[Blog] Stone Lions

So, I guess we sort of cheated with our last poll by voting about Beek 2, so we didn't give you all a chance to vote for the topic of this update. Instead, we made sure to give you all something extra special this time. Fair enough, right?

Enough with the preamble, this update is about Nekojishi's sequel, project Carmacks!

This time we wanted to discuss a scene in Carmacks featuring a traditional Chinese Symbol - the stone lions. Stone lions, or Chinese guardian lions, are ornaments that stand in front of gates. In Chinese culture, people place the stone lions to protect the building from harmful spiritual influences and people who may threaten the location they protect. They are commonly seen in palaces, temples, mansions and all manner of buildings with a stately design.

A stone lion (male) in the Forbidden City. (by Leonard_G. )

Stone lions are placed in pairs. There should be one male and one female, with the male to the left, and the female to the right. Usually, the male lion has a paw resting upon an embroidered ball representing power, and the female lion places a paw on a cub, representing the cycle of life.

Male and female stone lions, with close-up of the ball and cub (by 用心阁 )

However, not all stone lions are the same. In Taiwan, male stone lions can appear as holding a strand of coins, and female stone lines will have the embroidered ball but may not always have the cub. This design is commonly seen in the stone lions guarding temples.

A male stone lion in Taiwan

In the story of Carmacks, Liao and the cats help to renovate the ruins of a temple and turn the place into a market. They meet the spirits of the stone lions and an adventure begins from there. However, in Chinese culture, stone lions have little to no divinity, so they are not seen amongst even other humble deities such as guardian tigers. In theory, they wouldn't even become a spirit, so what's up? Guess we'll have to leave that to the game itself.

The first draft concept art of the scene, pre and post-renovation.

In the first draft, we set the scenario as a temple near the road and later renovated into a modern mall. However, it didn't match the cultural richness we wanted from the scene atmosphere so we decided to change the scenario after this draft. Several months later, we found inspiration in Jiufen, a mountainous area near Taipei which is also a famous sightseeing point, which we used as a basis for the new design for the scene.

Stair up mountain in Jiufen (by 徐月春 )

Current concept art of the scene

As you may expect, we can't talk much about the plot at this time so this is all we can share with you at the moment. Who knows, maybe you'll find some cool details if you look carefully at the concepts! Plus, patrons at the World Tourist tier or higher, you can check out the concept art for the character design of the stone lions mentioned in this blog!

See you next time!

- Studio Klondike