The last major project I worked on in my time at Halfbrick Studios was working on a project known as Mythic (formerly known in soft launch as 'Mythic Frontiers' and 'Arena of Gods'). My role was a combination of Art Director, Lead Game Artist as well as Outsource Manager, as well as many other minor roles in our small agile team.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - In-Game Loading Screen.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Halfbrick's Website Banner Artwork (circa 2017).

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Game Logos and Icons. The project was soft launched as 'Arena of Gods' and launched officially as 'Mythic'.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Social Media Banner.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Art Direction: Style Guide Document. As Art Director I was tasked with defining, coordinating and keeping consistency of the style of in-game card illustrations across dozens of artists from all around the world, as well as within the Halfbrick greater company.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Artwork Checklist. As Art Director this checklist formed the 15 key elements desired for each approved and signed off card illustration. This was provided for all card illustrators as both a portion of the brief as well as a sign off checklist for myself as Outsource Manager.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Frame and Backing Designs with some examples of my first-pass illustrations.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Cleopatra Animated Gif. An example of how each illustration was comprised of 4 layers which provided paralax and depth to each in-game card asset.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Valkyrie Animated Gif. Thanks to the Halfbrick video team for their gif making expertise.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Full Set of Card Artwork and Illustrations. As we approached soft launch we had to fast track production of the 250+ card illustrations, requiring the completion of many illustrations as 30 minute speed paintings. These are some I generated with the more complete illustrations towards to top.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Artwork Set 1 of 4. Some of the more completed card illustrations I produced.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Artwork Set 2 of 4. Some of the better 30 minute speedpaints I produced.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Artwork Set 3 of 4. Card assets contained not only mythical Greek, Egyptian, and Viking characters but also well known structures as well as spell cards to cast.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Card Artwork Set 4 of 4. Some of the acceptable but slightly rushed 30 minute speedpaints I produced which may have been swapped with replacements for launch.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - UX/UI Wireframes. These are just a small sample of some of the wireframes produced prior to generation of a UX style guide during early production of Mythic.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Multiplayer: UX Storyboard.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Opponent Plays A Card: UX Storyboard. Storyboards such as this were generated to help the team visualise by way of a "paper prototype" of the game flow before investing time building code or any interface systems.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - HUD Icons Set.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Ability Icon Set.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - UI Screen Designs. A small sample of some of the first-pass UI for the Soft Launch of Mythic.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Internal Halbrick inter-company playtest posters.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - GUF Soft Launch Event Promotional Materials.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Website: Early Access Signup.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Website: Early Access Signup Style Guide.

Above: Mythic (Arena of Gods) - Launch Storefront Screenshots.

So at the end of the day Mythic officially hit our teams internal launch metrics and our team hit the global release button. The game officially launched for a short period globally however, due to the sudden unplanned departure of some of the key team members the project was put on hold. Sadly later that month the decision was made that the Mythic project should be "sun-setted" (servers shut down) for good. Like all truly good mythical tales, it has not been seen in the wild since.

Copyright © 2005-2025 Adam Nichols. All Rights Reserved.