I plan to make the art style of my game very stylised. Taking inspiration from GRIS, I want to have everything textured like it’s a painting. I’m debating on whether to have regular 3D geometry or try to make everything from planes with brush stroke textures on them. Either way I’m going to need to model everything first.
You’ll play as a witch who lives in a forest. Her job is to recharge glowing crystals hanging from the trees once a year, in preparation for the transition from winter to spring. The crystals will recharge when she goes near them, but they’ll take a little bit to get to full capacity.
It will be a third-person game, with the player character being relatively small in frame. I want to have dynamic lighting, but it should be stylised too.
Mood Board
I’m really excited to see how you end up stylizing your game- the inspiration from GRIS is so pretty of a style! Were you thinking of having the crystals show some visual cue as their energy level fills? I feel like you could do something really cool with the way you plan to stylize your game.
I plan to start with them dim. As they charge they’ll get brighter, then jump to full brightness with some particle VFX to signify they’re completely charged. I like the idea of having the charged crystals being brighter in the player’s immediate vicinity and dimming slightly as they get out of range too
Both the concept art and the reference images you’ve gathered are gorgeous. It paints the picture of a really pretty final product. I like the idea of including some 2D planes for aspects of the world– maybe for leaves or thinner branches? It would add a really nice bit of stylization. I am curious though, how do you plan to confine the space? Invisible walls might be a bit jarring, but I get the impression of a since of openness to this area that a solid wall of trees may interrupt.
To be honest, I haven’t really thought about that too much 😅 My first idea is just make it darker and essentially an elastic force that keeps the player in-bounds, I find things like that a little less jarring to the player compared to invisible walls. But I’ll have to experiment!
Your mood board and concept art are gorgeous! I’m really excited to see where you take the concept! How do you plan on making the character feel small in the environment?
Mostly through framing with the camera, and the scale of the environment around her!
I love all of the different concepts and references you picked out for this! GRIS is gorgeous and I’m super excited to see how you bring these different styles together. I also really like the idea of the perspective keeping the player character small in relation to the environment, like a lot of 2D games do. Is there any platforming involved for getting to different crystals in the world? or is it more just exploration-based, traversing the world and lighting the crystals along the way?
After the Level Design assignment, I’ve decided to have more platforming challenges instead of exploration!
The game sounds very cozy almost like some late night tea. Would there be any npcs in the woods that the player could encounter to get supplies or just have conversations with?
No, no NPCs. I’m planning for it to be a fairly solitary game
This sounds cool, I really like game artstyles that feel handmade or more like traditional physical art. It seems like lighting is a big mechanic in the game, how do you plan on making it so the environment looks good no matter what the light level is at any given time?
I plan to texture it as if it were lit, and I’ll either also make a dark texture and interpolate between the two based on how light it is, or just do a normal rendering pipeline with a shader to quantise the lighting so it looks more cel-shaded
Dark but not scary is a really interesting vibe to aim for and can lead to really pretty designs. Your concept art seems to fit the vibe you’re going for really well. Is there a pressure for the player to light the lights quickly or subtly or can they simply go about it at their own pace?
I don’t plan on having a time limit! Maybe in an expanded scope there would be some timer challenges, but the main game won’t have a limit pressure
I really love all of the stylized purple lighting you aim to have in the game. The game mechanic seems pretty simplistic, have you thought of any way to make it more unique?
I’ve started thinking about having more movement abilities, and making the main gameplay more focused on platforming challenges rather than exploring!
I love how the gems illuminate the whole area, mixing the natural elements of the forest and the unnatural element of magic well. Will there be any story of why, where, and what the witch is?
Probably not with the current scope of the class 😅 I might add more in my free time later on though!
I enjoy the artstyle you have chosen to pursue–it’s mysterious and awe-inspiring, but at the same time cozy and inviting. Will players be able to figure out more about the world’s history? Backstory on these unique d20 crystals?
Not at the current scope, no 😅 Hopefully in the future though!
really great sense of color and tone! do you have future plans for any other mechanics?