It's been a long time since I worked on concept art like this, 3D work has let my traditional drawing skills slip. It took me a long time to develop these concepts, and the next step is 3D blocking where I'll hopefully be able to demonstrate and explain my ideas better.
My team was very focused on drawing inspiration from similar games like God of War and Dark Souls, so much so that the environment felt too similar. Luckily I was given creative freedom to completely work the environment from the ground up; I was at a loss for what I wanted to do until I started working far outside the box. There's not much to do with snowy cliffs and the idea of glowing ferns and plant life was too harsh of a contrast for it to make sense. I much prefer full environments, greenery, and stylized buildings, which meant I was out of my comfort zone. I finally settled on a fungus theme because it was going to be hard to decorate the landscape with three types of dead trees and not much else. Cold climate fungus and slime molds are definitely gross and ugly, but the wide range of them allows me to differentiate the landscapes and avoid the dreaded monotony of rocks and snow and more rocks and some ice and a different shaped rock (you get my point). Hell should be uncomfortable and gross; fungus and slime molds don't deviate from that.
I came into the project with a singular free tomb asset, which I would take and throw into the road if I could. The map was fine and the level design was very well developed, which allowed me to focus on continuing to fill the environment. This is a game that's going into my portfolio. . . and my partner Alex and I both want to be hard surface 3D modelers. . . so I needed a way to work in more advanced environments and things that really show off our skill. Sorry team, you're the one who gave me the art direction job.
Joking aside, adding buildings and ruins was a major goal but I still was working in an environment that's supposed to be Nordic hell. The idea of a familiar and nostalgic scene, but desolated and devoid of all character and life, seemed pretty torturous to me. Everything is destroyed, but recognizable enough for the character to be distraught over these tainted memories. Finally I would be able to metaphorically throw out that free tomb asset. From there, it was just a matter of coming up with ideas and getting them down on paper, as well as listening to the increasing list of ideas and demands from my team. Within my concept art the buildings are clean and normal, but my plan is to have everything destroyed and taken over by fungus.
Less of a concept art and more of a planning page to get my thoughts in order.
Concept art for the mini boss arena in the cave. I wanted to add something to the cave, and decided on a forge/mining base. For more clarity I separated each element: just cave, just the base and a top down view, and then a combination with stand in fungus.
Later on they wanted a hot springs/spa area for healing, so I created a building that will have protection runes on it and feature symbols and pictures of Eir, one of the gods of healing. Lab had mentioned in the script that there could be acolytes in here. We haven't decided on it's inclusion, but I like the idea of having a person completely given up and laying in a corner. It could demonstrate a dialogue system, and the head would need to be the only thing animated.
This is purely an aesthetic piece. A brewery (we know how vikings loved their alcohol) inspired by the dye shop in breath of the wild.
This is another purely aesthetic and the idea is still in progress. The player starts in front of a free asset temple, and I wanted to make a small keep or tower to be more interesting. There needs to be a balance of it being interesting environment piece without giving it too much distracting significance.
Finally just a few different types of slime molds and mushrooms to get us started with adding them to the environment.
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