---
title: "Target shots"
summary: "The key art rendered by the real game client, the concept sheets its models were built from, how close the engine has come, and where each shot sits in the climb, from the deep to a proposed shot of heaven."
status: decided  # Decided in the design notes, not built yet
section: "Art Direction"
html: target-shots.html
source: www/content/art/target-shots.md
---

# Target shots

*The key art rendered by the real game client, the concept sheets its models were built from, how close the engine has come, and where each shot sits in the climb, from the deep to a proposed shot of heaven.*

A target shot is a painting the real client has to reproduce: same camera, same horde, same budget. Each one fixes a register of the [art direction](../art/visual-identity.md) in the engine, and every later shot is judged against it. Each has its own page with the full spec.

## Where the shots sit in the climb

The shots were specified while the journey still went down, and they keep that story's places. Their registers still hold for the climb (see the [visual identity](../art/visual-identity.md)).

> **Proposal** (concept, not decided):
>
> | Shot | Register | Where in the climb |
> | --- | --- | --- |
> | [1\. Ember in the Flood](../art/ember-in-the-flood.md) | The deep: ember-noir | A flooded hall under the Drowned Coast: the last of the dark, where the climb comes up out of the deep into the drowned world |
> | [2\. Dusk in the Vale](../art/dusk-in-the-vale.md) | The world between: Romantic landscape | The Vale, the last warm place, where the ascent sets out |
> | [3\. The Keeper of the Gate](../art/keeper-of-the-gate.md) | Heaven: white ink | The court before heaven's gate, the climb's last fight |
>
> The endgame's register, the world's colours with heaven's white on what a faction holds, has no shot yet; a faction-held region would be the fourth.

## Shot 1: Ember in the Flood

The game's own key art, rendered by the game. A party of four fallen holds a pool of warm light in a flooded hall of the Sunken Reach, on [the Drowned Coast](../journey/drowned-coast.md), while a drowned horde presses in from the dark. It is the deep-register reference: about 80% of the frame in the two darkest values, the party's ember light the one warm pool, and one cold shaft from a break in the ceiling. Spec approved by Alex on 24 October 2026; models built with scripted Blender.

![The target: concept key art, a painting.](../art/paintings/key-art.jpg)

The target: concept key art, a painting.

![Version 2, rendered by the game client at 1600x900 on 24 October 2026: 592-vertex fallen, a water shader over the hall, soft-sprite effects, darker lighting.](../art/target-shots/1-ember-in-the-flood.png)

Version 2, rendered by the game client at 1600x900 on 24 October 2026: 592-vertex fallen, a water shader over the hall, soft-sprite effects, darker lighting.

![Before: the build on the morning of 24 October 2026.](../art/target-shots/0-before.png)

Before: the build on the morning of 24 October 2026.

![Version 1, version 2 and the key art, stacked.](../art/target-shots/1-ember-in-the-flood-compare.jpg)

Version 1, version 2 and the key art, stacked.

Version 2 is close to the key art's darkness but still a little bright, and costs a few percent of frame rate, still far above any frame budget. What would close the gap most: the fallen are still small and soft next to the painted heroes, and nothing is animated yet. The spec, the measurements and the gaps are on [its page](../art/ember-in-the-flood.md), and the frame-rate cost in `docs/performance.md`.

## Concept sheets

Painted model sheets for shot 1, generated with `design/tools/imagegen.py` from the key art and the art direction. Each is a production reference for a low-poly model seen from the game's high three-quarter camera, at 40 to 70 pixels tall in a horde, so the silhouette matters more than any detail. The prompts are in `design/target-shots/concept/1/prompts/`.

![A fallen, five views in one casting pose](../art/concept/kindled.jpg)

A fallen, five views in one casting pose

![Hollow Ghoul](../art/concept/hollow-ghoul.jpg)

Hollow Ghoul

![Bone Archer](../art/concept/bone-archer.jpg)

Bone Archer

![Props of the flooded hall](../art/concept/props.jpg)

Props of the flooded hall

![HUD mockup](../art/concept/hud.jpg)

HUD mockup

![Skill icons](../art/concept/icons.jpg)

Skill icons

## Next: Dusk in the Vale

> **Proposal** (concept, not decided):
>
> Shot 2 would fix the daylit register: a golden afternoon in [the Vale of Velmarch](../journey/the-vale.md), with sea fog creeping up the low fields. Its spec is [proposed on its own page](../art/dusk-in-the-vale.md).

## Then: heaven

> **Proposal** (concept, not decided):
>
> Shot 3 would fix heaven: four fallen on the white court before heaven's gate, the keeper of the gate and his white dead closing in, the embers the only colour. Its spec and its painting, from the game's own camera, are [proposed on its own page](../art/keeper-of-the-gate.md).

![Proposed: the target painting for shot 3, the keeper of the gate. Concept.](../art/paintings/heaven/keeper-of-the-gate.jpg)

Proposed: the target painting for shot 3, the keeper of the gate. Concept.