Dihua Marsh/Design

Developer Insight: Design from Life Experience

The first stop after passing through Liyue's Stone Gate is Dihua Marsh.

The task of designing Dihua Marsh was treated almost as solemnly as the Stone Gate. We imagined the player following a winding path beneath the great monoliths at nighttime, gazing up at the sea of stars shining down. This creates quite a magical mood for their journey, which culminates in their arrival at Dihua Marsh just as dawn is breaking. So Dihua Marsh had to be this first stunning sight that the player sees in the light of day.

This train of thought led us to feel that Dihua must be like the beautiful face that emerges when the veil falls away, capturing the aesthetic of Liyue in its full glory. Thus, the design of this locale became the focus of our research.

The most difficult part of this process was unifying an entire art style. How does one do that? Each person has disparate experiences, interpretations and artistic inclinations, and in working together as a team, a great number of disparate creative directions were also born. One person suggested that we could add in the pines and bamboos of Suzhou, and another felt that a Huizhou-style canal town would be best. Someone else proposed the otherworldly natural beauty of Huanglong in Sichuan, and still another spoke of an unforgettable trip they had once taken, suggesting that the area be lined with roaring rivers and misty lakes... It would be accurate to say that this area became the medium for each person's ideals of "Chinese-style beauty," "the beauty of one's hometown," and "the beauty of the land."

Coming from every corner of the world, having led disparate lives and possessing equally different souls, each of us therefore also had our very own imagined "Dihua Marsh," unlike any other. So even though it eventually took on the form you see today, in our hearts, it has a hundred forms and a thousand faces. It is holy ground, from which infinite imagination springs forth in abundance.

After many stylistic clashes, we finally set on a theme: a fantasy that leans close to real scenery. What the art department wanted to do was to keep the style of Dihua Marsh within the realms of Eastern fantasy art.

After deciding on this general theme, we began to discuss such things as "What sort of beauty is unique to Eastern fantasy?" and "What elements of art can only be found in the East?" We hoped that this land would really make an impression on people. It had to not only be pretty, but also unique, capturing both the artistry and dramatic flair of the East.

After going through huge amounts of relevant material, one piece of imagery jumped out at us: reeds. They often feature in period films, and are usually associated with scenes of austerity and bleakness.

But, could they be something else, we asked? What were reeds to us? What were they to me?

Yangshuo Scenery (for demonstration only)

Image taken from the film "A Chinese Odyssey"

As a person born and bred in Guangxi, my schooldays were spent in Guilin City, and my school itself was but a stone's throw away from Yangshuo County. I would go there to hang out when I was free. Yangshuo is situated to the south of the Guilin city area, and between its rolling hills and towering cliffs, it became a wondrous tourism hotspot. I was at home in Yangshuo, delighting in its peaks and stone forests. Against the backdrop of the Karst landforms, these sights were transformed by water bodies, vegetation, and the interplay of light and shadow in such a way that one almost felt the land itself was a living thing, expressing its emotions through these changes in some inscrutable way.

Juxtaposed against this stone scenery were the reeds that lined the banks of the Nanxu River. At sunset, the warm light would waft across from the far bank, turning the entire world into something right out of a painting. It was a beauty that had to be seen to be believed.

Bai Juyi once wrote in The Song of the Pipa Player: "Bidding goodnight to guests at Xunyang River's edge, while the autumn maple and amur shimmer in the wind." (Though reeds and amur silvergrass are not the same thing, the spaces they occupy in artistic expression are connected.)

For me, that which in isolation creates a sense of austere solitude, yet has elegant magnificence at scale, and encompasses both dramatic and natural beauty — that is the beating heart of Eastern fantasy.

According to this visualization, this area should have an ocean of flowers that springs to life beside water. I was also able to move the wonderful memories of my schooldays onto the terrain simulations we did. Thus were laid the foundations of Dihua Marsh, the core area of northern Liyue.

Eastern beauty is about striking a delicate balance — neither overdoing it, nor underdoing it. Aiming to achieve the same balance of content and empty space characteristic of Chinese landscape paintings, we constructed an array of peaks and stone forests in the distance behind that floral sea. The essence of Dihua Marsh we define as follows: vivid, expressive, and free.

Travels Afar: Guilin Chapter

"Travels Afar" Scenic Spot Collaboration Documentary - Guilin Chapter

It has been said that "Guilin has the best scenery in the world". In our eyes, this beauty lies not just in the sprawling mountains and winding rivers, but also in the fishing boats, the brick houses, smoking chimneys, and fishermen's songs. Guilin's landscapes and cultural elements played a huge role in inspiring the creation of one of Liyue's iconic areas, Dihua Marsh.
It is our greatest wish to create an open world that players will want to spend time exploring and immersing themselves in, and we will always keep striving towards that goal.

Cultural Elements in Open-World Game Design

Haidi, Environment Art Team Lead: In Genshin Impact, natural scenery is the basis of the open world but the other side of the player's experience ss the cultural elements, which create a sense of immersion. Creating a compelling cultural atmosphere is important to helping the player to embrace the game world. The architecture, the cultural landscape, and the human civilization that inhabits it must create the right atmosphere for the characters and their stories. These are all things we need to consider when designing environments. These cultural details add depth and vibrance to the world, bringing it to life. The player will join the dots in their mind as they explore the world and this minimizes any sense of loneliness. How to apply cultural elements so that they blend in with nature may look simple, but making everything fit seamlessly is very difficult. The more natural something is, the harder it is to make it look natural and achieving the right degree of fantastical in a fantasy world is also very challenging. Preventing things from looking out of place while still staying true to our artistic vision took a lot of trade-offs and fine-tuning during the creative process.

What was the creative process for Liyue's cultural atmosphere?

Qiangge, Environment Concept Artist: Many in China say that Guilin has the best scenery in the world. For me, Guilin's beauty lies not just in the sprawling mountains and winding rivers but also in the fishing boats, the brick houses, smoking chimneys, and fishermen's songs and the reeds swaying against the stone scenery on both sides of the river. Reeds often feature in period films; they possess dramatic significance and natural beauty. As you gaze at them, you begin to feel that the ground itself is alive and is trying to communicate its mood to you.

Tang Chunsong, Guilin Museum - Director: Guilin was settled by humans a very long time ago. It dates back 30,000 years, to prehistoric times. Guilin is a place where the Zhongyuan culture and the Lingnan culture met and blended. The culture here is largely influences by the Anhui region. Even today, you can see "Diaojiaolou" in Longsheng which are a kind of stilt house. This kind of building is well-adapted to the local culture and to the local climate. It exists in harmony with the geographical conditions and to the natural scenery.

Luo Jianzhang, Guilin Culture, Broadcasting, TV and Tourism Bureau - Researcher: Guilin's culture and scenery are inseparable; the mountain faces are covered in inscriptions. So hiking in the mountains is like reading a history book. I thought that a game set in the heart of Guilin would turn out looking beautiful. Vistas featuring the geography and landforms of Guilin would showcase China's best scenery to the world.

Qiangge: After a thorough review of many resources, we infused Guilin's unique scenery and culture into the design of an iconic part of Liyue, namely, Dihua Marsh.

Jason, Level Artist: Dihua Marsh is the first environment that the player sees when they leave Mondstadt and pass through the Stone Gate. It is their first impression of Liyue. It reconstructs the prominent features of Guilin's landscape, namely the water and the mountains. The presence of flat-bottomed boats and fishing huts paints a picture of local life before our eyes. The signature building in Dihua Marsh is Wangshu Inn. It adopts features of Guilin architecture and also the sense of "there's more to this place than meets the eye" as captured in the film "Dragon Inn."

Lu Yang, Level Artist: As designers, we constantly asked ourselves: What do people here do during the day? What are their lives like? As the game now shows, the area downstairs is or porters and merchants to rest mid-journey. There are some tables and chairs and tea for the guests. Next to this is a waterwheel-powered elevator to transport people and goods.

Yanjiang, Level Artist: In some places, we went into great detail; in others, we left room for the player's imagination. For example, there is a sunken statue on the mountain behind Liyue Harbor. As the player walks past these small bridges, they may wonder what happened here in the past.

What gave us the greatest sense of achievement during the creative process?

Yanjiang, Level Artist: For our own ideas and work, to break the boundaries of fantasy and reality — that is something worth getting excited about. For example, being able to touch a statue of the Geo God in real life would make one reminisce about the first time they did so in Liyue. Seeing the animated discussion between players, witnessing their surprise as they come across a beautiful scene; the thoughts they have, the things they remember as they explore buildings and ruins — it is very satisfying to watch. To create an open world that players wish to spend time exploring and immersing themselves in is our greatest wish and the goal we will always keep striving towards.

Guilin Scenic

Genshin Impact has arrived at the Guilin scenic area!

Travelers, let's go on adventure together in the natural beauty of Guilin!