When a lot of folks think about concept art they picture epic vistas, jaw-dropping action scenes, poster-worthy character paintings. And those key art pieces can be super valuable! But most concept art never ends up as finished illustrations. It’s visual experimentation - sketching in search of creative visual solutions that fit gameplay and narrative goals. Especially on a team as small as ours, we stay laser-focused on ideas over polish when concepting.
For this devlog, we wanted to give you a peek into our GRAFT “sketchbook” and talk about our concept art process for designing the world of GRAFT. Warning: Some things here may be spoilers! (Or they could get cut or changed later, who knows!)
Chris tried several arrangements of Tiger and Tavora’s graft before we landed on their embrace. We’ve learned something new with every incarnation of these characters. But we knew we were onto something when Chris shared his sketch and we all kind of did a double-take and had to think about what we were seeing.
Moises: We begin exploring each level with really loose black and white storyboard drawings of all the meaningful moments the player will experience. Some storyboards are focused on important narrative beats and how we frame them in camera, while others are more concerned with suggesting level design ideas and how the player will interact with the spaces.
Sami: Concept design can be super efficient in 3D, especially when it comes to mechanical environment props. The model and animation communicate not just how the design looks and moves, but also how the asset could feel in-game. A quick sketch always comes first, but once you jump into Blender, you can iterate fast and stumble upon happy accidents along the way. That’s how we ended up with ten times more hydraulic arms on the Hangar Door than I originally had in mind.
Mike: Concepting for games isn’t just figuring out how things should look, it’s also thinking about how players should experience things. Especially working at indie scale, it’s another form of game design. These sketches are all about exploring our key survival horror interactions in the world - save point, stash, terminals, upgrade station - and thinking about how the player will come across these things and use them as they progress.
We’ll be back soon with Part 2. In the meantime, let us know in the comments here if you have any questions about our concept art process or the world of the Arc!
—Harebrained
