Thelenok Hall

Design Process - Spirit of the North 2

Role & Contribution

Architectural Environment Artist - Designed and constructed "Thelenok Hall," the largest single-building Point of Interest (POI) in the game, focusing on both the exterior facade and the complex interior hall space.Interpreted and applied key design elements from Viking architectural and mythological references to establish the structure’s authentic, imposing visual identity.

Goal & Challenge

The primary goal was to create an immense, single-structure POI that served as a major landmark in the abandoned village, conveying a sense of community and history. The main challenge was maintaining high visual fidelity across the vast surface area of the exterior and the complex, detailed interior without compromising game performance.

Process & Creative Strategy

The design process was driven by strong historical and thematic references. The structure's design heavily leveraged Viking architectural inspiration, focusing on large, imposing rooflines. The sheer size of the Hall was crucial and managed using modular components.The design ensured a seamless visual and spatial transition from the grand, weathered exterior to the high-ceilinged, detailed interior, with carefully placed openings to control player flow and dramatic light. Textures and materials were applied to communicate the structure’s age and historical context, while the interior lighting served a dual purpose: aesthetic mood-setting and guiding player movement through the expansive hall.

This build was going to be pretty big and there was going to be a lot of assets going into building it so it was best to do the construction in a separate level and move it to the main level afterwards.

It was built entirely with modular wood and stone meshes arranged into slabs, walls, doorways, ledges and windows.

After moving on from the whiteboxes, I used beams as a guide to design the outline and characteristic shapes.

After the major outline and walls were filled in, I worked on navigation paths around the building and smaller details.

Once the main construction was completed, it was moved to the village site where other buildings and points of interest were being blocked out as well.

Custom collision was set up for every wall and window for optimization and gameplay purposes.

I hand placed all of the roof tiles in the construction level. Tiles were later grouped into the building PLI (Packed Level Instance)

Set dressing, destruction passes and gameplay passes saw a general's chamber added to the building. And a path designed just for our little furry friend.

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