CardRPG aesthetic prototyping
This page documents explorations into a style which is a bit messy. This direction has been on my mind for a while. With the rise of AI art I've been more and more attracted to art on physical media. Pencil sketches, watercolor, 'real' art that was made by a person.
2d Mockup
The above mockup explores what a scene could look like. It uses a top-down / orthographic viewpoint similar to many classic RPG's.
Personally I like the look. However, there are a few things that stand out:
- Even though shadows are used, the scene still looks a bit flat. If you would move the camera with this setup, it would just look like a big scrolling image. Not very dynamic.
- Lack of color does make the image striking and moody. But this can also make everything look same-ish. Need to experiment with adding color.
3d scene
In 3d the scene becomes a lot more dynamic! Billboards are used to render the characters and simple geometry is used for the vending machines. By adding an outline shader, the geometry flows together with the texture.
Making multidirectional sprites is a pain in the butt. 3d character models with sketchy textures could be a good approach. However, considering efficient texturing/unwrapping, rigging, etc. 3d characters may be an even bigger pain to do.
Something I really like about this is that as long as you keep the camera orientation relatively the same, you can add objects very quickly. Sometimes you can even get away with simple planes (the pipes for example).
