With just a little over a month until the launch of Dishonored 2, Creative Director Harvey Smith and Art Director Sebastien Mitton talked about what went into creating the city of Karnaca in a new video.
Fans of the first game will notice that while Dishonored 2’s art style is similar to the first game, Karnaca is a much warmer and vibrant city than Dunwall, which was gloomy and dark. Mitton said that he wanted a change of scenery and felt that a sunny place closer to the equator was best to give it a distinct vibe. The Arkane team wanted to bring players to a new location in the Empire of the Isles, and so Karnaca was chosen.
When creating the city, the developers discussed the history of Karnaca, going back two centuries to figure out how the city got to the point where it is in the game. Karnaca is home to many blended cultures, from the natives who first lived there, to waves of settlers from Morley (a location not yet seen in the games), to aristocrats from Dunwall who would visit Karnaca on vacation. These people created a canal through Karnaca and shaped the landmass itself.
Once Arkane was done shaping the landscape, they went to work on making the districts in the game with the industrial flavor that players loved from the first Dishonored. Mitton wanted something unique so he designed the Dust District with a giant peak where wind constantly blows through and people suffer. Smith discussed how the team also focused much more on verticality for the second game, featuring flatter rooftops that change the gameplay and add more space to play. Lead Level Designer Christophe Carrier said that the levels in Karnaca would have neutral factions that won’t harm the player, allowing them to explore more of the level without fear of being attacked.
Dishonored 2 releases on November 11 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Source: Bethesda
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.