Lough Erne, County Fermanagh.
A hugely influential place for me, spiritually and artistically. Having spent a lot of time in the locale as a child, wistfully spending the summer days dreaming of ruins over the hills and adventure that awaited. As an adult, I’ve been able to revisit the lough with my own set of wheels (and a kayak), enabling me to finally go forth and find all of the ruins and adventures. Oh boy did I find them.
Pictured below is Old Crom Castle (Caisleán na Croime), a heritage site and country estate on Upper Lough Erne. No real need for me to explain why this would set inspirations running wild.
The Lough is surrounded by ruins, like the stunning Monea castle pictured below. Built in the 1600s and burnt out in the 1800s, besides occasional tourists this huge ruin is frequented mostly by cows.
Replicating these buildings in a modular, tileable format for gamedev has been an ongoing task for me. The results are varied after much experimentation but the format has been achieved, and the organic look I was seeking has been secured.
Essentially the feeling I’m trying to evoke within people is “Oh what’s behind that?”, or “Oh what’s in there?”.
Hopefully I’m weaving some of that magic into my work.
I’ll cover more on this topic in future posts, for now I’ll end with some local cows out to see who’s in their neighbourhood.
