Yesterday were our winter-term reviews. Shortly after taking down our physical exhibition, I designed and published a website for the show. This was done in order to not only prolong people's ability to view the work (especially in a pandemic), but also serve as a companion piece that we could refer back to during our reviews with faculty, alumni, and other professional artists.
It was a really good experience; very useful hearing others' thoughts on my work, and interesting to see what they most connected with creatively and narratively. There's a lot I have to think about in regards to the future of the project, but I can say with certainty that I will be leaning into traditional gaming conventions for the second-half of development. Though, I am always on the lookout for reasons to challenge the status quo, I think i should prioritize pushing my themes rather than challenging the medium. That being said, it is true that the development of games is generally hyper-consumerist. There needs to be some level of pushback.
This is my first non-client illustration of the year and it feels really good to revisit a medium I'm super familiar with after months on 3D work. I meant for this to be finished in time for reviews, but ended up prioritizing my own health instead!
With this piece, I'm leaning into the gradual change in tone that happens throughout the game through the color-grading. The jolly green/red scheme gets paler, and starts to adopt more blue hues. This demonstrates a growing awareness of the player and a signifier of progress into the cold-unknown.