Recently, we told you about the title character, Rin, and her story. We thought it would be a great introduction to the future devlog entries about monsters, spellcrafting, and Aspects… but all this is still ahead of us. First, we would like to introduce you to Rin's world! Today we want to share with you the creation process of one of the locations in the game.
Inspiration
We already knew what our game was going to be about and what story we would like to tell. We were also sure about the dark fairytale vibe around the title. But we could not forget that Metroidvania is all about exploration! To enhance the player's experience, we decided to add the creation of several different lands to our "to do" list. When it was all planned, it was time to implement the ideas. However, before moving right on to creating the world, we had to look for inspiration in the first place. This was one of the most important and essential steps that let us organize everything properly.
References & mood board for one of the planned locations:
We drew inspiration from all kinds of images, nature, and other games. We created mood boards for each of the planned locations. They allowed us to find the right colors for the vibe we were going for. This particular location was supposed to be the least distorted and almost perfect, closest to the Creator's vision (Its appearance is strongly related to the catastrophic events described in Devlog #2). So we have looked for calm, harmonious, and beautiful references in this case.
These mood boards helped us go to the next step - creating a color palette for our game.
Color palette
In the first Devlog, we showed you the color scheme we wanted to use when creating the game. It was based on mentioned mood boards and references and was made to keep the colors in the game consistent. But not only! Defining this palette allowed us to capture the character of the dark fairytale style we wanted to create.
Color palette for one of the planned locations:
This color palette was the base for the creation of further works for one of the Location types. Once we had it, it was time for the artists to shine.
First concept arts
The environment (same as the main character) also had its concepts at first. Each artist from our team proposed their own vision of the world and its locations. They created their first concepts based on the color palette shown above.
Concept arts for one of the planned locations:
These first drawings let us define the direction we wanted to take.
Choosing the art style
We messed around with the art style for a while. Each of them had its pros and cons. When creating those concepts, we paid attention to several aspects. Not only the overall appearance was important, but also the ease of creating art and implementing assets. Working on a game can be confusing and complicated at many stages, so it is crucial to consider how to invest time wisely. You would prefer not to spend several hours painting one plant, tree, or flower. It could take too many years to build a complete map after choosing the wrong and demanding art style. Especially when we assumed a variety of locations. Creating several variants of many (hundreds) assets could overwhelm us if they are not quick to do.
Art style suggestions:
Adjustments
We discarded those less fitting our vision. We slightly changed the style, refined some elements, and introduced minor corrections to make it suit our needs. And we finally chose the final design!
Final version
It was not that easy. But after brainstorming, the entire process of creating the final concept of the location was over.
Final version of one of the planned locations:
This specific picture became our official reference. We based our future artworks and assets on this final version. We tried not to make any new changes anymore (just little adjustments when needed). Keeping these restrictions in mind allowed us to create new things like locations or monsters in the same style. By setting these guidelines we kept the game consistent, and everything looks good together.
We will definitely show you more assets in the future. Thanks for reading the article. See you soon!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1960070/RIN_The_Last_Child/