You love to draw Barbarians and ancient cities? You've got a portrait of Frank hanging on the wall above your drawing table? And you're currently looking for a cool job?

Well, now is your chance... Funcom is hiring two skilled concept artists to join their Montreal studio for Age of Conan's expanding content.

I've seen some pretty damn good artworks here in the Fan Art gallery and thought some of you might be interested...

Concept Artist

"If you are into Frazetta styled art, atmospheric landscapes and ancient architecture - you may well fit into this role. You will be involved with visualizing new assets in line with the project's art direction, and the images can be ranging from greyscale sketches to more polished mood pieces, depending on request."

→ Check the job offer

Junior Environmental Artist

"The Junior Environment/Asset Artist works closely with the content designers to create mission assets. He/She has a keen eye for detail and can balance visual aesthetics with gameplay concerns. He/She works in tandem with designers to transform source material into optimized and great looking assets which enrich the gameplay experience."

→ Check the job offer

May CROM be with you !!

The long wait is finally over!! The House of Crom dungeon, or to be exact the two House of Crom dungeons have been recently released with the 3.2 update.

To make it short, the Threshold of Divinity offers a brand new gaming experience by challenging up to four six-man groups with nine separate encounters and the Vile Nativity, a six-man group dungeon, adds seven encounters.

Also, a whole set of loot and rewards designed after the mythical Atlantean culture have been added.


We were given the opportunity to ask a few questions to Craig Morrison, Age of Conan’s Game Director.

Q: The House of Crom is the biggest indoor location that was added to the game, and yet the level of details is impressive (carvings on the walls and pillars, giant statues, etc...).

What challenge(s) did you face when designing such an overwhelming environment?

A: It was a double challenge for the current team because the original work was done four years ago by an almost completely different team. House of Crom was a dungeon area that we inherited from the original design team. The first design actually had both dungeons as one huge area.

The first challenge we had was that the original artists had been more ambitious than the tech allowed. They had hoped the tech would catch up to what they wanted to achieve, and it almost did, but the area was literally so large that the game code couldn't quite handle it.

For example the development environment ran out of memory when trying to calculate the pathing data. So the first decision we made was that we had to split it up. Make it into two areas rather than one, so that we could retain the massive splendour of the area, but make sure the tech could actually handle it.

That is always the challenge when any team wants to be ambitious with a location. You have to be very careful with the boundaries so that what you create runs smoothly too. The updates to the Dreamworld engine over the last few years is what allowed us to go back and do this location justice.



Q: What advice(s) could you give to amateur 3D-artists regarding the design of such big indoor environments? Any personal trick to increase the ‘grandeur’ effect?

A: I think the textures and lighting are the keys to creating something special with a large location like this. You have to make sure the textures are correct and fit the scale, and that they don't appear to be stretching. Nothing will lessen the impact of a great model more than an obviously stretched texture.

Then the lighting is really the key to those larger areas. Creating depth and shadow is important with any location, but it becomes even more vital when you have something as large as House of Crom, where you want to heighten the sense of scale.

Things can look very flat if you don't get it right, and then you would lose the dramatic elements almost completely. It is the lighting and atmospherics (fog, critters, torches etc) that really brings a location to life.

I think this is one of the most striking parts of House of Crom. It really demonstrates how much proper lighting can add to a location. There is some video online on You Tube from a player running around the dungeon on the test server prior to the lighting being added. If you watch it and then compare it to the finished product it really drives home the importance of that area of art design.


Q: I suppose that the new technologies available since the Dreamworld engine have allowed artists and developers to play with new visual effects. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

A: The main difference there is in the advances the tech teams have added to the lighting and render engine. We can now create much more dynamic lighting set-ups, with more shadow-casting sources, and it all behaves in a much more realistic manner than anything we were able to achieve prior to the updates last year. I think you saw the advances with the content in the 'Savage Coast of Turan', and House of Crom continues that.



Q: “Visually the loot takes it's cue's from the ancient Atlantean culture, with its geometric shapes, circles and harsh angles.”

What can you tell us about the loot (equipment, weapons…)? Did you draw your inspiration from any particular historical source?...

A: Given that the influence here was the Atlantean culture, which has been long lost in Hyborian history, the designs were based form the Atlantean style that was created by the original Art director Didrik Tollefsen. It is one of those cultures in the Hyborian cannon that doesn't have as direct an inspiration as some of the other more established Hyborian cultures. This isn't as obvious as the Egyptian influence in Stygian designs, or the Greco Roman inspirations for Aquilonia.

So the inspirations came from a wider set of sources when it came to the Atlantean culture. There is a mix in there, you can see some almost Aztec influences alongside some of the more abstract Celtic type of designs. The idea was to create something that felt a little bit more ancient.


Q: …What about the architecture which is featured through the dungeons (ruins, temple and statues)?

A: It all comes from the same type of ideas, but the team had specifically looked at megalithic underground burial locations like those found in Malta, France and Ireland for inspiration for some of the structure and form. Those ancient sites that were carved or buried were of particular interest, and then the abstract design style was layered on top.



Q: The House of Crom is a great incentive for max-level characters to come back to the ‘old world’. Can we expect similar additions this year or later? Maybe revisited versions of dungeons or playfields?

A: We already did Field of the Dead last year, so yes, we probably will look at some of the older locations again, as we go along. There isn't anything specific I can confirm right now, but we have been talking a bit about which areas would benefit from a return visit.


Many thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!

Never a problem! The art and design for the game is one of the elements that set us apart from other titles, so we are always glad to spend some time on this particular topic!