By Crom That’s Some Good Conan: Hyborian Quests Cover Art!
December 15, 2014 by brennon
Conan: Hyborian Quests has been on our radar for a while now and we love seeing the updates on the game and how it's progressing. Lately we've had a taster of the game in a French demo game by TricTrac but there's also this amazing cover art by Adrian Smith to take a look at...
This artwork will be emblazoned across the front of the game and it certainly looks awesome. Conan is in the midst of quite the fight against immense hordes of the undead and loving it; just as he would. This seems to be something that Adrian Smith has got right with the game as he has managed to capture the essence and nature of Conan from the vision of Robert E. Howard. Fantasy with a twist.
It won't just be Conan going on these quests however and you'll have friends (some enemies at one time) no doubt coming along for the rider. Above are just some of the pieces that Adrian Smith has worked on for the other heroic figures in the game and it shows off the wealth of options that the creators at Monolith have to work with when coming up with fascinating scenarios.
The world of Conan is also rich with enemies...
Skeleton warriors, surly looking guards, demonic creatures from the depths of hell and much more await Conan and his companions as they quest into the world of Hyboria. One of the other great things about all of this artwork is that it's been bought to life in miniature form by a host of amazing sculptors like Rafal Zelazo, Jacques-Alexandre Gillois, Gael Goumon, Gregory Clavilier, Thomas David, Stephane Nguyen, Stephane Simon and many, many more artists.
Before your eyes start watering from all the lovely art we thought it best to leave off on the Damsel/Princess art piece that will also be making its way into the game. I don't think it would really be Conan without someone for the Barbarian to rescue from the clutches of some dangerous warlord.
We reckon you should be very excited for this game when it launches on Kickstarter next year in 2015 during January. Keep an eye out for more details on the game.
Do you think adventuring as Conan is your cup of tea?
Always loved Conan ever since reading the books as a wee lad. Never really thought of Howard as high fantasy, though … not even with a twist. Lots of gore, foul sorcery and … soul-sucking demons, basically. Seemed like pretty low fantasy. This artwork looks pretty good. Not exactly Frank Frazetta, but it appears to convey the general idea. Hope the miniatures look great. Your daily literary analysis: Howard’s Conan stories focused on two primary, contrasting themes. First, civilization is inherently prone to weakness and corruption; and second, humanity is at constant risk of degenerating back into a primitive, subhuman… Read more »
Hmm true you are right – I suppose it’s because I’ve always seen Conan in a bit of a ‘Swords & Sorcery’ type view although from your description it does have more in common with the grim dark.
Either way the world of Conan is an awesome one 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM3wSHtdQz0
This music from the Xbox game was awesome too – the game wasn’t too bad either even if the final boss was one of the hardest I’ve ever fought.
BoW Ben
Conan is sword & sorcery, but sword & sorcery isn’t high fantasy. The term was coined by Fritz Leiber to differentiate the type of fantasy he wrote from the type of fantasy Tolkien wrote in Lord of the Rings (which is high fantasy). Leiber cited Howard’s Conan stories as some of the best examples of sword & sorcery and the character became heavily identified with the term, even though it didn’t exist when Howard was writing them.
Ah fair enough – I stand corrected on that 🙂
Oh now you got me thinking fondly of Frank Frazetta. I wonder if hes still around painting? When I was a young lad I collected trading cards that bared his name and art. It always helped that the ladies he painted were um “in their prime” and most likely started the nipple cover fashion that Janet Jackson imitated 😉
He sadly passed away 4 years ago
He knew how to bring the imagination into life with his paintings. He will be missed.
Leiber is my favourite fantasy author. Somehow still not as popular or as well known as he should be
If you want to really heard some awesome hyborian music check out the music for the mmo Age of Conan. One of the best music in a game ever. http://knutavenstrouphaugen.com/music/
Im already awaiting this game. For what i have seen it could be something incredible. We will see
Has anyone mentioned thews yet? There was a lot of that in the original books.. mighty thews.
damn, I wish this was a proper miniature skirmish game!
but what about game mechanics? this is most important thing in board game!
That is some great looking fantasy art.
Love the skelly artwork. Reminds me of some pre-slotta Citadel sculpts.