Spoiler Image #11

When making 2.0, we needed an ominous door to put at the base of Mt. Yavhlix. At the time it was just Keeko and I working on the project, and so to speed things up we used community made build pack assets to take some of the weight off our shoulders. Primarily it's towns like Tharxax, Firteid, Ebonrun, and Sahd that use these assets, but one pack in particular had something we wanted to use outside of a town.

Enter the magnificent Yavhlix door, tentacled and ominous in all its glory. It was absolutely perfect for what we wanted the vibe of Mt. Yavhlix to be; unsettling, out of place, just downright weird. The door from this pack achieved that perfectly, and it meant we didn't need to design a door ourselves. So we used it. It became iconic among the community and within the map itself, having been seen by so many players towards the end of their journey. I used it for dramatic shots in both trailers, and it truly became a secondary icon to the omega symbol we use as a logo. It wasn't until midway through the development of 2.2 that we found out the asset is based on the entrance to the Darkest Dungeon, from the popular game 'Darkest Dungeon'. 

For such an iconic part of our project to have been inadvertently stolen from another game, really didn't feel great. What were we to do? The door had already become so iconic, changing it would be a struggle. The door was already so perfect, how would we be able to create something as fitting? This all came to a head when we decided we wanted to commission one of Tetra's friends to do a piece of artwork for us based on the door. For the sake of our IP, we could not use the Darkest Dungeon design going forward. We needed to be original. This was inevitable given our grander plans for Primordial as a franchise, but it was still hard to let go.

Keeko, Dome, and I took a stressful night and created this, the new door. It was difficult to let go of one of our icons, but it was necessary. I really didn't like the new design at first compared to the old one, but over time it's grown on me. Hopefully it'll grow on you too. 

Primordial and the Drehmal map itself is constantly work in progress, and it's hard for me to remember that sometimes when it comes to changes like this. Yes, the door became iconic. Resigning ourselves to its status as an icon, however, and feeling as though it cannot change because of community perception.... that was unhealthy. In the grand scheme of our grander plans for the IP, its status as an icon only lasted for a little under two years in a project which is going to have a lifespan of decades.

Farewell, old Yavhlix door. You will be missed, but your demise was necessary. Let us welcome the new door design with open arms, and allow it to become a new icon for our for-now little IP.

- Balderich