Towerborne arrives with a visual proposal that blends the aesthetic of handcrafted painting with the depth of modern 3D. Its backgrounds look like they come from a fantasy storybook, but everything works thanks to the Unreal Engine 5. The result is a world that feels alive without needing to resort to hyper-realistic textures.
The technical process behind the digital brushstroke 🎨
To achieve that painterly finish, the team combines classic and modern tools. Photoshop is used to create the base textures and hand-drawn details. Then, 3ds Max models the scenarios and characters, while Unreal Engine 5 assembles them with dynamic lighting. The trick is to preserve the watercolor appearance without sacrificing the fluidity of a real-time action game.
The day the digital brush ran out of battery ☕
Imagine an artist with their graphics tablet spending eight hours drawing a tree leaf, only for the programmer to say: hey, we need it to move with the wind. That's the daily grind of Towerborne. Luckily, the engine holds up, though surely more than once they've had to pray the render doesn't crash. Art is respected, but so is coffee.