolates on them to bring Shiv to life as a playable space within our engine. 

During this process, we work closely with the designers to support and enhance the gameplay experience by telling a story unique to Shiv. Geology plays a visually loud role in this land, so there is a lot of geological history involved in making it an immersive environment. From the moment the player first enters Shiv, we want them to feel the heat of the geothermal vents as well as the sweltering atmosphere. This place is not for the delicate creature for sure, and it will not leave anyone feeling warm and cozy. Players will encounter flowing magma, steep cliffs that drop to a boiling sea, and – if the rumors are true – perhaps a dragon or two.

Culture is equally important when telling the environmental story. Who and what lives there now? What happened before that? Sometimes the inhabitants of a land fit well in their environment and sometimes they are at war with the land. The goblins of Shiv for example are conceptually and visually in contrast with the world around them. We show this with the shanty structures they build, the blind destruction of the land, and the striking difference of goblin greens against the red surroundings.
 

The Denizens

We gave the inhabitants of Shiv the same level of care and consideration we give Planeswalkers and the environment. We identified the central themes, what defines them, and then looked to existing art for inspiration. From there we built out the concept and then the model.
For the Kavu, we really tried to capture the flame tongue Kavu card as much as possible. It has such an aggressive and bold look that we felt would really read well for our game. This was one of the easier critters to create for Magic: Legends because the existing card art was so bold and well-defined. 

We looked a lot of different cards both old and new for the goblins. Our goal was to stay true to the newer more refined cards but pay homage to the older cards through subtle visual nods. Since they were always a crazy bunch of critters, there was a lot of room for us to get creative. One of the tougher problems to solve for this group though was their size. They had to read well through an isometric camera angle, so we really had to boil them down to their key features without losing all the ramshackle details that distinguish them from one another. This meant we had to thicken their metal elements and trinkets for visibility. We also tried to give each goblin a unique element to further differentiate them, such as a special helmet or hood or weapon type.



It goes without saying that this is just the tip of the content Magic multiverse players will explore in Magic: Legends. Our hope is that the storytelling is evident in each nuanced detail, and we look forward to sharing this experience with everyone.

See you in Shiv!

Matt McCulloch, Lead Environment Artist, and Barclay Chantel, Art Director

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