Being that one of my main roles in this project will be concept artist, i will be responsible for much of the initial design work. We felt that it was important to develop some early visuals for each game, to explore what the games could look like and establish the overall aesthetic and tone.
I produced a small collection of concept art for all three games, making sure these would be ready in time for the third presentation. I feel as though this process helped us to visualise the worlds and themes of the concepts more clearly, it would also allow our peers to have a more visual look and feel of the game without just showing them a wall of text.
Incel Culture
The first concept/promotional piece i worked on was for the incel culture game concept. My main goal was to create a clear sense of the setting for the game, trying to display the aesthetic and overall vibe we had previously discussed as a team. For the art style of this piece i chose to create it in pixel art, as i felt this effectively portrayed the low poly and giant art style we had envirsoned for the game.
I also wanted the colour palette to feel very feminine whilst still being dark and unsettling. To do this I depicted a dark dimly lit room with the added contrast of bright pink led lights throughout the computer setup. Initially i struggled to get this piece started and found myself restarting the sketch multiple times. What helped me with this was taking a photo of my own setup and using that as a reference. This let me think more realistically about the layout of the image and how i can make it feel more lived in.
From this Ayse also created a 3D model of this environment, since Ayse is going to be the 3D artist for out game we felt it important to display how it will look in a more three dimensional setting.
I really like how this piece turned out, i feel as though it captures the aesthetic and tone we were going for with this game. We have since decided that all computer gameplay will be displayed as just a computer desktop, without the entire set up being shown on screen. Whilst this piece may not be used as a reference for this core gameplay we have discussed using something with a similar layout for the title screen. Also with the fact there will be some sections of our game where the player is able to freely walk around the player characters room. Ayse the environmental designer, may be able to use this piece as a guide for the overall aesthetic of the bedroom.
Catnip Crimes
Honestly going into the making of this artwork i didnt expect it to be half as challenging as it proved itself to be. I dont have much if any experience drawing animals, especially cartoon style animals so knowing i needed to design a cat character was quite daunting. Many of my initial sketches were not something i was proud of, which made this process frustrating at first.
Because i found myself relying on realistic references at first, i kept losing booth the design of the character and the cartoonish style. What actually helped was looking at more existing stylised artwork and only using references for the base pose. This allowed me to develop the design more naturally and without the influence of referring to a reference every five seconds.
Drawing something i wasnt confident in, whilst also limiting the use of references proved to be difficult. But because of my previous attempts i now actually had some idea of how to actually draw a cat. As a result the final image too longer then i would like to admit. Despite this I am actually very pleased with how the promotional image has come out.
Animal Grief
The final game I created promotional concept images for was animal grief. When design the dachshund character I had some similar issues that i had whilst creating the art for catnip crimes as both concepts required drawing animals. However this time around i found it much easier during the design process.
Because of the more serious tone of the game, the character design was fairly simple aside from the dachshunds oversized ears it very closely resembled a real dachshund. The art style of this game also leans more realistic. Not to mention how dachshunds have a very unique build, with their long bodies and oversized heads it made it easier to portray the character accurately. I also think having now drawn animals for multiple hours previously i have a better idea of how they are constructed.
For the old ladies design we wanted her to come off as very kind, inviting and sweet. Using a pastel colour palette and soft features both in her clothes and face really helped to achieve this effect. I wanted the design to feel familiar, almost generic but recognisable. I feel as though i managed to achieve that within her design. The first couple renditions of the old lady portrayed her with more realistic proportions, but i took it upon myself to change up the style slightly when it came to her design.
Prototypes
Click On each image to be taken to the prototype for that game
Incel Culture
Although this is just a rough prototype of how the core gameplay may work I still wanted it to portray the game well. I created some quick art assets to act as placeholders for the time being. This was done mostly for the presentation, as I wanted to be able to use our own designs and art but the scope of the project did yet allow me to fully develop the designs for the webrowser.
I used twitch as a reference for the sample design, and created a simple shadow of a character in the same pixel art style i employed for the games art direction before. This was made more to display to potential players the setting for the game rather then the overall art for it, as this is a very early prototype and will most certainly undergo changes. The program i used to create these assets once again was procreate, it is what I am most familiar with and I find it to be great for producing quick works such as this.
Making the prototype itself was relatively simple, as this was made for the pure purpose of showcasing potential gameplay. Initially I made a prototype using renpy, which is a visual novel studio made for games. But after losing that initial file I quickly redone the prototype in google slides. Initially i did not think that this approach would function well or look good, and i was upset at losing my pervious version of the work. Instead I honestly found this way of creating a visual novel prototype to be much more user friendly and the overall product came out better then my initial rendition on renpy.
To make a choice based visual novel within google slides you need to add links to a certain page through buttons visible on the screen. In the future I will opt to use google slides over renpy for a prototype such as this as I found it to be easier, and surprisingly gave me more visual control over how the game could look.
Animal Grief
Catnip Crimes
Ayse Created the prototype for Catnip Crimes, you can see her process and how she managed to do so over on her sight HERE.
Icons
Neither me or Ayse had profile pictures that we wanted to use for our websites, but we knew we wanted them to have a digital aesthetic that matched the purpose of these websites; documenting our game creating. I created some quick custom sprites for us to use on our retrospective pages. Having a consistent set of sprites helps us to be more cohesive with each other, it’s also just fun.
Ayse
Camilla
Also for the future of our game we may be able to use these within our promotional content, showing what aspects of the game is being developed by who.
I made these using procreate and a custom pixel brush. Creating pixel art within procreate as I’ve stated can be a tedious process as that’s not what the application is built for, but when you set the canvas and brushes up properly it makes for great pixel art.
Bibliography
Envato Tuts+, 2024. How to Make a Pixel Art Brush in Procreate. Envato Tuts+, 22 May. Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-pixel-brush-in-procreate–cms-41737
Create Interactive Slides with Wayground Add-on for Google Slides, 2025. Wayground Help Center. Available at: https://support.wayground.com/hc/en-us/articles/30805056310041-Create-Interactive-Slides-with-Wayground-Add-on-for-Google-Slides