New Style Guide.

Overview:

The game is a first person adventure that focuses mainly on exploration and narrative, set in a whimsical and otherworldly forest/woodland.

The mood starts out as more grounded in reality and gradually changes to a more dream like state as the player progresses through the level. There may be simple challenges and areas that are uncanny, but the player should never feel afraid, only curious or slightly confused. The time of day also changes from the start to end of the level, by starting at dusk and ending at dawn, the majority of gameplay should take place at midnight as that is the time the play is set in.

So environment concepts should focus mostly on Midnight scenes.

The environment also starts to feel more like a set as the player progresses, with certain objects turning out to be set props upon closer inspection. This allows for humour with clever moonbeams (spotlights) and the occasional set falling over. This adds to the feeling that you’re in a bizarre dream.

This also means there needs to be two separate styles running in harmony throughout the game; semi-stylised and fully realistic.

The world should be to normal human scale and proportion, with a slight simplification and exaggeration of form and surface being allowed. The exception to this are the fairy characters (who can be anywhere from tiny-to child size-to smaller than an average human).

Here are some examples:

The one on the left still retains a level of realism with the colours and forms subtly exaggerated.

Audience: People who may not have played that many games before, therefore keep the mechanics relatively simple and focus more on the aesthetic of the game than anything else.

The public, so keep it PG.

Delivery platform: Initial delivery will be PC so focus tri count and textures accordingly.

Key words:

Magical. Organic. Natural. Whimsical. Spindly/Twisty.

Reference games: (Charlie-your time to shine here)

Style rules:

1: The world is simple yet interesting, it can eerie but not frightening.

2: Everything should have a slight air of fantasy/magic to it

3: The world is relatively old fashioned so no technology that wouldn’t be around in Athens around Elizabethan times should be included i.e. do your research-did they have gas lanterns? Or candles? What kind of cloth would have been available at the time?

4: Go wild with shapes and designs for foliage and characters, but make sure that they still read as assets/people that could exist in the real world:

NO

YES

NO

Better (but still push for more realism)- Fairies can be less realistic (although rendering still needs to be realistic) style can be pushed further, so long as facial features aren’t overly simplified).

Essentially: Do not over simplify forms as that is not the stylisation we are going for.

Textures

All textures should be PBR and photorealistic.

However stylisation can come from colour and exaggeration of surface detail when appropriate.

A slight hand painted look is fine for the ‘stage props’ but not for the environment.

A good example of PBR for tree textures is shown above.

Colours

1: Colours become more saturated as you progress

2: No artificial colours (exaggeration of natural colours is fine-or a slight hue for a more mystical feel)

3: Colours should be harmonious

4: Dark surfaces are encouraged to make the place feel more shadowy-like the realm of the shadow king.

No black or grey shadows, or white highlights, everything should have a hue to it.

Characters: .

Proportions: For General rule of thumb stick to realistic proportions, however a good guideline I think would be: High Tier Fairies like Oberon and Titiana: 7 1/2 heads to 8 heads, this makes them very grand looking and powerful as the king and queen respectively, they'd be the most human looking of the fairies. Mid Tier (Puck): Whatever heads we use for Titiana and Oberon, bump it down one for Puck, he's often depicted as a Satyr like figure in other plays so not terribly small, plus he needs to be big enough to be noticeable to guide the player around. So if we're using 8 heads for the high tier, it'll be 7 for the mid tier. Low Tier (Pixies n shit): 5 to 4 heads, these guys would be tiny mischevious little shits that run around the level, they're there for comedic effect (or unsettling effect depends on the scene), go nuts with these guys, they're supposed to be ridiculous. Silhouette: As always its the first thing the player sees, so it has to be eye catching, I want heavy emphasis on Puck and the Low Tier fairies for silhouette, since we cant guarantee the player noticing them without a strong silhouette. Most of the time the player will approach the characters from a distance, but we also need to make sure that we have a strong design for when/if the player comes close. Oberon and Titiana we can focus on less, since I think we'll know exactly when the player will see them, focus more on appealing design for them. (Ob and Tit)

Exaggeration : Okay the big bit, so since we're doing semi-stylised we can get away with pushing certain proportions or anatomy in certain ways. I say we use the TF2/Disney/cartoon Guideline for exaggeration by this I dont mean make everything cute like Tinkerbell, I mean use their anatomy.

Depending on the character exaggerate the shape and size of certain areas, by no means is this mandatory but suggested for the style.

Brutish characters: Small head, big neck, big hand, huge shoulders, think of the Heavy from TF2 or any stupid brute character from Disney.

Smart Characters: Large Forehead/cranium, small hands, thin neck, withdrawn chin, small frame Big eyes or glasses.

Rogueish/Jester characters: Constant Smirk, usually long fingers, up turned chin, and really any shape that flares outwards, friendly rogues are generally pretty confident.

Goofy characters: Big feet, long legs and floppy shapes. Imagine shapes that make weird or funny sounds and you'll have a goofy character.

Peaceful characters: Smooth shapes, flowing like water, dont end any shape apruptly, taper it off to a point or a rounded edge.

Evil/Scary characters: Pointy and Threatening shapes, shapes that could cause deep concave areas of shadow or shapes that could create convex sharp points are what you want to go for here. Look at games like Dishonoured and TF2 for anatomy guidelines as well.

The Scout is really lithe and light looking, notice the long legs and small frame, this conveys a mischievous and fast look.

But the Heavy has smaller legs, smaller head compared to his body, but huge arms and hands. So yeah he looks heavy as hell.

But Since we’re working on Semi-Stylised stuff let’s look at Dishonoured for a minute, forget its dark and gritty atmosphere and aesthetic let’s look at the anatomy:

Now I can write several pages on the different characters in dishonoured, but I figure the developers can explain it better themselves so here’s a video on how they approached the characters: https://youtu.be/lECK-krbrPs?t=6m19s