Process Art Brief

See also: ../art/bible.md for the world's texture and artist-tech-context.md for how the engine paints what you draw.

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Hi! I'm working on an initial prototype for an idle game and am looking for some initial concepts. I've put the brief below with some hacked together mood boards. Let me know if you're interested!

The Game

An idle pong game on your desktop with a hidden story about grief disguised as a sports-themed game.

A window, always there, gently bouncing away while you work. Two characters volley a ball back and forth. The player controls one (or not), the other is a partner. You train, buy items, recruit partners, and inch toward the world record one bounce at a time.

The main character in reality is mid-30s less athletic than they used to be. They lost their best friend and don't know how to deal with it. So they built a world. A fantasy the main character retreated into because reality was too much.

The people who appear as partners are based on real people from the main character's life. People who were kind to them, people who tried to help, people they remember. In the constructed world they are a heightened version of themselves. Reality is set in a fictional town, something like what if the UK was actually warm and kinda mediterranean?

Two Worlds

• The Constructed World: what the player sees first
  • This is not a real place; it is a fantasy built by the main character
  • Like someone needed things to be okay and built a place where they could be
• The Real World: what is underneath
  • An ordinary town for them, familiar and with unresolved feelings
  • A place someone grew up and lost someone in, and everything there reminds them of it

How the two worlds relate visually is an open question for you to explore.

Style Direction

The style; hand drawn. Characters are simple but expressive. Colour is bright and vivid in the constructed world, quieter and more natural in the real world.

Deliverables

Two concept pieces showing both worlds:

1. The constructed world: the game during play

   • Two characters with something to hit a ball with
   • The ball
   • The environment around it

2. The real world: a memory

   • A quiet moment between the main character and a partner in an ordinary place
   • Fly on the wall; we are seeing an impactful moment in the main characters life

Both pieces should give a clear feel for line, shape, colour, and tone. They do not need to be polished; they should show a direction and the shift between the two worlds.

Include any supplementary info or design as you feel like.

See also: the art bible for the wider world detail beyond this brief: characters, venues, references, tone, studio identity.

If you are interested let me know!