For this week’s design a world group, I was placed in group 3. In this group, the world was shattered into pieces due to a war, and each shard of the Earth evolved differently. One became a frozen wasteland with crystal caves underground, one became a swampy world populated by mushroom people, one became a giant jungle with human/animal hybrids, and one became a cyberpunk dystopia. The plot follows a young girl from the slums of the cyberpunk world as she explores the other areas of the planet, trying to save it from being taken over and destroyed by the rulers of the cyberpunk world.

I decided to design some characters (one for each world), and some environments. Firstly, I designed a robot from the cyberpunk world. I wanted each character to be an outcast of some kind, it would give them a reason to team up with the main character. The robot would be her first companion, but since the main character is from the slums, she wouldn’t be able to afford a regular robot. I came up with a backstory that makes sense alongside the main character’s backstory – he was an assistance robot that used to belong to a middle class family, but was thrown out when he got too outdated. He’s broken in places from being thrown into the trash, and his software has started to glitch and break down so he’s very forgetful and confused, but he’s relentlessly optimistic and cheery.

I wanted to make him visibly outdated compared to other robots, so I gave him a CRT TV as a head. I was inspired by the characters Canti from FLCL and Retro from Dead Leaves. His design was also inspired by Adventure time, I wanted to give him rubber-hose limbs and an overall friendly appearance, like the character BMO.

My teammates designed their own versions of this character, and we went over all our ideas to vote on a favourite. In the end, we chose my design, but altered it to have scruffy shorts and oversized trainers to give him a dirtier/trashier appearance.

 

We named him “Booyah” to fit with his 90s/early 2000s aesthetic and attitude.

Next, I worked on characters for the other areas. I created a relaxed musroom girl for the swamp world.

Her design was inspired by early 2000s cartoons and street fashion, and her art style was inspired by Gorillaz.

I designed a prince-like character for the ice world. He was a noble living underground in a crystal palace, but he wronged the king and was banished to live above ground in the icy wasteland. He can’t really look after himself as he had servants his whole life, and he still acts spoiled and petty even though he lost everything.

His design was heavily inspired by drag artists, as many drag performers put on a petty, self-confident persona when performing (which fits this character). He was also inspired by the Ice King from Adventure Time.

Finally for the jungle world, I designed a snail-human hybrid. She’s an outcast because she’s a prey animal and too slow to run away from threats, so she just hides on her own all day. She joins the protagonist to try and escape her bullies.

Her design was inspired by Slimegal from Shantae (and slime-monster characters in general) as I wanted to give her a slimy, snail-like skin.

After I had designed characters for each area and shared them with the group, I did some sketches of what the world might look like.

This is one of the crystal caves from the ice world. It was inspired by real-life crystal caves, and also the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. The salt mine has a chapel carved out of rock salt, which has the same luxurious yet otherworldly feel that I wanted the caves to have.

Next I drew a house from the mushroom world.

I wanted to give it a friendly, whimsical feeling. I was inspired by the Moomins cartoon, and old fairytale stories.

Finally I drew the jungle world.

I was inspired by the Donkey Kong games, I wanted to give it the same cartoonish jungle aesthetic.

Overall, this week I tried to think of ideas for all aspects of our project – plot, character design, environment design, and artstyle. I also tried to talk with the rest of my group to come to compromises with all of our design ideas.