Recently, the official subreddit experienced an outburst in posts containing screenshots of menus, gameplay, and artwork from Vainglory’s early days. We dug deep into our past resources to find a collection of Vainglory concept art from before the game even released to the general public. Do you remember Kindred: Asunder? How about the original Halcyon Fold themes? Take a look at the images below for early Vainglory concept art!
Early Iterations of Vainglory Concept Art
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Old Store Page and App Icon
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Old Hero Select and Description for Petal
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More desaturation compared to the current map. Chainsaw tried to keep the area where players walked simple so that the heroes stood out visually.
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Old Oakheart item shown in bottom left.
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Minion Mines (now Crystal Sentries) used to be called "Crystal Mines," but players confused it with boosting crystal power.
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Developers shipped it not noticing it said "Shatter The The Vain."
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Early Concept Art of the Halcyon Fold
The area in the top right was originally intended for team fights, but was cut to streamline the map.
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Expanded Concept Art of the Halcyon Fold
There are two entrances to the base in this concept.
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Unpainted Building Models
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One of the First Areas of the Map to Receive Detailing
This area was experimented on a lot. Originally, the Halcyon Fold was envisioned as snowier.
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The red tree has been around forever! It was one of the first things that Chainsaw experimented adding detail to.
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Building Models Being Made
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Graphical Error in an Early Test
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Captain Neato Playing with a Broken Hand
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Ton of iPads Used in Testing
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Painted Prototype of the Map
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Programmer art added in by CaptainNeato. This was back when the game was called Kindred. This menu was never seeded to players.
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Custom lobbies were the early version of public matches.
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Render of the Left-Side Base
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Petal's Early Implementation
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Reworked Kindred Title Screen
The Kindred: Asunder title screen later in development.
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Originally there were names for the two teams: Empire (left side) and Rebel (right side). This was changed after they realized it was too reminiscent of Star Wars.
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SAW's Early Implementation
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Untextured Walls in Early Gameplay
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Adagio (or Warren) was envisioned as an old wizard who stayed out of the fight and buffed his friends from afar. When Chainsaw came in, he suggested he should feel "less like a side character, and more like a hero." This concept art is from before Chainsaw.
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Reworked Adagio Concept Art
The new vision was an aristocratic character who didn't want to get his hands dirty. (Chainsaw)
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Chainsaw experimented with weapons for Catherine, before deciding to combine her sword and shield into a single piece.
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Reworked Catherine Concept Art
Concept art of Catherine. Shield and Sword combined. (Chainsaw)
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CaptainNeato told Chainsaw he wanted a big barbarian hero. This is one of the iterations of that before becoming Glaive. The sword pictured here was reused for Frostburn. (Chainsaw)
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Reworked Glaive Concept Art
Glaive's art was designed first and then the kit was designed around that. Inspired by "Master of the Flying Guillotine." (Chainsaw)
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Chainsaw created this art as inspiration for the theme behind the Halcyon Fold.
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She was first pictured as a steampunk girl with a power glove, but then Vi came out in League of Legends. They decided they wanted something different. This concept art is from before Chainsaw.
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Early Prototype of the Halcyon Fold
Red models are used as scale for heroes. Placeholder turrets were made from a bunch of cylinder shapes.
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Same Prototype with Painting
The original idea centered around the Vain coming from the sky. When the map was called "Arcane Peak" and themed more western than eastern, the Kraken pit was where a massive meteor had just landed. The two mines were places where meteors had fallen long ago and were now being mined for.
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Designed to replace the "mess of cylinders" that was the old model. Inspired heavily by diesel-punk.
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Iron Mines and Dragon Coins
At some point there were also "Iron Mines" in the game. It's unclear what they did. The mines moved around so much in iterations that CaptainNeato added cartoonish signs next to them so that they could easily be found. Dragon Coins were also a mechanic, though no one knows what they did.
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When Chainsaw came in he had a very specific vision for what he wanted Ringo to be, and that replaced this whole concept.
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Reworked Ringo Concept Art
Trinket was later reused for Vox. As a little easter egg, Chainsaw named Ringo: Ringo, the Japanese word for Apple.
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Reworked Ringo Concept Art
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SAW didn't go through many design or kit iterations. CaptainNeato came up with the kit over a weekend and "it just worked." Chainsaw wanted him to fit the classic space marine archetype. The only particularly unique part of his design were the ripped sleeves and the rhino helmet.
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Turret-Vain Design Used in the Right-side Base
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Early Idea for the Nexus/Vain Crystal
The idea was a mine that dug for crystal and spat out lane minions.
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There were two lanes, but it was dropped because it was just too much for a 3V3 mode.
If you have any images we missed, tweet them to us and we’ll be sure to share them. Let us know in the comments below what your favorite Vainglory concept art was! Props to the Super Evil team for bringing their game this far.
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2 Comments
N4te
Apr 22, 2018 8:08 pmWow, where did you guys did this from?
Sean
Apr 23, 2018 3:42 pmAn old stream. 🙂