Vertical Slice - Concept Art

From almost the get go the game was to be set in a swamp or forested area. I already knew that would be enough of a challenge for me, as I am not the most skilled at painting or drawing vegetation and landscapes, being more focused on characters and objects. Still, I decided to try, as it would at the least give me experience and help me improve.

When the voodoo theme and the more cartoon style was decided on, I instantly thought of the old Playstation 2 game, 'Tak and the Power of Juju'. It definitely helped me think of the more stereotypical jungle themed terrain.

I wanted to primarily use wood for most of the environment objects, with it being bound by rope or by large, crude looking nails and screws, keeping with the cartoon theme. This also gave me the the original idea of trying to make everything look rather painted, as in the top image above.

I also had a go at redesigning a couple of the characters that Ed had designed, primarily the frog and the Wooden zombie. I made the frog a slight bit more threatening and large, with a slightly lizard like appearance, including things such as fangs and large claws, as well as bulking out the body. I also did a similar thing for the wood monster, making the chest more pronounced and getting rid of its shield to try and make it more of a threat to the player. Unfortunately, neither of these characters would be used in the final game.

I also did a few sets of concepts for other objects that would be laid around the level, such as lanterns, log platforms and multiple mask designs. I then was asked to do final designs.

I also did a few attempts at painting up larger areas for the game, such as the boss arena, which unfortunately was cut along with the boss fight. I also did a sketch that was only slightly progressed into a painting of the environment as a whole. It included a few things that also did not end up in the game, such as the fishing sloth, boat, lily pads and some others.