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Post news Report RSS Enfirus Dev Log #4 - Chatheads, Concept Art, Worldbuilding, and Game Design Discussion

A demonstration of new artwork for Enfirus, and a brief exploration of gameplay and game systems we plan on implementing.

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Chatheads

In the last dev log, we showed off the beginning of the chathead artwork.

As a narrative-driven game, Enfirus is going to have a lot of different chatheads. These will help to really show what the characters are expressing. We've since then developed a lot more expressions for Luliette!

Luliette chathead collection

Artwork for Luliette chatheads.


There will be more expressions to come, but these will be a foundation to start from. The remainder will come from whatever the written dialogue in the chatbox requires her to express. The half-torso-and-up approach also allows us to do some dynamic arm movements!

There will also be expressions that require their own drawing and painting from scratch (but we'll wait until the dialogue dictates what those are).

Apart from Luliette, Idan's standard chathead has also been developed:

Idan smiling

Artwork for Idan's "standard" chathead.


Notice that he isn't carrying something on his back? That's going to be important!

Much like how we can have dynamic arm movements, the presence of the log (and lack thereof) will also be dynamic. Idan won't always be carrying it around - so yes, that means there will be a duplicate of almost every expression, but once again we will be depending on dialogue for specifics here.

Concept Art & Worldbuilding

Alongside the writing development, I've also been working on bringing the game scenarios to life. These are the places that the player will be exploring, after all, so they should all feel unique in their own way.

Firstly, let's take a look at the Aduans - a nomadic civilization (like the Stelts) which make their living by traversing rivers and trading with other societies living near their banks.

They travel as a community, all living within one ship that can house a small village!

boathouse concept art

Concept art for an Aduan ship.


They have powerful oars manned by several rowers which they use to go upstream, but when travelling downstream, they'll let the sails do the work.

The Aduan ship is going to be very fun to design from a gameplay perspective, as it will feature the mysterious inner workings of each section of the ship, with the player's actions in some rooms affecting the entire ship's course.

Cecilius and Idan will need to be able to travel across the Last Chasm if they are able to reach Enfirus (and they may or may not run into some problems...).

gorge concept art

Concept art development and final artwork for Idan, Cecilius and Mitoa at the overlook.


This will be used as an in-game artwork between scene transitions.


At a different point in the story, Idan must look for information and see what he can find about the log he's been gifted. However, that won't be easy, as the book he's looking for is on a very, very tall bookshelf.

library frame small

Concept art development and final artwork for Idan at the grand library of the Forest Folk.

This will be used as an in-game artwork between scene transitions.


This stage will feature a unique sense of verticality, as the player climbs up to the top of the library from the inside. It's an elusive place, created by the Forest Folk, for the Forest Folk. Idan is a stranger here, and he'll need to figure out how things work.

Next Steps

As eluded to in this dev log, gameplay is an important factor in the actual design of the world itself. Each scenario needs to not only be interesting to look at and learn about, but also be engaging to play through.

We'll be working on brainstorming different ideas to spice up the basics of the gameplay over the coming days, and hopefully be able to dedicate a full dev log to the development process of that.

There is also more work being done on character art and the storyline, but for the time being we will keep those under wraps and focus more on the characters that pertain to Act I of the story (same goes for the plot elements and environments).

Thank you for reading! As always, we'll leave our Twitter and Discord links below.

Twitter.com

Discord.com

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TriggerLabs
TriggerLabs

very pleasant design

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haiyo Author
haiyo

Thanks!

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