I was really interested in creating pixel art for my game. I started watching tutorials to understand how to create expressive characters and backgrounds using this artstyle.
Initial Moodboard
However, I realised that this art style is not the best approach to my game. Although it would suit the idea of using traditioanl embroidery patterns as pixel art, it is a very stilised art reduced only to the essential. Every pixel matters.
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As my theme and inspiration might already be a bit out of the ordinary theme for a game, and might include elements that are not familiar to all players, I decided to go for a a style that can be more detailed.
As it is mentioned in "Level up: The Guide to Great Videogame Design" it's best to pick just one aspect that is weird. As I believe the activities of my game would be the weirdest, as well as some references from folklore, it's best to stick to an artstyle that is easier to read.
Environment Art
As I observed from Hollow Knight, Each area of the game has different collor palletes and elements that set the teme of each place. With this in mind, I started designing different realms for my game.
Level Design
Waterfalls
Cave
forrest
top of the mountain
The character goes on the journey from the secluded top of the mountain, through the forrest and finally to the kingdom.
I started to design some of the realms as well as the transition between them.
Stone Crusher's Den
fox den
Cave
Stone Crusher's den
Inspiration
fox
den
Platform iterations
I wanted to make the platforms easy to distuinguish from the background. With what I learned from my visual research, I proceeded to create a few realms for my game, such as the mountain, the forrest and the village, each with different collor palletes and moods.
Forrest
Interactible elements and tiles have more details and colors in order to be easily distinguishable from the backgrund.
Village
To save time,, I used some of the assets I created for my first game idea
To create the illusion of depth and space, I've played with the artstyle. The elemnts in the background are less detailed and less saturated in color, to show they're further away.
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Character Design
From my research I've learned how important character thumbnails are. They're silhouette should be recognizable. With this in mind I've started designing my character:
Reference for the cloak:
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