Hi, everyone!
Today we're sharing some of the inspirations and thought process behind Little Goody Two Shoes' overall environmental design and how these choices work together to bring it to life!
The environments of Little Goody Two Shoes, conceptualised and created by Lead Environment Artist Hika (Pedro Dias), play a major role in setting the game's atmosphere — from the various woodland environments to the layout of Kieferberg village, which is the focus of this post.
A prolific painter who specialises in the use of poster paint, Hika employed all his knowledge and expertise of the traditional painting medium to create this colourful drawing inspiration from masters such as Kazuo Oga and Shichiro Kobayashi, known for their iconic work under Studio Ghibli.
The quaint town of Kieferberg, a fictional village set deep in the mountains of pre-industrial Germany, is peppered with a great care for environmental storytelling. By strolling through its streets, the player will naturally come to understand the customs and lifestyle of Kieferberg’s citizens and, consequently, relate a little bit more closely to Elise's state of mind and plight.
Certain elements such as the vast number of abandoned houses and mostly empty streets encapsulates her desire to move out and escape the dying village despite its beauty. The outskirts that surround it were no less considered. Much more serene than the busier Kieferberg town, these sprawling scenes serve as moments of pleasant quietude after a long day of working, socialising, and avoiding suspicion.
The emotional disconnection between Elise from her fellow villagers is expressed not just in words, but in the distance that separates her house from the town square. By physically traversing this distance, players can come to better understand Elise’s feeling of isolation, and why she feels like she’s never truly belonged.
All of these aspects contribute to the game's overall storytelling and to enveloping the player in its narrative, characters and progression in a way that's more involved and even personal!
We hope this sneak peek into the thought process and ambitions for this aspect of Little Goody Two Shoes' development was interesting!
Thank you so much for reading and joining us on this journey through the process behind Little Goody Two Shoes' background artwork! Follow our Lead Environmental artist, Hika, on Twitter/X for more of his amazing backgrounds!
We would love for you to share what storytelling elements resonate most with you! Is background art something you usually appreciate in games? Let us know!
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