MMORPG dungeons may be fun places to go adventuring in, but did you know that artists need to put a lot of work into making them what they are?

That's certainly true of the Tomb of Exar Kun in LucasArts' MMO game Star Wars Galaxies. In fact, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) artist Christine "TrandoshYar" Chugon will tell you all about it.

According to Chugon, the idea for the tomb started out as a very basic pencil sketch courtesy of SOE heroic encounter designer Travis "Shadowbrak" Hicks. Hicks gave Chugon a layout of the room sizes, as well as what the overall theme of each dungeon room should be.

From thereon, Chugon proceeded to block out each of the rooms using the 3D program known as Maya. Using a default human mesh, she estimated how large each room should be and added portals, floors, and lights.

The dungeon was then turned over to Hicks for mob and encounter placement. After that, Hicks sent the dungeon back to Chugon so she could add the final details. With the help of fellow SOE artist Scott "I still don't have a forum name" Downey, Chugon added such things massive columns, spiky objects and Exar Kun's sarcophagus.

Textures and lights rounded out the mix. Sounds like meticulous work, doesn't it? It is, but don't think SOE's job was already over at that point. The final step was to use an internal tool to place internal objects into the game.

A few candles here, a few particles there and...voila: one Tomb of Exar Kun ready for Star Wars Galaxies players to enjoy.