Behind the Scenes: Medieval Tavern

I really grew to like the perspective building facade renders that I do lately, so I'm looking at any opportunity, or a spark of inspiration to create another one. These are mostly based on vehicles matched to a certain architecture. Vespa and Italian cafe, Citroen in front of a French brasserie.

Just a few weeks ago, Kingdom Come sequel came out. If you're not familiar with it, it's a game that came out in 2018 as a result of a Kickstarter campaign with a slogan "Dungeons, no Dragons". Basically a medieval life and chivalry immersive sim, with a focus on realistic depiction of medieval life and storytelling. Nobody believed in the first game's concept. Everybody said it just lacks fantasy elements and as RPG, it will be boring. Yet, here we are, 7 years later with a sequel that sold two million copies on launch.

One of the key advice I hear from game devs is to make a game you want to play. And I think this concept can be stretched to whatever you're trying to do. That's why I mostly create things I like and enjoy to create.

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As I was playing the game, I came up on a picturesque tavern with a wooden cart parked outside. And I immediately thought it a great twist on my car vs. building series. Bonus points for at that time being immersed in that setting and world and thus enjoying the hell out of the creation process.

I went ahead to search for some references, mostly looking for the game screenshots first. As I went along, I widened my search for more medieval artworks and illustrations.

I was just careful to not go too wide, as I wanted to capture the low-key aspect of this medievel architecture. Something of a simple structure and basic materials, inspired by the Slavic theme the game is set in (medieval Bohemia).

Finally, before diving into several days of 3D work, I made sure to sketch out the concept I had in mind. Sometimes, I feel like rushing and leaving out this part, but I'm a creature of habit, so I always sketch at least something and I'm again and again surprised by how much the ideas in my head need to be filtered to actually create a working composition. 

From all the inspiration you see when doing your research, you might tend to build this huge aspirational concept in your mind, planning to use a lot of elements you came across. When you try to sketch the concept, you easily find out how much of that stuff needs to be left out.

Here, I barely fit the stone arch of the main entry and saw there's not a lot of room left to fit some of the other elements. For example, I really liked the idea of a simple pulley elevator to lift heavy goods to the tavern top floor, but I had to let this idea go, since I couldn't see how I can do entrance, separate inn doors, tables and still find a room to allow a side view of a building with the elevator rope.

You can watch the full process video on Youtube