Programmer / Level Designer: Amanda Powell
Prototype & Concept Art / Level Designer : Sophia Thorne
All characters and environmental assets were fully rendered and animated by me. With the help of my prototype artist Sophia Thorne, we procured all of the assets we needed and then refined their technical quality before implementing the fully illustrated assets into the game. Alongside our lead programmer Amanda Powell, we determined what each asset's game function needed to be. Based off of feedback, we made several iterations and prioritized the most important pieces of art to be completed first. I digitally painted all of the assets seen in the game in Procreate.
Almost every asset seen in the game had an original prototype version that acted as a stand in for level design testing, before being completed by me for the final render. We learned a lot about being consistent between our files and naming conventions. Using the Unity 2D URP, we chose consistent import settings and became very expereinced with creating efficient and high quality sprite sheets to splice in-engine. We also developed a strong sense of our visual style as we worked.
This speedpaint is an example of how each animated asset began. For our initial prototypes, it was important for us to build a sense of the atmosphere and understand the mise-en-scène of our world. As such, sketched-out versions of the main assets were completed before a main visual style was decided upon. This method allowed us to see a glimpse of our game's feeling before we had fully decided on it, and also provided early-on feedback for player movement and game feel.
In order to save time and be as efficient as possible, I utilized the selection tool and the liquify tool to animate in ways that did not require me to redraw every single brushtoke per frame. I also tried to keep a consistent level of detail throughout every asset, and was able to take advantage of digital art transformation tools to make highly detailed animated assets. We wanted to keep a certain hand-made and "gamey" charm to the movement and layout of the Underworld, both to harken our original RPG-maker game inspirations, and to create a unique visual identity of our own.
I originally came up with the concept for Caroline's Underworld for my first coding class's final. I was directly inspired by games like Ib, Undertale, and other story-heavy RPGs. Wanting to create something with a distinct world and cast of characters, I found a lot of creative potential in the story of Alice in Wonderland, and combining that with the iconography and cultural significance of hell across the world, the visual language of this project started to become clear to me.
As we've now developed this project past the limits of my prototype, our understanding of the underworld we have fabricated has become more thoughtful. In our current demo we have completed the first chapter of a planned four: Limbo. The architecture is inspired by Greco-Roman columns, ruins, and temples. We also wanted to emulate a winding, tunneling look that is reminiscent of the Paris Catacombs. The use of purple is meant to transport the player into this mysterious, melancholy beauty that calls back to the original whimsy of Wonderland.
Our next level will take place in a grand party, and will pull imagery from Old Hollywood and Ancient Egypt. Caroline must find a way to escape the upredictable whims of the Duchess!
