The following will be a combination of collected artistic references, screenshots of work in progress, and more polished pages of images and text that I intend to put together by the end of the year (though often these are in states of development, so please forgive any random filler text boxes etc).
My plan is basically to make all the art assets for a game, or the first part of a game. This includes both environmental and character assets, UI, menu, etc. Here's a rough breakdown for now:
Primary:
- 3D landscapes, buildings, and large foreground objects
- 2D character animations and foreground objects
Secondary
- 3D objects (for UI)
- UI
- Diaglogue writing/conversation path creation
- 2D foreground objects
The plot will be that your character has died, and is led by Hermes into Hades. The environments will start in the mortal world, then a transition into Hades where the map will be looped. The major themes are death and futility, and there is lots of imagery relating to Hades (the personification) and the underworld in general, as well as references to the ouroboros and other circular imagery that relates to the endless loop of the underworld and ultimate futility both in general and of the game itself.
There are two main areas that I plan on making: the mortal world where the player starts, and Hades, where the player ends up trapped. Each will have a distinct colour scheme (I'm thinking reds and blue/grey). There are five stages, each of which runs into the next with a transition, which I'd like to have happen as seamlessly as possible.
The camera will start fixed on the main character's grave, with the environment in colour, before panning out slowly. As the camera pans out time will speed up (evidenced by the sun setting and the grass flapping about stiltedly) and as the sun sets and turns red the coloures fade to the silhouetted monotone style that I'll be using for the rest of the game. The overworld will be red tinted because:
1 This will make sense with the setting sun
2 It connotates life, as it's the living world, and relates to blood (which plays a big role in the ancient Greek religion, both as payment to deities through sacrifice, and as a means of sustenance for souls in the underworld (acting as "health" for the player).
The overworld will contrast strikingly with the cool blues and greys of the underworld, which I'm meaning to look bleaker and sort of frozen in time, if not exactly decaying.
Anomones represent death in Greek mythology and come in red and whites. Here are some reference images I've been using for the flowers and their leaves. I'll have a few white ones in the opening shot, which will turn red as the rest of the colours fade, both drawing viewer attention to them and referencing the blood of Adonis.
The forest the player passes through in the mortal world will consist mostly of turkish oaks, which were widespread in the part of the world where the player character died (modern day south-western turkey). Here are some reference images I've been using for them:
Here's where the battle of Ipsus took place in 301BCE when the player character died fighting as an infantry captain under the Antigonids:
And here's the approximate location of his burial (he was from Halicarnassus):
Here are all the coins I've saved. I've tried to get examples from all across the Greco-Roman world (essentially anyone who followed this system of belief is a possible tenant of Hades) though of course there tends to be a bias towards the ruling class as far as representation on coinage goes, if not towards any particular race at the time, so I'll have to look elsewhere for peasant and soldiery hairstyles of the time.
