Assassin's Creed Shadows - Kumano Hayatama Taisha
Kumano Hayatama Taisha was a very interesting location to recreate, because just like Kumano Hongu, in 16th century this shrine was looking quite different. It is located at the mouth of the Kumano-gawa River.
In addition to the main shrine complex and the nearby small post town/ village , i had to recreate the surrounding area as well - especially the much older Kamikura-jinja tiny shrine, overlooking Hayatama Taisha from atop a massive hill. and built around the base of a giant rock boulder - Gotobiki-iwa. The task consisted of creating the layout, terrain work and level art propping.
Some very old and stylized paintings were my only source of information regarding the shrine's layout back then, so i took some creative liberties trying to implement elements I've noticed in several artist's renditions at the time, while also making the whole location fit with the intended level design/ gameplay intentions.
Art & Level design collaborators:
Art Lead - Iana Pencheva https://pencheva.artstation.com/
Art Director - Nikola Stoyanov https://niko_stoyanov.artstation.com/
Level Designers - Mihail Dimitrov & Adrian Yosifov
Shinto-themed architectural assets - made by Kevin Kok https://oranji.artstation.com/
Gotobiki-iwa rock boulder asset - made by Maxime Vincent https://maximevincent.artstation.com/
aerial view of the Shrine complex, and the nearby village
Kamikura-jinja and the huge rock boulder at the top of the hill are clearly visible from the main Hayatama shrine grounds .This was done on purpose to visually connect the older and the new shrines.
the sacred rock boulder Gotobiki-iwa, which is revered as the dwelling place of one of the deities of Kamikura-Jinja Shrine
The street of the nearby staging post station / post-town (Shukuba) , where travelers and pilgrims could rest on their journey
Kamikura-jinja Shrine, Kumano Hayatama Taisha Grand Shrine's original shrine
this here is a small religious site that is located nearby and doesn't exist in real life. It requires the player to overcome a forest landslide and a damaged bridge in order to reach it.
