Traps

Ideas for various traps in the game ranged from swinging rocks on vines to vicious living plants. Although the rocks where able to be included, there was some debate on how the plant hazard would work and the fact it would require animation to go along with its chosen form of attack, e.g biting, hitting, projectiles. As such the spikes and rocks where the ones included. The crystals were also instead substituted for the basic spikes as floor traps.

Environment Items

For the art style of Dragon Run, objects are done mostly in flat hard brush which is then sculpted into the desired shape. Line work is used only for details and uses usually a darker colour to the one previously used. I felt using blue for shading preserved some vibrancy and melded well with the lighting on the rest of the object. The trees were designed to occupy the mountain regions with small patches of lush grass accompanying them. 

In particular it gave a more three dimensional effect to rocks. 

Additionally, i also designed a snow level in the case that we were able to add a third level to the game with enough time. It used a similar style of rock formation to the mountains with an added icy aesthetic. 

A scale comparison between the character and the environment using an animation sprite by Yazmin. The sprite was colored and shaded to incorporate it into the scene, 

Environment

I started doing some environment samples in order to formulate a firm art style to proceed with. A style in particular i wanted to go for was that of Rayman Legends. Primarily this was due to its vibrant color pallet and other worldly look of its environments which i felt would be beneficial, particularly when creating an otherwise mythical world. 

This was the first test at establishing our art style but was ultimately rejected. The brush work was considered too soft and would prove problematic in distinguishing features on an object. Additionally it was not as aesthetically vibrant or pleasing. 

Instead a more hard brush, defined style was chosen with dark shades of colour being used in lifework to detail features. 

I mostly wanted to avoid outlines altogether and instead used darker shades of color to detail inside of objects and parts of the environment. Shading was usually done through either a darker blue or bright yellow, to avoid losing some of the vibrancy of the environment. 

This was a proposed design for the mountain regions which would combine a type of forest setting with plateaus and cliffs. It was designed as a friendly environment to begin the game and learn basics on. 

Concept Art: Dragon

Initial sketches of the dragon protagonist to be featured in game.

For a time we toyed with what the age of the dragon would be, Whether it would be a child or full grown adult. Ultimately we ended up settling for an adolescent. This was primarily due to the fact that we wanted to have dragon eggs be collectible. and it seemed a better idea to have an older dragon as it would make more sense plot wise. 

A number of sketches of possible designs.

Followed by rough digital paintings.

And a chosen design out of the selection.

Final render of the proposed design. 

Props Design

I made some initial designs for some traps and collectibles that will appear in the game, while these are just rough sketches I tried to make sure they are consistent with Luther's concept art.