Concept Art

So after significant delay I've finally gotten around to collating some materials for my Concept Artist, the inimitable Robin Bazalgette.

Below is an extract of what I've just emailed him.  Looking forward to what he comes up with!

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What needs to be shown is first a normal map, and then a rendering of that map as passageways, chambers with most of the boundaries and out-of-bounds areas blacked out or with subtle rock / earth / lost trinkets detail, and the main passageways illuminated with background features and objects and entities.

The two images need to show clearly show how the top down, plan view of one, translates into the up and down, left and right of the other.  North on the roadmap = up in the gameworld.

An example roadmap taken from google maps.

The above images show the original screenshot taken from google maps (obvious in plan view with up being north), and the concept of how the game will convert this to 2D side view with north becoming up.  It also indicates how notable structures like buildings will become chambers in the game.  Also the type of buildings will inform background furniture or even interactable objects.  I.e. a factory might produce a chamber with a background of cogs, with some interactable levers and mechanisms the player can activate.  These will likely be tied to nearby gates, doors, trapdoors, or traps.

I included a bunch of Limbo screenshots to illustrate what a predominantly dark, moody and silhouetted game looks like. Not that I have any intention of copying Limbo in that regard, it was more for atmosphere. Below are a few more images I have trawling the web that had a similar appeal in terms of atmosphere and general weirdness.

Disclaimer: None of these images are by me or my team, nor are they part of my game or purported to be from my game. They are purely included as part of a mood board to provide some guidance and inspiration to my concept artist.

Below are some stylistic concept pieces.  These show potential content for the actual passageways, chambers and catacombs…

And here are some potential character ideas…

The actual feeling I want to go for is something like a dark fairytale with some pirate / aquatic content as well as some more traditional Dungeons & Dragons style content.  But everything must have the overall feeling of a spooky, nightmarish fairytale.

Now I certainly don't want to copy Limbo. That was unique and special in its own way. It's included here really to illustrate the style of a game where vast tracks of the screen are blacked out.

The perspective in my game is intended to be different, rather than distant diffuse backgrounds, the only real illuminated stuff will be the content you close to. That's the general idea anyway. In this case is very much a case of let the artist do their work. They know best.

It should also be noted that none of these images are mine. They are included for informational purposes only and if copyright owners wish me to remove I'll be happy to do so of course.