In this game, you play as the main character Charlotte, who is bored of being stuck at home. This young girl wishes to explore what is beyond her home and venture out into the world she sees from her bedroom window; however, her father is very protective and wishes for her to stay home while he is out busy. Being the inventive man he is, various quirky robots were made by him to maintain order in the house as well as keep an eye on Charlotte. These little guys won’t keep Charlotte from her curious and michevious plots to escape the house, and you will help navigate her way to the front door, where a bigger world waits for her.
The objective of the game is to guide Charlotte from her bedroom to the house entrance without being caught along the way. Various robots of her dad’s creation fill the house keeping watch, cleaning the house, and other various tasks that will become an obstacle in the journey. By carefuly maneuvering through the house, whether by sneaking and hiding when necessary or using household items as distractions, Charlotte can achieve her goal of escaping. Mechanics will be simple, having basic maneuverability and the option to interact with certain items when applicable such as knocking over a pot or hiding behind a curtain. The robots themselves will preferably have a visibility mechanic to get the full stealth game experience, but thats something I’m hoping wont be too difficult to set up.
The game will take place in a steampunk world, where technology is inspired by the 19th century steam-powered machinery. The game would only take place inside the father’s house, but it will convey the setting with its interior design and various mechanical elements. At the moment, the plan is to have a bedroom and main open plan area for the house where all the shenanigans will occur. The goal is too make a fun and childlike stealth game versus the intense and serious ones that are often correlated to the genre, and appeal to a younger audience who could relate to Charlotte in her mischevious adventures.
I want to experiment a bit with the style of the game, combining 2D and 3D elements. The game will be in isometric view with camera movement being limited to the 2D plane. The goal with this view is to fake a 2D look within a 3D game. I am heavily inspired by watercolor illustrations with inked outlines, and this combined with the steampunk aesthetic I believe would be quite the interesting combination. 3D models would be relatively simple with the complexity being in the textures and recreating the watercolor paint and inking. To merge well with steampunk, the colors scheme would be low on saturation, but still incorporating colors for the fantasy and wonderous feel. Overall, going for a stylized and painted art style for the game with lots of experimentation along the way.
Mood Board and References
I love the watercolour look! I think it’s a super unique art style to use, especially for a 3D game. I’m very excited to see how it turns out. I do have a question: stealth sections in games are something that are universally hated by many. How do you plan to make a stealth game that is appealing and fun without being frustrating?
I want this game to be more silly fun than tactical and frustrating. Kinda think Untitled Goose Game where you sometimes have to stealth or interact with items to cause shenanigans. I want Charlotte to be similar in her mischevious ways while also having fun messing around with the robots. So less tactical and more simple and silly interactions
I love the idea of an isometric view to emulate a 2D perspective in 3D space. I was wondering that your plan was for creating the watercolor and inking style in the 3D space? Would this involve hand-painting textures or learning shaders to generate this style?
Preferably, I want to try and make a watercolor like material in substance that can be applied globally to my assets. From there I could apply color where appropriate and hand paint the lines. Since it will be isometric, I wouldn’t have to worry about making the inked lines look good in multiple perspectives. As for moving characters and elements, the inked lines will take some experimentation to perfect, but that is my general idea
All your art is soft and gorgeous! I really like the use of colors and the concept for the character designs are cute as well. My main question is how would you go about tackling the art assets for the game itself? It seems that the game involves a lot of heavily detailed environments and character designs and I’m curious how they will properly come together so that its neither too much work for you OR too much visual information to the player?
Understandable concerns. I am definitely tackling a big project, but it is one I am committed to. I’m hoping that the isometric view will help simplify some of the process especially when it comes to making the assets look good in only one view. My assets will also be low poly with the textures carrying most of the work.
I love the steampunk theme you’re going with. Combining it with the watercolor-like look you’re going for is something super original and it’ll end up looking really cool!! How will the player know if they are seen by the robots/how will you indicate this to the player?
That wasn’t something I took into consideration originally, but perhaps I incorporate it into their character design through light indicators or them releasing steam and making sounds when they detect you.
This setting reminds me of Broken Age a bit but something that makes this look unique is the addition of watercolors. Will you be making the robots warm and inviting or will there be tensions to stay away?
I definetely plan on making them not appear harmful. They are robots that maintain the house while the father is gone and also take care of Charlotte when needed. Her relationship with them wouldn’t be one of hatred or annoyance, but she does like to mess with them time to time.
I love the concept art you’ve made! The watercolor aesthetic is very cool and reminds me of a softer, kinder version of Don’t Starve’s art style. I think my favorite of the Charlotte designs is version 2.
Would the robots be doing anything while not actively looking for Charlotte? It may be fun if they had little idle shenanigans they got up to on their own.
I’m planning on them maybe dusting and cleaning the house that Charlotte would have to weave around. Perhaps one of them is recharging in a corner so she would have to tip-toe her way past as to not wake it up. And maybe others would be interacting with other things or mingling amongst themselves. Lots of options to play with.
I think the steampunk idea goes very well with your water color art style, especially the character Charlotte. I also think the 2D – 3D will allow you to experiment a lot with placement of objects and enemies around the house. Considering the camera, will the player be able to shift from a bottom-left view to a bottom-right view? Additionally, will the player be able to see into other rooms with the camera or will rooms be blurred out when you are not in them?
I’m not quite sure what you mean by bottom-left view and bottom-right view. I plan on having the camera follow Charlotte as she moves, but nothing else at the moment. Additionally, the main area that would be explored is an open floor plan main area that would include a sitting area, mini library, and a second level that looks down to the first. This would be enough area for the game and no need to access other rooms if the end goal is to bolt out the front door. Probably will just have other doors locked for now.
I guess panning the camera would have been a better way to state it lol.
I love how your focusing on a completely part of the Steampunk aesthetic- it’s really fun to see what you were drawn to compared to what I’m focusing on. Are you thinking of adding an environment obstacles other than the robots?
Probably to stick with the stealth gameplay and not expanding the scope more than I already have, I’ll probably just stick with the robots as the main obstacles. I do plan to have some items interactable to help conquer certain obstacles.