To pay respect to Notre-Dame and its presence in Iron Blade, we published a heart-felt message on Instagram and Facebook full of hope for the future. We really wanted to share our support for everything the cathedral means to art and history.
To take the idea even further, we also want to share with you how Notre-Dame originally made its way into Iron Blade.
Templars in the Shadows of History
To give Iron Blade an authentic feel, everyone who worked on the game started by learning about the history of the Knights Templar and their connection to all the locations in the game. The team had quick access to information about the Templars and their role as gatekeepers of the historic locations.
Looking over old documents, paintings, chronicles, and even engravings, the devs found traces of the Templars everywhere. The complicated puzzle that is their mysterious role in medieval Europe made all the research behind the locations a lot of fun.
As an added bonus, all that research means the Templars in the game oversaw the construction of the grand cathedral, just like the real life order of old!
Drawing with Medieval Tools
Recreating Notre-Dame in Iron Blade involved learning more than just the history of the building. The devs studied every corner of the cathedral, using modern images to fill in the gaps left by the historical documents. In the end, they had an accurate image of Notre-Dame and the entire surrounding location for Iron Blade.
To make everything even more historically accurate, they also researched the different materials used in the initial construction of Notre-Dame!
As an example, most of the stones are Lutetian Limestone from the famous Mines of Paris. For those wondering, Lutetian comes from an old name for the city in Roman times, Lutetia.
There were a few interesting changes from early versions of Iron Blade. The sculptures in the first iterations of the game were full of color and they really stood out against the grey stones. However, to give everything a unified aesthetic the rainbow of statues was eventually replaced with what we see in the game today.
Early in Iron Blade’s development, designers modeled the entire cathedral, inside and out. The game ended up taking a different direction that didn't need the entire building, but that dedication really shows how hard the team worked. Everyone wanted to ensure all the textures not only fit the screen, but looked good doing it!
Becoming a Templar
The research behind building Notre-Dame adds to the passion behind each and every virtual Lutetian limestone. The result is a faithful reconstruction of one of Europe's greatest landmarks in Iron Blade.
The devs truly became the very Templars they were programming as they worked on the incredible asset!
Download Iron Blade to become a medieval Templar yourself and visit Notre-Dame today!
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