Assassin`s Creed Shadows - Dorogawa Onsen Village

As the owner and creator of Dorogawa Onsen Village Yamato region, Japan, I was responsible for the entire development of the level art of this beautiful location, from initial concept to final polish in collaboration with my colleague level designer Martin Panicharov.

The location was showcased during Apple’s WWDC 2024 Event with the words “Stunning vistas,” and was selected as the PC benchmark for the game, highlighting its technical and visual excellence for you to test your PC`s performance from the game menu.

This location is a centerpiece of the region where I created also another 4 locations which are connected to each other and you can see them in another posts - Mitarai Valley, Path of Serenity, Omine Sanji Temple, and Omine Sanji Safe house

Inspired by a real Japanese village, it serves as a chill retreat with hot springs, serene ponds, water cascades and breathtaking mountain views.

What I did in details:
The whole urban layout plan from start to finish
- Initial concept drawing
- 3D Blockout
- Polish
All the terrain work
- Topology – sculpted the whole area of 5 connected locations
- Vegetation passes to have colorful trees in almost all seasons
- TPSs – the types of vegetations
- Reveal points work
- Puddle work for wetness
- Decal work for erosions, moss and dirt
- Terraced the river to create cascades and waterfalls
- Prepared for Level Desing functions
- Added buildings
- Added propping
- Lighting Pass
- VPX pass

Level artists: Radi Avramov
Level Designer: Martin Panicharov
Lead Artists: Andon Nedev, Biser Parashkevov
Art Direction: Nikola Stoyanov
Thanks to Nicolas Pednault for making the PC benchmark cinematic!

The location was showcased at the Apple WWDC 2024

The location was also showcased in this official trailer