ENVIRONMENT DESIGNS

Brushes

Kyle's Inkbox:

- Kalvin Brush

- Low Ink Flat Flex

- Air Brush

Ao Furin:

- Highlight uses Screen blendmode

Meadow

The meadow is a lush environment with sprawling hills dotted with wildflowers. The hills are lined with trees and hedges, which will serve both aesthetically and functionally, to keep the player from going out of bonds. All but one of the creatures I have designed will be present here, that being Ka. However, for the purpose of prototyping, Ka can be present here to be captured for use in the terrarium. Light ambient fog can be used to ease the background and create a more realistic environment.

Haroi Tree

Hausu Tree

Sakura Tree

Hedge

Rock

Assets

Most of these assets are the basic building blocks for the meadow environment. Trees and hedges are to mainly be used to line the edges of the world, with a few trees places sparingly throughout the fields. Rocks are also to be placed minimally as resource collection spots (stone and glass). Some smaller scale flowers will need to be designed following the red and yellow colour scheme seen above. Flowers should be placed in small clusters together throughout the fields.

The Sakura tree is one of the three Rare Occurrences that the player can find at the end of the level. It's a bigger tree compared to the rest, and more effort should be made to make it look spectacular. It should use the three shades of pink detailed above, and the flowers can be bunched together in clumps to give off the impression that there are many blooms on the branches. Flower petals can be drifting down to the ground, and can be piled up in random spots beneath the tree.

Nichisai

Himawari

Ao Furin

Akasho

Nichisai

Assets (Cont.)

The Giant Himawari is another of the Rare Occurrences the player can find at the end of the level. However, it should be no bigger than the Hausu tree, the smaller of the two trees I've listed above. If the level includes the Giant Himawari, smaller Himawari can be placed in the end of the Forest Path leading up to the space where the Rare Occurrence is.

Other assets, namely the Ao Furin and Nichisai, can be dotted around the Forest Path and Rare Occurrence location in the same fashion as in the meadow, in smaller clumps together. The Ao Furin can also grow and hang from vines hanging off of tree branches, so that will need to be modelled too.

Akasho is a rare material that can only be found if the game has spawned the Glowing Pond Rare Occurrence. By aiming their shrink gun toward the lake, they will be able to collect a limited number (no more than 3 pieces) of Akasho. As a development note, if the game has spawned the Glowing Pond Rare Occurrence, the flowers throughout the entire environment should be glowing a soft blueish hue, as seen in the image above ande below.

Forest Path

The forest path area will be more crowded than the meadow space. The grass growing here will need to be a different model, as it will be taller than the grass found in the meadow area. Haroi trees will prevent players wandering too far, like in the meadow space, whereas the hausu trees can be dotted around the path for added depth. They can have varying amount of leaves for further depth. Ao Furin can either grow along the ground, or hang from the branches of these trees, and other flowers from the meadow can also grow in smaller amounts inside the forest path too. The blue glow will only be visible if the Glowing Pond Rare Occurrence has spawned.

Rare Occurence

This is an example of the Glowing Pond Rare Occurrence. However, the Sakura tree or the Giant Himawari could equally spawn here. The area is a small enclosure with long grass, much like the forest path. Taller hedges line the space to prevent the player from going any further, as well as some taller haroi trees. There is a smaller amount of flowers here growing, unless the Giant Himawari spawns, in which case more himawari can be placed around the environment.

Template

Environments are based around a chosen biome, which are included in the image below. The environment will also have:

A climate
List of plants/creatures that can be found there (as well as any conditions that may be required to find them)
Materials that can be found there
At least 3 different Rare Occurrences

There should be multiple routes for the player to explore when designing a environment, but all should lead to the same final spot where the rare occurrence is. The environment can be split into 3 sections. Each section should also be unique, yet cohesive with the overall environment. Cohesion can be created through the use of a dominant colour scheme, or shape language, or even sound design.

Biomes/Environments

I've made a list of possible environments you may want to create if you complete the one I've created above. In the image below is also the type of soil you may find in each corresponding environment. Going clockwise starting from:

Meadow
Taiga
Mangrove
Savanna
Desert
Tundra
Volcanic
Polar
Coral Reef
Rainforest
Forest

As this is a fantasy nature-simulator, you may wish to combine multiple environments, as I have with the forest and meadow, or you may want to take an environment and add a creative twist, like a desert dotted with star-like objects.

Plant Template

As with creatures, when designing plants, ideas should be unique and capture the imagination. Following the same lines of thinking with creatures, try to:

Pick a plant for reference
Search its name in Japanese, and mind map words which could fit in and create an interesting concept
Create some concept sketches for what the plant might look like
Create a finalised design with colour

I've also created a template to better present the creatures. It involves:

The plant's name
An image of the plant
The temperature value
The humidity value
The precipitation value
Preferred climate
Preferred habitat
Preferred soil