Guide: Style

NOTE: This page is currently a work in progress and will receive a lot of updates. 

This guide is intended to help content creators answer questions about the style of their designs and assets.

It is important to note that Chivalry is not a medieval sim. Our goal has always been "Hollywood Realism" in terms of our content. We aim to create the feeling of being on a medieval battlefield, not necessarily an accurate historic recreation of one. We have incorporated design elements from many places in the world, and many time periods through the dark ages, middle ages, and even bordering on the renaissance. We have mixed and matched these elements to create assets with stronger visual design, or in service to the requirements of gameplay.

With that said, we do insist on a level of viability in the assets. This includes time period since pushing past the renaissance gets into the territory of the enlightenment and an era of technological progress not present in our vision of a rough medieval battlescape. The origin of assets should largely remain in Europe because as things come from beyond Europe or cultures that routinely interacted with Europe they start to change the atmosphere of the world. And most importantly, construction. Everything should be able to be plausibly built from materials and using techniques available though the time period.

There's no issue with having some really odd or unique designs, provided that the construction and materials are believable enough. Whether something fits into the world of Chivalry depends more on the execution than on the idea itself!

Some points to keep in mind:

• Construction of assets must be plausible (including materials used and methods produced)
• Assets must be European themed or have plausibly been imported into that area
• Assets must match the art style of the characters and the environment to a reasonable extent, including
  • Amount of detail
  • Texture maps generally match maps on existing assets for value ranges
  • "Hollywood Realism" style 
• Assets should roughly match the time period between 0-1500
• Assets intended to be used by a specific class should respect the characteristics of that class (i.e. MAA should not be heavily armored like a Knight)
• Assets intended to be used by a specific team should reflect the heraldry, color schemes, material types and personalities of those teams
• Assets that are not based on existing objects must still obey the above guidelines