As I started doing some research for this project, I was immediately drawn to this image of a paper popup castle:
Its flat coloring makes the structure seem deceptively simple, even though it clearly required some very careful design work to execute properly. It also reminded me of the flat, stylized environments of Monument Valley, a game I absolutely love. Some screenshots for reference:
Of course, as this project is supposed to be 100% original, I won’t be using any of the features present in the game (and especially not the impossible geometry it’s built upon) – but I do want to capture and experiment with the way that it plays with depth while remaining evenly lit.
The concept I want to go for is a temple of seasons, using a laptop screen as the sky backdrop. A seasonal selector (either conductive tape “buttons”, an almanac the user can flip through, or a dial) would control which season or weather pattern is present in the background. The elements in the sky would also line up with the temple itself, to make the structure seem like it contains a certain natural power over the heavens.