Treetops Village

I had the fun opportunity to work on a kid's game for a short bit. It was in the 'blue sky' phase without a clear idea of what the content would be. One of the ideas on the table was set in a forest.

Treetop villages became the focus of this direction. To begin exploring stylization I tried making the leaf clumps into ball shapes and giving everything a whimsical design/feel.

There was some concern that boys might not get into this, the palette and style was a bit faery-landish. I tried out some architectural ideas that might bridge that gap. Some were still fantasy oriented but with mechanical elements, one was a tree that grows into the shape of a house, another a castle in a tree. The ideas that stuck were extreme versions of existing theme-park tree houses - maybe whole maritime-like villages that were built into the trees.

I added in some fun bits that could be different interactive zones; wind chimes, gears, etc. My favorite is the shark bowl with the spout and diving board. I also fleshed out the surrounding ground areas a bit.

Timing only permitted me to begin thinking about what the interiors might look like - inside the tree trunk, inside one of the houses.

Island Villages

This sketch is from one of the other directions for the game that was being floated. I was inspired by the reveal shot of Neverland in Disney's Peter Pan.

© 2008 Perpetual Entertainment

Paladin: Roughs

Some more rough concepts from 'Paladin'. You can see a few more at my portfolio site, including the final concept for the water raft sketch.

Cave:

River Raft Attack (final can be seen here):

Thumbnails for 'Monastery Approach' level:

Downtrodden Villager Thumbnails:

'Paladin' Images © 2008 Midway Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Paladin: Monastery Approach

This was a shot at the beginning of a level in the game where you see a monastery being attacked in the distance. After this reveal, you head down into the forest and make your way through to help. The exaggerated moon silhouetting the monastery was a fun bit and lent itself well to the style and mood of the game.

Sketch:

Final:

'Paladin' Images © 2008 Midway Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Sand Dunes

On our way from San Francisco to Austin we stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park. The dunes were huge, it was unlike anything I had experienced before. I was really excited because I felt like I was in Star Wars.

Criminal: Snow Storm Exploration

Criminal was a going to be a game set in a Chicago-esque city during winter. We wanted to have different levels of snow come in as you ran around the world, shifting from clear to a blinding blizzard. Here are some exploration concepts:

Clear:

Flurries:

Storm:

Blizzard:

Here's the original rough for the concept which had a warmer feel, going with what you might get from a point/shoot camera. For the final, I gave it a cooler, greenish feel to fit more in line with movies like Heat:

'Criminal' Images © 2008 Midway Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.