Train2Game students can get a look behind the scenes of art in Paradox Interactive’s upcoming co-op dungeon crawler Dungeonland, thanks to developer diary number number two from Critical Studio.

Posted on the Paradox Interactive forum, the Dungeonland developer diary entitled ‘The Art of Dungeonland’ sees the Critical art team discuss the influences and concepts behind their cartoon style title including Disney, medieval fantasy and more.

“When we started working on the visual design of Dungeonland, our only goal was really to just have fun. The personality of the game came from not trying to “copy” anything. It’s a big mix of influences from everybody in the team, done our way. We don’t really care if it’s been done before or if it looks like something else – if we think it’s cool, we are going to do it!”

“And we had a LOT of influences. Everything from Disney, of course: all the cartoons, the Silly Symphonies… But not only Disney – EVERYTHING even remotely related to cartoons, from Spongebob Squarepants to Coyote Ugly and any weird obscure stuff we watched as kids.”

“On top of that: everything medieval fantasy, including Lord of The Rings, a lot of Warhammer, about nine hundred different monster manuals from Dungeons & Dragons, and so forth.”

“We also try a lot of different stuff and throw a huge amount of ideas away until we are happy with what we got. Even though we are a small team, so far we’ve been able to produce hundreds of pages worth of concept art – and we’re very close to a thousand.”

There’s much more in the Dungeonland developer diary which you can read in full on Paradox Interactive’s forum.  Those on the Train2Game Art & Animation course will no doubt like a look!

There’s more Paradox Interactive news here on The Train2Game Blog, including our in-depth interview on the development of King Arthur II: The Role-playing Wargame.

What are your thoughts on the art style and influences of Dungeonland?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.