Concept Art:

Concept Proposal:

People: The Great Tree (or at least this portion) is primarily inhabited by Mushroom Folk, fungal creatures who live off the tree and drink its sap. They’ve lived here a long time as evidenced by some of the abandoned ruins, and they have a thriving culture and economy including trade with other parts of the Tree. The player comes from another part of the tree and is on a journey to reach the top. Having arrived at the Shroom Shop, they must now explore the area to be able to buy passage to the next level of the tree. The player could be some type of Mushroom Folk themselves but could also be some other species that lives on the tree – perhaps some sort of insect or plant inspired creature. 

Places: The level takes place in part of the Great Tree, a towering plant that stretches high into the sky. Here, part way up its trunk, is the Shroom Shop, a hanging marketplace suspended from a giant mushroom growing from the tree. The mushroom’s cap provides cover from the rain on this drizzly afternoon. In addition to the shop, the player can explore around some of the outside of the tree as well as a tree hollow inside that contains a sap pond and some ancient ruins carved into the wood in ages past. 

Things: One important item is a Sap Scooper, a tool used to collect sap from the pond in the tree hollow by balancing precariously above it and lowering the scoop down. The player can buy a Sap Scooper from the shop or find an abandoned one hidden in the hollow. The player can collect sap using one, which itself can then be sold at the shop. There’s also the Ancient Mushroom Idol that can be found within the ruins and traded to a collector at the shop in exchange for passage further up the tree (which is how the player would leave this area in a full game.) Another item I might add if I have time would be a sword of some sort that you can buy to cut through vines and enemies, though I suspect that may be out of scope and I’ll have to include some sort of key to gain access to the ruins instead. 

Style: For style I was thinking of using a cel-shaded, slightly cartoonish style. I want to give whimsical but slightly mysterious vibes, and I think that going with a more stylized approach will both achieve that result and be quicker to model than more realistic visuals. I’ll likely play into some of the tropes of the classic tiny fairy or gnome forest, but present things in a more practical light and as a full fantasy world as opposed to a tiny hideaway without the problems of the real world – this place has commerce, history, and people going about their lives. I’ll likely incorporate some medieval European aesthetics to play into the fantasy adventure game genre, though I won’t necessarily stick hard and fast to any particular time period. Colors will mostly be natural hues, with the bright colors of mushrooms and sap providing contrast. Lighting will be muted thanks to the overcast sky, with the inside of the tree likely having dim areas but also some sort of lamps providing light. There will be a lot of curves and organic shapes, but the shop and ruins will have more straight lines considering they’re artificial. The view of the vast sky around the tree will provide depth and space, with the more confined hollow and claustrophobic ruins in contrast. Texture will be mostly smooth if I go with cell shading, but I might experiment with making tree bark more rough. I’ll likely use a third person camera, though first person isn’t necessarily out of the question. There probably won’t be too much of an emphasis on season, but I may experiment with that. For time of day, I plan to have it be a cloudy/drizzly afternoon. 

Gameplay: The game is a sort of adventure/platformer game, with its main mechanics being traversing and exploring the tree, talking to NPCs, and trading with the shop. Combat would also be interesting to have, but is likely outside the scope of this project. The player’s goal will be to explore, find items, and trade with NPCs until they can afford passage up the tree. The experience should be mostly relaxing and whimsical, though some platforming may be challenging. 

Reference Images: