Jueyun Karst/Design

Travels Afar: Zhangjiajie Chapter

How Scenery Designers Create the "Chinese-Style Aesthetic"

Haidi, Environment Art Team Lead: One of the most important elements while designing an aesthetic for an open-world game is the topography, which serves as a foundation for all other content. What natural features should have prominence in Liyue to represent the Chinese characteristics in front of the global player base and how to guarantee that those elements would be well-received — those were the central issues that we constantly considered in the early stages. This is why we collected a great deal of visual resources and conducted field research. Through the process of repeated screening and comparison, we finally selected Zhangjiajie as one of our main sources of inspiration.

Qiang Ge, Scenery Concept Artist: What drew us to that area the most, is the inherently fantastical nature of its topography. It looks a bit otherworldly, which is something that can be felt by the local and foreign tourists visiting there as a kind of cognitive consensus. Sandstone is the signature feature of the territory of the Geo Archon, one of Teyvat's Seven Archons, which is very fitting. The vistas of towering sandstone karst forests leave more room for imagination due to being shrouded in swirling clouds. Using a freehand style resembling traditional Chinese "shan shui" landscape paintings, we went through a round of concept art and atmosphere sketch creation to make sure that we have achieved exactly the right feeling .

Shang Wei, Zhangjiajie Museum Director: If Zhangjiajie's topography could be described in one sentence, it would be barren mountains become terraces, which become karst walls, then karst forests, and then forest remnants. We can trace the area's development back to this pattern because that pattern is so comprehensive. The representative of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre came here multiple times and after repeated rounds of field research, they called it "Zhangjiajie topography."

Lin Zi, Level Artist: The in-game area of Jueyun Karst is home to Liyue's adepti and Zhangiajie's atmosphere of a thousand towering mountains and swirling clouds is very much in line with the overarching artistic vision we adapted while designing Jueyun Karst. We also made sure to include some key man-made elements like trestle and suspension bridges to embellish the spaces between Liyue's many mountains. While exploring Liyue, players can feel like they are going on a real, unique adventure.