When designing a game, making a player feel immersed in the world is an important part of the job. Solid Games explained how they went about creating the beautiful terrain in their upcoming building survival game, Chinese Frontiers.

When you think of a desert, you most likely imagine a vast, flat landscape filled with sand and a blistering sun in the sky. While this can look awe-inspiring in and of itself, the developers added a few small oases to break up ‌the view. To make them a little more interesting and a place to take shelter, it is not just a patch of trees with some water. It dips slightly into the ground and is surrounded by a natural rock wall to protect you from the desert winds and create extra shade. Similarly, the mountains are able to create beautiful vistas, especially as the sun sets.

In the game, one of your tasks will be to build part of the Great Wall of China. While building or during your break, you can look out into the distance and see many differently shaped peaks, some covered with snow, while others have trees growing on them and rivers cascading down into a valley.

The cities give a completely different feeling. Unlike the open and calming nature, the settlements feel busy and narrow, as streets are filled with items and people run around doing their jobs. This is where you will be getting your materials for building the various iconic Chinese landmarks, like part of the Great Wall of China, as mentioned earlier. For the base resources, you will often find yourself at the stone mason and carpenter, as they sell stone blocks that are the foundation of many builds, along with logs that add complexity and texture to a building. If you want to add even more detail, the brickyard is your friend. Here, you can turn stone blocks into bricks and obtain roof tiles.

What would you add to a biome to make it visually more interesting? Let me know in the comments.