Capstone Project - Moodboards

 General Art style -

For the art direction of my game, I was thinking that a style that combines the colours, markings and textures of neolithic cave paintings with cartoony and more modern drawings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures could make for a very visually interesting project that fits with the overall themes. I think that the warm umber and red tones of the cave paintings [perhaps also their stony backgrounds] is definitely iconic to that time era, and throwing in some more modern and cartoony elements would help advertise my game to a younger audience.

At this stage, I haven't fully decided what age rating my project should be geared towards, but I think due to its whimsical nature and hopefully simple gameplay, this game would be best suited towards families with children aged 8-12? however that is not to say older audiences would not enjoy the game.

I gathered a range of artworks to kind of demonstrate the themes I want to combine, I particularly enjoy the work of an artist by the name of VERFACE who created the top, rightmost image of various prehistoric creatures. I find their style combines scientific accuracy [or as close as scientists can speculate] and whimsical cartoonyness really well, it has a charming look that I think all ages can appreciate.

Characters -

Most of the images i included in my general art style moodboard only really show animals, my game will have a few humanoids depicted especially in regards to the client cards and so I would like to reflect that semi-realism combined with neolithic painting style in my approach. I picked out the work of Emmanuel Roudier [Second and third image on the top left] in particular as i really enjoyed the variety of facial structures reflecting neanderthal people. I would certainly like to do some studies on neanderthal skulls and recreations to expand my knowledge.

Locations -

The locations/cave bnbs would likely just be illustrated from the outside, I included these images below as i really love the variety of shapes and silhouettes used and i think each one is very distinct from one another. This is something I would like to replicate, with each cave embodying their respective biomes. I particularly like the shell hut that is in the water, i think this is a really cool concept, and although i might not use many images of the cave bnbs on the actual game board, i might include some pages/concept art depicting the inside of them if i get chance.

Flora & Fauna -

For my Fauna and Flora considerations you can see I have a lot of artwork from artist Curtis Lanaghan. I really like the way he depicts the relationship between the dinosaurs and the cave people. I think this would be an interesting concept to explore in my own game especially with how dinosaurs could be used as furniture items? this gives a very comical element to my game and further helps sell my game to a more family oriented audience. On the other hand however, dinosaurs would also be seen as a danger within the game, where they are fought for their resources. I think there should be a good visual queues and differences between the "evil" dinosaurs that you fight as opposed to the "good" dinosaurs that you utilise within your cave bnb, that way players aren't confused with what they are used for. 

Relating to the flora within the game, I want to depict prehistoric plants in the same cartoony style. I did a similar approach with the flora in Verdancy, however the plants in this game would be much more monochromatic. 

Furniture -

One of my big inspirations for this game is the flintstones, I love how they combine modern [or in the flintstones case 1960's] interior design with neolithic elements. I also think throwing in some furniture that uses animals in its design [like a sleeping dinosaur with a rug thrown over it for a bed] would add to the comedic value of the game. Below are some examples of interesting looking furniture pieces that I imagine a caveman would use. I also included some images of actual "cave BnBs" to kind of help contextualize the furniture pieces.

Trello -

Now that I have my moodboards established, I'm going to begin doing some benchmark research of games that use similar mechanics to what I would like to create [Rococo and Hotel] and also do some case studies on artists VERFACE, Curtis Lanaghan, Emmanuel Roudier and perhaps also the flintstones. This will give me a good baseline to figure out the art direction and actual mechanics of my game.