We love summer time music festivals, so right here at Wargaming, our crew at World of Tanks Trendy Armor has made it a mission to convey you a hard-rockin’ annual music occasion that really shakes the battlefield: Steel Fest.
New tanks, new 3D Commanders, new Challenges and occasions: they’re all a part of what Steel Fest gives every summer time. However that is our third 12 months of the occasion, coming to you on PS4 and PS5 beginning August 26. We knew we needed to go larger and louder than ever.
To borrow some lyrics you would possibly know, we wished the very best—and we bought the very best.
This 12 months, our featured act is none apart from the legendary band Kiss! Not solely that; we’ve bought the precise voices of core members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley within the recreation.
That is the way it all shook out.
Shout It Out Loud
Ever for the reason that band’s exhibits at The Daisy in March 1973, once they debuted the character designs they’d turn out to be identified for, Kiss has been greater than a bunch of expert musicians. They’ve been icons and personas.
So though Steel Fest 2025 options 4 new Kiss-inspired Premium tanks, we knew particularly that the 3D Commanders representing the 4 traditional Kiss personas (The Demon, The Starchild, The Spaceman, and The Catman) needed to be completely proper and bigger than life.
Luckily, as World of Tanks’ senior producer JJ Bakken explains, the band was all in. “Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] have been gracious sufficient to present us a few of their time for the sport, as they symbolize the best profile characters in Kiss … Each Gene and Paul noticed all our ideas as we created them for characters and tanks. [They] introduced the thought to us to essentially lean into the fantastical parts of every character.”
Our artwork crew labored to get these fantastical parts down, whether or not we’re speaking the feline claws and nimble animations given to The Catman 3D Commander or the large pair of bat-like wings that Tanks’ artwork director Andy Dorizas instructed for The Demon 3D Commander.
However as any tanker is aware of, in terms of our 3D Commanders, it’s not simply concerning the look. Our gamers’ favourite Commanders communicate with custom-written voiceover strains, so after all that’s the case for all 4 of our Kiss Commanders.
“Kiss themselves made the choice to have Paul and Gene featured as voices within the recreation,” says the sport’s audio director, Brendan Blewett. “They have been very specific in that the Kiss ‘characters’ are simply that—characters, not real-life people. Every of them has traits and people are portrayed, within the occasion of The Starchild and The Demon, by Paul and Gene.”
So what was it like, working with legendary musicians to convey the voices of their world-famous characters to our console battlefield?
“Working with Paul and Gene was an absolute blast,” says Blewett. “These guys are clearly seasoned studio vets and actually made the classes enjoyable and fascinating.”
He provides, “Gene lived as much as his fame as a grasp of trivia and saved us entertained between takes regaling us with tales from the street and factoids. Paul was completely a gracious, pleasant particular person and belted out an extremely intense vocal efficiency and saved it going for the entire session. We even quipped that it was ‘like six months of exhibits in two hours.’ Spectacular!”
As for the voiceover for The Starman and The Catman, tankers and Kiss followers ought to relaxation rock out assured that these Commanders have acquired the identical consideration to element. In accordance with Blewett, “We labored with Kiss to know the character profiles of The Catman and The Spaceman and got here up with casting tips from there. As an illustration, The Catman is a smaller man, witty and agile, whereas The Spaceman is older and wiser. The phrase ‘sagacious’ was utilized in session to explain the persona of The Spaceman.”
Struggle Machine(s)
Should you assume the Kiss 3D Commanders sound spectacular (and sure, I’m biased, however they’re), you’ll want to recruit them throughout Steel Fest, and pair them up with our 4 Premium Kiss tanks, additionally impressed and named after the characters: The Demon, The Starchild, The Spaceman, and The Catman.
Every of those tanks not solely takes visible inspiration from Kiss; it additionally has skills impressed by a particular band member’s persona. You’d higher consider that The Demon is a tank that mounts a flamethrower!
All of that is along with the Challenges, particular occasion battles, day by day login rewards, and extra that Steel Fest gives. Rock out whilst you can, and don’t miss any of it—Steel Fest takes place in World of Tanks Trendy Armor from August 26 by September 15 on PS4 and PS5!
