Mockup Progress/Variations

The quickest way to make progress on an environment is to post a mockup and say it was "authoritative." You and your colleague will promptly sit down afterward and discuss all the things you want to change.

The first thing we want start addressing is an issue we're having where the 2D art doesn't feel quite "intentional" enough. We don't want it to feel like the 2D art is standing in for 3D art, shuffling its feet and avoiding eye contact. And so, we're looking for ways to play up the "paper diorama" idea.

One of the things we're trying is having the non-character stuff on the map actually look folded over, like cutouts that are being propped up. I'm also continuing to mess around in this vein—simpler shapes, looking like paper cutouts—with the set pieces in the background, though I'm not sure if it's improving things or not. (I would appreciate any thoughts people have on this, comparing it to the background in the mockup from the previous post!)

I'm trying the same thing in the village too, along with another change:

We enjoy the shapes of the cottages, and we realized that there was a lot of vertical space that we could take advantage of in the village. I think adding the roof to the sides (that face the camera) helps you understand what kind of place you're actually in. Again, because we're not doing real 3D art, you end up with an empty space where the top plane of the roof would be. But between the fixed camera and embracing the paper-construction feel, I think it's worth it.

So then, once a hero goes inside a house (or if you zoom/pan to an appropriate spot?):

We switch to a cut-away version of the front wall, revealing the inside. (I'm keen on adding fireplaces to the inside versions of the walls.)

Oh also remind me to draw bearskin rugs that can go on the floor.

Slightly More Authoritative Concepts for Village & Forest

In the rare pockets of time that I drag my carcass in front of the Wacom these days, I've been working to get mockups together for other environments, in the vein of the Gorgon lair mockup from a while ago.

These help us figure out things like, "What happens at the edge of the map?" "How do we keep the background from getting too busy?" "What has outlines vs. what doesn't?"

These aren't quite production-level yet:

• I didn't extend the map-edge treatment.
• There will be a secondary floor texture in the forest, the way there is in the village, so that the ground can fade between them and look better.
• Maybe we'll need to do something different with those fading-out house walls.
• The background set pieces are mostly flat, blocked-in vectors, since I wanted to make sure they worked at all before taking the time to texture and detail them. I learned that I will need WAY less detail than I thought I was going to, and I count that as a bonus.
• I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting.

But they'll help Nate have a visual target to shoot for when creating atmospheric effects and whatever algorithms create out the backgrounds, and they help me build out an actual asset list for environments, as opposed to "I dunno, I guess it'll need trees or something." Asset lists are my life raft in a sea of vague indiscipline.

Next up, I'll probably try to make a version of the village that's under attack & partially ruined/on fire, or a Drauven forest treehouse, or a differently-colored version of the forest (magical twilighty?) featuring some more prominent ruins. These will all require a lot more drawing... sigh.