Highguard - Frosthold Base

Players start off each match in a different themed Base, so for Frosthold the design and art teams discussed having a log cabin feel mixed with a Viking twist which was fun to run with. I had to make the architecture still work with our existing base kit set made by my coworker Paul Tran to retain visual consistency and be mindful of time constraints.

I was responsible for set dressing, modeling, creating some new unique assets for the base (like the decorative wood columns and trim texture, rugs, some gold props), reworking some existing assets to save time, bug fixing, plus making and vert painting the terrain. The terrain materials were made by other artists with a couple of tweaks done by me in Unreal shaders. Concept Artist Gabriel Brandt gave me a great starting point to pull from with a couple of art pieces and later in the task our Environment Art Concept Lead Gabriel Yeganyan was able to provide additional helpful paintovers. We brainstormed and I tried to make each room feel functional yet different in the 3D space.

Level designer Dave Osei and I sync-ed up often to keep alignment. My Art Lead Jose Zavala created the destruction walls, helped with optimizations, performance, material troubleshooting (figuring out terrain blends and RVT issues), and late bug fixes. Robert Taube did the lighting and both of my Leads provided very useful feedback.

Tree and hay assets (on roof) were made by Jobye-Kyle Karmaker, snow assets and some rocks made by Jake Virginia. Other rocks done by Derek Bentley, and Jason McKenzie. Our Highguard asset library was utilized for this task with several props and materials shared and contributed by other environment artists on the team.

The Frosthold base was part of Season 1 of Highguard which shipped in January 2026 for the XBox Series S/X, PS5, and PC/Steam.
_________________________
Art Director / Lighting:
https://www.artstation.com/rtaube
_________________________
Environment Lead:
https://www.artstation.com/jzartist
_________________________
Environment Art:
https://www.artstation.com/jobyek
https://www.artstation.com/paultran
https://www.artstation.com/jakevirginia
https://www.artstation.com/artkristen
https://www.artstation.com/shong1123
https://www.artstation.com/dbentley3d
_________________________
Environment Concept Art Lead:
https://www.artstation.com/gabe-11
_________________________
Concept Artist:
https://www.artstation.com/gabberwocky
_________________________
Level Designer:
Dave Osei
_________________________
FX Artist:
https://www.artstation.com/mreberg
https://www.artstation.com/ryanbartonvfx
Christopher Shepherd