For my project, I am drawing from a world of mine known as Timelines in Peril. The world as a whole is very vast due to it nature as a fantasy world building project, but for the sake of this class I will be narrowing my concept down to just one organization from the world’s history and a few characters from its ranks.
In my game you will be playing as Izara Elden as she attemps to retrieve a forbidden book for one of her fellow Nightguardian Disciples– all while trying to avoid being caught by Rati’nex, the Nightguardian chronicler and librarian.
Key Characters:
Izara Elden – A Nightguardian Disciple and known troublemaker, Izara is good with her training and her studies, but frequently gets herself into trouble by being reckless and rather headstrong– often dabbling in things she really shouldn’t. This is the character the player will be playing as.
Rati’nex – The dark-elf Librarian of the Nightguardian keep, who has been around for a long time, chronicling the history and knowledge of the Nightguardians. He spends most of his time here, at the Highland keep, maintaining the Library, but occasionally takes trips out to the other Keeps across the Lands. He takes his job very seriously, and doesn’t appreciate his works being tampered with.
Unnamed Disciple – One of Izara’s fellow Disciples at the Highland keep. Has asked her to steal a forbidden book for them (though she likely would have done it anyways).
Gameplay:
My game will play a bit like an adventure RPG, as Izara gets the ‘quest’ from the other Disciple and must complete a few tasks in order to get a hold of the book. The intention for the gameplay is to let the player explore with a few hints and tips as to how to complete their task.
Intended Progression:
- Get the key to the restricted part of the Library
- Distract Rati’nex so you can approach the door unimpeded (he yells at you if you try prior to doing so)
- Utilize the book ladder to cause a distraction, pulling Rati’nex away from his desk
- Find the book
- Could involve a simple puzzle, like finding the library code for the book, but may be scrapped for scope
- Return the book to the Disciple
The Library:
The game level takes place in the Nightguardian keep in Highland, a region known for its yellow leafed trees (think birch or aspen), blue-green grass, and terraced peaks. Being one of the organization’s main keeps, it also holds their primary librain, within which the quest is contained. The Library itself is circular, located on one of the higher floors of the Keep’s eastern tower, with the center of the floor open. In that space is one of two Soul Crystals that provide the Nightguardians at the Keep with their powers.
The events of the game would be taking place between training, so likely some time around midday or early afternoon, with the sun still high in the sky and light greatly illuminating the interior of the Library through its windows.
Style:
My game will be 3rd person, over the shoulder. The modeling will be simple, stylized, and relatively chunky with an emphasis on big shapes and strong shape language. Modeled details will be simple, with most detail being added through painterly texturing– inspired by the art of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
Most colors will be in warm tones with blues for detailing and shading. Models with engraved detailing will have painted on edge high-lights and shadows to add to the painterly look. Edges won’t be sharp, but they will be strong due to the shape-focused design language. Texturing will be soft to compliment/contrast more bold modeling, with the painting style of models taking heavy inspiration from the Impressionist style.
The buildings of the Nightguardians are rooted in some general fantasy tropes, with the buildings’ exteriors built predominantly out of thick stone, but for the interiors I am taking some inspiration from Renaissance style architecture with a splash of Gothic for some of the windows.
I really like the architecture references you have! I feel like your concept art did a good job color wise capturing the vibe of those stained glass and impressionist references. Do the Soul Crystals play any role in the gameplay or are they mostly just for background lore building?
While the Soul Crystals won’t be relevant to the quest my game will be focusing on, I may include some character interactions that reference them. Mostly, it’s just there to have something cool to look at and provide world-building 🙂
Looks like you’ve got the game’s story arc pretty well planned out! How do you plan to tackle lighting? For the central room in your sketch, I’d assume it’d be mostly cast light from the center crystal, but will other rooms incorporate more natural light? Or all candlelight or something?
It’s hard to see in my concept art, but this room will have a skylight that will handle a decent amount of the illumination in the room. There will also be some side rooms that do have windows, though. Mostly, I want it to be naturally lit with some candles or lamps here and there for supplementary lighting
I love this concept! It seems so well thought out and prepared, I’m already getting a strong sense of the world and the main players. Are you planning on leaning into stealth mechanics at all?
I hadn’t considered any stealth mechanics, but if I have the time that may be something fun to incorporate! For now, though, I’m trying to keep the mechanics side rather simple so I can focus on the visuals of the level.
It’s really cool to see a game concept from an already very established world! I’m very excited to see how the concept art/architecture reference comes to life in 3D! The idea of impressionist style textures is a really cool idea too. Are you thinking of utilizing any shaders to achieve this style or handpainted textures/normals?
Thank you! While shaders would be cool, I don’t have a great grasp of how they work, so my plan is to predominately use hand-painted textures
The art style for your game pairs very well with the colors. I really like what you’ve chosen for your color palette. I find the idea of texturing to have a painterly style will make your game really fun to look at. Will there be any other items that the player can use to help them achieve their goal?
I was contemplating adding a puzzle element to my game, but right now that idea is on the back burner, so the main objects in the game will primarily be the ladder, the key, and the book. There will also be characters the player can interact with for subtle hints.
This is cool, I really like the art style and the big centerpiece Soul Crystal that draws your eye. How full or empty will the library be? If it’s the middle of the day I imagine it would be pretty busy, but that could make stealth (and the scope of modeling them all) difficult.
I plan to have a handful of other NPCs around, but I will limit the amount of detail in their modeling to a) make it easier to re-use some aspects of them and b) make it more clear they aren’t crucial characters
I love the concept art with the soul crystal. With a lot of the lighting coming from the sun through the windows, I assume they’ll be transparent. If that’s the case, will there be an environment outside the player will be able to see through the windows.?
The stained glass windows will be a bit frosted, but in the side rooms, I do plan to have the windows clear with some of the scenery outside visible. I will likely be pulling some tricks with placements of trees to limit how much of the outside I need to model, though
The library sounds beautiful and I love how interactive the gameplay is, with intervening npc. Is there only going to be one singular book that is interactive or is there going to be some random books within the world that are going to be interactive and the player has to choose one from them?
There will be a very clearly placed out ‘goal’ book, but I may add a few other interactive books purely for flavor
Your concept art is really spectacular, showing how soul crystals are central to your game’s world. Will players be able to figure out why the book is forbidden through context clues? Or will it be an unrevealed secret, to add to the game’s mystique?
There are certain aspects of magic that are dangerous for untrained disciples to dabble in, which is the reason for these books being forbidden (or at least, behind closed doors). I intend to imply this with some of the character dialogue, though there won’t be any specifics as to what this particular book holds