This week, we focused on defining the core art direction for the game, ultimately deciding on a combination of ‘cartoon’ and ‘fantasy realism’ as the aesthetics. This was a challenging yet incredibly fun experiment for me.
In my concept, the cartoon style is responsible for the overall approachability and expressiveness of the visuals. Scene design will utilize simple lines and dynamic shapes to make the world lively and engaging, easily connecting with players emotionally. ‘Fantasy realism’, on the other hand, injects the soul—meaning that while the world is imaginative and doesn’t quite exist in the real world, the lighting, materials, and atmosphere strive for a believable realism and immersion. For example, the wrinkles in cartoon characters’ clothing will have realistic light and shadow transitions, and the mist and light in the fantasy forest will diffuse and scatter like in the real world, giving the fantastical setting a solid sense of grounding.
Just like in my modeling, what I wanted wasn’t a pure children’s picture book, nor a cold, photographic realism, but rather to construct convincing details and textures within a dreamlike framework. This hybrid approach allows the game to maintain a light and cheerful visual experience without sacrificing depth and immersion. The next step requires a lot of practice in harmonizing these two seemingly contradictory languages. I can already foresee many challenges in material depiction and color coordination, but the direction is exciting. I look forward to creating the first style test scene next week.
On Thursday, we needed to design characters in pairs, working together on shape, color, and narrative. The first activity in class was a character analysis exercise, where we filled a table with our favorite characters from other games and saw which of the three criteria they met. Then Iris and I collaborated; I described a character’s backstory and appearance, and she drew the character.
Shape: Oval / Circle
Color: Black, White, Cream
Narrative: This very elegant cream-colored Samoyed always wears a penguin hat and a penguin costume. He lives in Penguin Town in Antarctica. Only animals wearing penguin hats are allowed to enter Penguin Town; it’s not just home to penguins, but also to other animals dressed as penguins. He helps out at a bakery in Penguin Town and is very helpful. His special scarf was woven from magic dough by Granny Penguin at the bakery in Warm Snow Town. Every winter, the bread pattern on the scarf emits the aroma and warmth of freshly baked bread, keeping Samoyed warm in the cold.
