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Concept Artist ● Illustrator
Murder At The Al Royale is a point-and-click adventure game set in the 1930s, Where Diabla, a Detective on the Chicago police force is forcefully put on temporary leave and heads to the Southern Bayou for a vacation at the Illustrious Al-Royale Hotel, run by Allan Patan. In a serious of unfortunate series of circumstances, Allan is Murdered and Diabla has to get to the bottom of it before the same fate befalls other guests, or her...
Game Logo Mockup*
(Defunct as of July 2022)
Team Members:
Environment Art, UI/UX, Illustration
Jasper Lim
Character Design, Sprites, Illustration
Luca
Music, Sound Design
Lily
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Assistance, Cleanup work
BoundBun
Concept Art/ Pre-Production
Concept Art/ Pre-Production
Initial Sketch for pre-visualisation
First thumbnails for the Hotel's Exterior
Drafts for the hotel's Exterior design
Based on the Client's description,
The compound is formerly a Magnolia plantation that has been converted into the Al-Royale Hotel itself, a luxury estate in the middle of the Bayou set in the Southern 1930s. with Varying Degrees of color that's required/involved there were suggestions in place to experiment with different hues and shades of Pink and Magenta.
Concept art for the Hotel Entrance, with the characters designed by Luca themself.
Hotel Lobby
The Interior of the lobby is supposed to reflect the post-roaring 20s Art-Deco aesthetic, with a clean yet possibly mild melancholy that a lot of people would experience doing the Great Depression.
Emphasis on the sun Motif present in specific furniture designs as a way to foreshadow the story's tone and possible ending(s) involved.
Set Design overview of the Hotel Lobby.
Temple (Theatre)
For this interior location, the client has request a grand-like Egyptian themed Dining Theatre, with some elements carrying over the overall Art-Deco Aesthetic from the Lobby itself.
Set Design overview of the Theatre.
Foyer
Concepts for specific elements in the Room. We ultimately decided to keep it simple with the wood-carved aesthetic, whilst maintaining some semblance of the Art-Deco Aesthetic from previous rooms.
3D Model of the room itself for orientation/Visualization.
Done in Blender.
Office
This Office is Designed around Allan Patan, the owner of the Al-Royale Hotel and therefore requires very specific treatment in regard to the props that are present in the room, as said details were intended to help communicate to players the nature of Allan himself, and his personality which should be readable from the way the room looks.
Rough notes as a part of a Brief from the Client.
Pre-visualization of the room in Blender.
Concept designs for individual props/Furniture Designs.
Final Overview/Set Dressing of Allan's Office.
Demo work
Demo Work
This Demo project was initially meant to show off the technical work that was being done, in order to promote and launch a crowdfunding project, though not a single line of code was written and all that were left was just Assets.
Story wise, it is a prologue that takes place before the main Game. With Diabla meeting her colleague while investigating another case in the middle of an apartment complex located in downtown Chicago.
Concept Art/Overview of the Two Rooms involved in the Apartment Complex.
With Visual Development incomplete and an art style not established for the project yet, I had been given the Liberty of working with an easier ,semi-realistic style that utilizes 3D environments in order to work out, and reference lighting better for the Complete and Final Renders of the Backgrounds involved.
Rough mockups/placeholders of the Rooms in Blender for Lighting Reference.
Final Render of the Hallway
Final Render of the Abandoned Room, From the Door's POV
Final Render of the Abandoned Room, From the Bedside POV
Demo- Comic Panels
Alongside the Demo Backgrounds, I was also tasked with Illustrating Comic panels for the Cutscene,
as part of a proposal to implement a Kinetic CG in the form of Overlapping Panels triggered by mouse clicks, playing FX which will be produced by Lily.
Character Designs for Diabla and the police Chief by Luca
Demo- UI/UX
Last but not least, UI/UX Design was Fundamental for this game as we wanted to increase the scope of quality that's achievable within a certain budget (though unfulfilled) and attempt to craft unique designs in terms of interactable elements that helps to tie in the atmosphere of the game itself.
Test Elements for Border Windows, assuming we intend to add any internal windows with the game itself.
Concepts and style direction for said windows, including drafts for the Cursor Icon.
Rendered Cursor Elements, Completed by BoundBun
Drafts for Textboxes and Selection Elements
Main Menu Mockup, with a proposal of the image on the side to change based on the last location the player is at in the latest save file, Inspired by the main menu of many Valve Games.
In-game Mockups/proposals
Collapsible text box. Using Yarnspinner to facilitate text and dialogue interactions with the player which also allows players to scroll down in order to look back at the script, similar to renpy
Quicksave option
Settings option
Navigation Arrows for when the player (As Diabla) explores multiple rooms or changes orientation within the same space if the game allows.
Icons acting as a hotbar to indicate what the player is currently able to hold in their hands, which can be swapped out with a backpack-like inventory
Minimap with info as to where the player is within a specific area
Icons to indicate Diabla's "Ability" and skills,
Electrosensitivity (Left):
proposed by the client to be a in-game feature where the player is able to sense objects and hidden clues within a certain space
Clues (Right, not final proposed Icon):
Meant to give the player a way to keep track of ongoing clues which are unlocked in the booklet depending on what's discovered within the game.
"Backpack button" of sorts, which allows players to swap out items within their hotkey and off-hand inventory for ease of access, and meant for players to decide what's most important for them to have on-hand during a time-based scenario within the final game.
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