Introduction
Hello, IndieDB community !
Welcome to our fourth article of our game: “Bracara Augusta: Shadow of the Past”. Today we are going to talk about our game's above ground environment studies .
Environment- Cafe "Frigideiras do Cantinho"
We’ve already talked about the underground ruins and what happened to them, but what about the beginning of the game?
Well, the game will start above the ground in Braga city. We did some research about the cultural spots in the city and ended up choosing the cafe “Frigideiras do Cantinho”
This cafe is the oldest of the city, and it was founded in the XVIII, in 1796. The name of the cafe comes from a type of pastry that it’s sold there: the frigideiras, and the fact that the cafe is in a corner of a building.
Image 1: Cafe Frigideiras do Cantinho
Image 2: Frigideira pastry
“Frigideiras”(literal translation is frying pans) are made with minced veal meat that is put in a puff pastry, cooked with margarine and lard.
This dish is mentioned by several Portuguese writers like: Almeida Garret in his book “Viagens na Minha Terra” and Júlio Dinis in his book “Serões da Província”.
In this cafe we also have a glass floor where it’s possible to see the ruins of a domus (a Roman House).
Image 3: Cafe glass floor with Roman ruins underneath
While choosing a starting point, of the game, we had a lot of things to consider.
And it was all because of the cultural/regional importance that we ended up choosing the cafe as our starting point.
Besides this, we also wanted to make the main character closer to the player, so instead of being just some ruins in an open museum, why not in a cafe?
Firstly, we gathered some photographs of the cafe interior, and then we tried to recreate it in a pixel style that suited our game.
After this phase we started the environmental studies with : thumbnail, sketch and colour studies.
Image 4: Cafe's Thumbnail
Image 5: Cafe's Sketch
Images 6: Cafe's Colour Study with lighter floor
Images 7: Cafe's Colour Study with more saturation
Image 8: Cafe's Colour Study with warmer colours
To summarize, this week we were focused on gathering references to represent the above ground environment and represented the best way possible .
Have a nice week
Stay safe!
Ave Bracara Augusta
