Reimaging the D&D Monsters for Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked

Designing the monsters for Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked was a real highlight for our art team. We leaned into a more stylized aesthetic to keep true to the look of miniatures from a tabletop game. Everything got a bit chunkier, a bit thicker, almost like they were molded from plastic. Every dent, divot, and battle scar is dialed up just enough to make them seem as realistic as possible. 

We kicked off the design process with research, referencing the current Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook as well as previous ones. 

Then we entered the concept phase. We took those familiar monster designs and gave them our own twist to adapt them into the art style for Battlemarked.

Silhouettes were a big focus of our design process to ensure that the players could see them better on the map. The large monsters don’t feel as big as they would in real-life, so we put a lot of work into the silhouettes and the colors to make them especially intimidating.

Take the Kobold, for example. We wanted it to feel a bit nastier than usual and if you look closely you’ll see that it’s a short, vicious thing. All of the monsters in Battlemarked look like they’re going to cause you a problem - and that’s exactly how we want you to feel when you encounter them. 

Compared to Demeo, we improved a lot on the 3D models to add more details and cleaner and sharper textures to the character models. We can’t wait for you to face them in-game!