Art Direction
Brainstorming
We started off by brainstorming game ideas with our group members. In the end, we chose an arena fighter type of game with chickens.
References
We then decided to find references of low poly chicken models to see what their bodies consisted of and how we’re going to implement our own style on these small scale models with not too many details. We also added some examples of mutated chickens, since that’s what we’re going to be aiming for.
Moodboard
Here we created a moodboard containing the overall art direction we wanted to take for different aspects of the game. For the overall aesthetic, we wanted a rugged, silent hill type of feel. Rough, gross and murky. We took inspiration from games like How Fish Is Made and MouthWashing for the art direction.
We included some models of environmental hazards and props, since we’re planning on implementing these into our game.
We then made a hub for the player where you’d be able to see what’s possible from the menu. We made it so that the player is the poultryman and his hands will follow the cursor when hovering over the flyers/arena etc.
This was purely for inspiration since the actual menu will need to be made in blender. We decided as a group that we wanted the menu at the start of the game to reflect the vibe that is set in the game, going for a darker and gritty underground fighting ring, refer to our moodboards for what inspired us to go for such a tone.
For the arena we want it to reflect the fact that the game is held in an illegal underground fighting ring, so the place needs to look like it’s been repurposed as that. We were thinking of going for a sewer-like place with lots of metal pipes which will also serve as gates when entering the fighting ring. the crowd which will be present at these fights needs to be above the fighting arena to give this sense of entitlement and make it feel like they’re using these fights for their own amusement.
for **our inspiration **from other games we looked at games like How Fish Are made, Little nightmares and Mouth Washing. These games all have a dark and morbid feel to them. We wanted to translate this feeling into our game.
The environmental hazards need to fit the aesthetic we’re going for, so they need to be grim, dark and a bit twisted. We decided on big metal contraptions such as circular saws, spikes coming out of the floor and giant wrecking balls with spikes. We’ll also add flamethrowers to the arena for extra hazards. These intense and dangerous hazards will be a nice contrast to the cute low poly chicken models the player will get to play as, creating an unique aesthetic for our game.
For props we needed them to match the arena and environmental hazards, so we were mostly thinking of metal pipes, meat hooks hanging from the ceiling, cages, hanging light bulbs and cameras. These props will add to the overall vibe without actually being something the player can interact with.