Hey Buds, look... an art! 👇
We’re celebrating World Art Day by taking a tumble through some cracking concepts, models, and animations from the Southfield art team.
We’ve asked each of them to share a little insight, a peek inside their creative process, to better understand how they brought our Island into being, and gave life to its quirky inhabitants.
🌄 The Island
Rolling hills, winding rivers, and vivid rainbows crown our colourful Island. Southfield instantly feels like a playground paradise to any Bud looking for a fresh beginning! We wanted our world to inspire joy, and so we created a green, happy place where those good feelings could blossom.
Pleasant Plains offers countless perfect locations to build your farmstead. Whether you’re looking to thrive in the Mushroom Valley, escape to the Hilltop Woodlands, or find your peace on The Fens - there’s a dream spot for every Bud! But how did our Island paradise take shape?
Going right back to our roots and the foundations we built on, that cartoonish aesthetic was always there.
“The goal of these concepts was to show how different terrain materials combined together in a visually pleasing way,” says Dale, our Senior Concept Artist here at Radical Forge. “Here’s an early concept from when we were trying to figure out the look of Pleasant Plains.”
Anyone who caught our last dev update video will know we’ve recently added arches to the landscape, breaking up the horizon line and drawing the player in, making you want to look up and keep rolling on towards exciting new places to explore.
“The Grasslands is an early exploration of the Pleasant Plains area,” says Andreea, our 2D Artist. “It was inspired by animated movies with strongly stylised shape language and whimsical, nature-focused scenes.”
If you played our demo during Next Fest, you’ll have already experienced a little of what Southfield has to offer - and the Island has grown since! Our team has been hard at work perfecting every inch, from large landscape changes to the smallest detail in the Flower Garden.
"The quest board was one of the first assets we made about two years ago” says Jordan, one of our 3D Artists. “I know it seems like a random thing to make first, but it helped us define the art style and pipelines so seeing it in the game with all that came after is a really cool and humbling reflection on where we started and where we’ve ended up.”
To really take in the Island, you can climb the Watchtowers. “They offer great viewpoints across the Pleasant Plains," Andreea continues. “The Eastern Watchtower has been claimed back by nature.”
Southfield is as magical as it is mysterious (we’ve even got our own wishing well) but you’ll have to discover that for yourself!
👤 The Islanders
The Island is home to some rather unusual inhabitants, each with their own unique style and meticulously designed features. As you meet your new neighbours, you’ll notice they look all too perfect for the job they do.
“It’s definitely handy to be a blacksmith with a portable forge” says Emily, our 3D Character Artist. “A lot of the NPC designs came from a Chimera of their vocations.”
The Islanders all have their own unique personalities. Experts think that over 70% of communication is through body language, and our Junior 3D Animator, Zoe, has paid a great deal of attention to the way each of our NPCs walks, talks and wobbles about.
Materielle loves to build, and their handy measuring tape belt is a dead giveaway! Gizmo is basically a robot, which checks out since they are all about those gadgets. Still, we’re left wondering why Big Sleeves has such… big sleeves?
"Big Sleeves is the best and it felt great to get to add to their character through a mixture of effects and shader work,” says Piotr, our Junior Technical Artist. “Their scarf is easily one of my favourite vertex animations on the entire project!"
🏠 Your Farmstead
Speaking of building, when you’ve constructed your house, you’re going to want it to feel like a home too - so we’ve been creating decor to help you bring that cozy vibe to your farmstead!
"The Decor system was super fun to figure out,” Emily explains. “It all works with a gradient atlas system so we can tweak the colours in-engine, quick! We use a second & third UV channel to dictate where those colours and sometimes patterns go!"
We’re eager to hear what decor items you’d like to see added to Southfield. Join our Discord to share all your ideas and suggestions!
✨ Island Highlights
From cheesy moon rocks to mysterious frog shrines, Southfield has plenty of strange and unusual sights to see.
"Set dressing the moon pools, graveyard and mushroom forest were so fun,” says Mara, our Environmental Artist. “They're just such calm and relaxing areas during the day, but have such interesting colour changes at night to create a more magical area to explore.”
“I hope players have as much fun running around and exploring these zones as I did dressing them!"
🌱 Thanks for your support!
And we all hope you have as much fun playing as we’ve had making Southfield. The work continues as we head towards Early Access. We’re excited to see how our Island grows with our community, and we invite you to join us!
Please consider adding Southfield to your wishlist, and joining our Discord to hear all the latest news, share your ideas, and see more from our team.
Stay wibbly! 💙
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2076210/Southfield/