Battle of the Bulge was the first game in the CiC series and so went through a lengthy Art Direction/Pre-production process. The map look development was an important part of that process as it would need to be able to be carried over across multiple games and theatres (landscapes) and would be, for the most part, the players primary focus. It needed to stand up to a player looking at it for hours one end without confusion but also without boredom. The process was documented on the shenandoah website and is also available in the following posts on this site.

• Art Diary #4 – The Map – Beginnings
• Art Diary #5 – the Map – Finding a direction
• Art Diary #6 – the Map – the Visual Feel.
• Art Diary #8 – the Map – the first brush strokes.
• Art Diary #9 – the Map – Decisions Part 1
• Art Diary #10 – the Map – Decisions Part 2

Some photoshop screen grabs were combined into a movie here . .

And this is a low res version of the final map.

Further details of the project can be found in the rest of the Art Diaries and on the main game related post.