Ratatan Development Log #4: Finding the Visual Concept
In the previous article, I looked back on how we moved forward with prototype development before our game concept had been fully defined.
However, the game concept wasn't the only thing we struggled with.
There was something that demanded just as much time and attention as turning our game concept into actual game design.
That was the visual concept.
What kind of experience did we want players to have?
And what kind of visual style could best express that experience?
We spent a long time searching for those answers.
Unable to Find the Answer
[Concept Art: Early Design #1]
[Concept Art: Early Design #2]
[Concept Art: Early Design #3]
Just because we were building a prototype didn't mean we treated the visuals as an afterthought.
Characters.
Worldbuilding.
Art style.
We redesigned everything over and over, constantly searching for the right direction.
But none of the concepts truly felt right.
Developing the visual concept proved to be just as difficult as translating our game concept into actual game design.
Patapon Was Already a Perfect Design
Looking back now, the reason is obvious.
Patapon was simply too complete as a piece of design.
Not just its gameplay.
Its iconic silhouettes.
Characters that anyone could instantly recognize.
A visual language that conveyed strong personality with remarkably little information.
Its game concept and visual concept were perfectly integrated into a single, cohesive work.
Later, Hiroyuki Kotani reflected on it by saying:
"Patapon was already so complete as a work that I felt nothing truly new could be created by simply extending it."
That was exactly why we struggled.
If we moved too close to Patapon, it would become nothing more than imitation.
If we moved too far away, it would no longer be the game we wanted to create.
What should Ratatan's visual identity be?
At that point, we still didn't have the answer.
Inspiration from Nelnal
During that search, there was one work that greatly influenced how we thought about Ratatan's visual direction.
[Artwork: THE HOOD]
It was THE HOOD, an original creation by Nelnal.
Simple silhouettes.
Characters full of personality despite their minimal design.
A unique world unlike anything else.
We drew tremendous inspiration from this work and repeatedly tried to create a visual concept that was uniquely our own.
But we still couldn't find the answer.
We had references.
We had inspiration.
Yet we couldn't quite turn those ideas into something that truly felt like our own game.
Eventually, we realized we had reached the limits of what we could solve by ourselves.
So we decided to reach out directly to Nelnal.
Thankfully, Nelnal gladly agreed to help.
The very first concept we received looked like this.
[Concept Art: Initial Ratatan Concept]
The Origin of Ratatan
The moment we saw that concept, every member of the team had exactly the same reaction.
"This is it."
Ratatan's characters.
The Chorus.
The diversity of races.
The world itself.
The visual identity of the entire game.
Everything we had been struggling to define was suddenly right there in front of us.
Even today, I still think of this single illustration as the true origin of Ratatan.
From that point onward, Ratatan's visual concept came together remarkably quickly.
Game Concept and Visual Concept
Looking back, this experience taught us an important lesson.
A game's concept and its visual concept cannot be separated.
What kind of experience do you want players to have?
How do you express that experience visually?
Neither can stand on its own.
Only when both come together does a game truly become a complete work.
For Ratatan, the turning point was meeting Nelnal.
Interestingly, I later learned that Patapon itself had also drawn major inspiration from the work of Rolito.
And in Ratatan's case, that role was played by Nelnal.
Next Time
With both the game concept and the visual concept finally coming together, Ratatan had at last become a complete concept.
But a completed concept is still not a completed game.
The next challenge was figuring out how to turn that concept into reality.
That was when Ratatan found a clear goal: Kickstarter.
In the next article, I'll look back on how our concept evolved into a real project, and how our Kickstarter journey began.