Now that I had chosen my game's concept and had a good idea of the direction I was heading in, I conducted some brief research for inspiration on the setting, aesthetics and style of the game I was going to create.
This started simply on Pinterest, exploring environments similar to the ones I would be included in my game firstly focusing on the alleyway that the player begins the game in.
Something that stuck out with a lot of these inspirational images was the use of lighting. The cyberpunk aesthetic that I was leaning into relies heavily on bright and colourful neon lightning that contrasts the dark dystopian city around it. This lighting could be almost every colour imaginable, making everything seem more chaotic, or it has a colour scheme that brings the entire piece together in an aesthetically pleasing way. While I do often love experimenting with colour and using it as a form of visual storytelling, I leant into the more chaotic and colour option of these two later on.
At this point in time, I was also debating on what type of game I wanted to make. I had previously made a 2D side-scrolling platform in my work, and so I knew I would be able to create a final product of that style. However, I was considering other types of games at this point if I decided I wanted more of a challenge. The first idea I considered was a style similar to that of the Danganrompa games. Here is a creator I personally watch playing it:
These games are mostly 2D, with the character sprites, however, their environments appear 3D and I believe are made with a mix of both forms of game development. This game also adopts visual novel-style features with textboxes for character dialogue and descriptions of what is happening instead of heavily detailed animations. I considered this to be similar enough to what I'm used to creating, but enough to push me out of my comfort zone with aspects of it.
Another source of inspiration was a game series called Bendy and the Ink Machine. This game is entirely 3D, however, the main aspect of it that I was focused on was its aesthetics and style.
This game's textures and aesthetic are mostly cartoonish and appear to be hand-drawn despite everything actually being 3D. Everything also has a somewhat vintage feel, as the story is based in the 1970s. Both of these aspects I considered for later on in my work. Although I was creating a story based within a cyberpunk world, I wanted vintage aspects to be included within the aesthetic of this group/ person that the story is told from the perspective of. It is a story about old vs new, technology and modernisation vs classical culture and methods. And so to include these vintage parts in the game's visuals I decided to adopt a hand-drawn style with mostly thick black outlines.
Comments