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Throughout the process of modelling, I was constantly referring to both real life and video game references. Ideally I would take solely from actual Japanese castles as the architecture is ultimately based in reality, but the access I have to Sekiro’s models allows me to look in much closer detail and the sheer amount of buildings in the game give me many architectural features to reference. Here are some examples of images I have used, although the majority of them are in a dedicated Japanese Fortifications mood board. I went through a list of major Japanese castle (japan-guide.com) and picked out ones that fit my intended style. The main thing I was looking for was the dark wooden external cladding, as I feel like it gives a more rugged look than the elegant white castles, which suits the wilds of the mountain environment.
This fort began as a simple 3 tier design. It needs to be large enough to be imposing, but not large enough that it appears as a primary stronghold - that will be saved for the main castle the player will be able to see in the distance later.
I started with the angled wall used in the gate model previously - this is a good example of the benefit of simple modelling and texturing, as I can easily reutilise geometry to ensure consistent shapes and textures. I extruded the shape all along one side, and partially across two other sides so I could then use the symmetry modifier to save me a lot of repeated modelling. I have made sure to keep all dimensions and angles round numbers to ensure consistency and repeatability. For example, one of the squares seen in the geometry of the wall is 1x1 meters, with the base being 1m thick as well. The angle tilts back a depth of 0.15 meters for every 1 meter of height.
The rest of the base walls are simply an extension of this, with a sunken area for the entrance of the fort. I was then able to duplicate the geometry used in my castle gate for the door. I once again ensure consistency by maintaining a thickness of 0.2m for all the walls and floors, as well as sticking to a 1x1 grid wherever possible.
When modelling the rooves, I had to decide on an angle of which to have the rooves at. I started out with a gradient of 0.5 which would be easiest to work with as it just needs to increase in height by half the amount it goes inwards. However, I started doing some research to find out what the traditional angle of a Japanese roof is and found a steeper angle of 60 degrees, which is what this first version ended up with. However, turns out there’s a lot of different styles of rooves, all with different standard angles, and all that is complicated by the fact they are often curved. I even tried taking a protractor to my computer screen observing the rooves of Sekiro’s castles in DS Map Studio. Eventually I decided the 0.5 gradient was both the easiest to work with, and closest to what I could observe on Japanese tiered castle rooves.
This stage is where I settled on my desired style of roof, although not without some struggles. This is possibly a point where my desire for consistent and even measurements came to my detriment. Creating the curve of the roof took quite a few tries as I wanted to do it in an easily repeatable way that connects up with the walls nicely. I utilised instanced duplicates on the roof ends so that I could make changes without needing to do anything to the other tier.
I added the open window on the gable end as the exit out the top is a crucial part of the planned path. I also removed the symmetry on the wall of this top tier as it would need to cut through the middle of the geometry’s squares.