This is the last bunch of concepts I made for one of our latest update, the graphical improvement of AL Kharid (which we teased in a behind the scenes I posted a while ago).

There is also a new video on our website, showing a bit more in depth the two new quests set in the city. Have a look at it, lots of awesome stuff, plus a taste of the action taking place.

Anyway, the Palace of the Prince is at the centre of the city, which of course is the coolest place in the area.

Where the rest of the citizens won’t bother painting their walls or decorating the outside of their houses (sand and wind would make their efforts short-lived), the Prince can obviously have the means to maintain his possessions at a ruler’s standards.

The floor of his courtyard is decorated with precious tiles, and the fountain at its center is supposed to how off the Prince’s wealth to his visitors. Water is more precious than gold in the harsh desert Al Kharid is built upon.

There were many elements we had to consider while designing the Palace, as I mention in my last post this is an area in Runescape with quite a few things going on, and I couldn’t risk to change things too deeply not to break the old content.

Nonetheless, we managed to make it look grander, this by simply raising its walls and using a different colour palette.
Environment modellers had to do a lot of tweaking to prevent the city beneath to disappear beyond the drawing distance. They eventually found the right balance, and from the top of the Palace walls players will see the all the rooftops below, and the tents of the market hazy in the distance.
All in all I think the Palace will be quite a unique place in Runescape.

Despite the lack of time I had to illustrate in detail various parts of the palace, so I ended up painting the whole vista from the South side and a detail of the mosaic in one of the terraces.

by Paolo Puggioni