Welcome to another developer diary of the “Dwarf Candle Priest” Live spirit! With an iconic beard to signify his dwarven heritage and his blue flame candle staff, this spirit is the culmination of many popular fantasy themes but with its own LiveSpirits twist. Let’s form up, and peer deeper into the building blocks (or runes) that make this protective priest a must have for any party.
Concept to Creation
I always like to open up with some artist notes from our spirit designer Stonecoat, but first a quick overview of how our priest came to be. Right away we knew that eventually a dwarf LiveSpirit would need to join the ranks of other fantasy characters within our roster. From day one, we expected that the dwarf would fall into a more support based character much like a dwarf priest from world of Warcraft. With the added touch of our own LiveSpirits lore.
Stonecoat noted that he envisioned a more comical looking dwarf with a goofy long beard. One that could be seen flowing as he channeled the blue flame into protective or offensive magic. Building off of the blue flame idea, Stonecoat commented that the idea behind the source of his power matched the LiveSpirits blue fire, almost like he is a priest associated with our LiveSpirits faction. With this, we were able to shift away from current themes and create something a bit more unique that separated him from the Warcraft universe.
The Final Result
To me, the fun parts about this priest have to be the different spells that were breathed to life thanks to the dwarfs blue candle staff. The whole theme of his power almost made it seem like he was a gruff fire priest with just offensive spells. Instead, the priest shaped out as a more whimsical natured character as we have an animation for the fire going out from him getting exhausted casting. This added depth and personality to him which helped shape the way the rest of the spells would look as the fire was manipulated in different ways from flame shield to candle flame.
The final result that you see is one that I personally was proud of. The “Dwarf Candle Priest” armed with tome and blue candle staff should inspire some of our readers who align with more support based characters, but want that touch of wiseness that only a dwarf can give.
If you made it this far, you deserve a bald nod for your patience. From early concepts to the end result we hope that this behind-the-scenes look at the development process brought you closer to how our spirit was created. Thank you for reading.