Murder She Painted

Here's some concept work I did for an crime-based game! Let me share with you all the gory details!


TESTING
First we did testing on what audiences would go for in terms of crime and mayhem, which I happily painted the gore for!

From the tame...

To the not so tame! Don't worry, the severed arm is just ham!

BACKGROUNDS

Once a story was written, I created backgrounds for players to investigate as they searched for clues and interviewed suspects.

MAP

Of course, players needed to be able to get from location to location, so we needed a map. This went through a LOT of iteration, so I'll just give you a super-condensed highlight reel.

Two really rough and dirty mock-ups, pulling assets from our City game, exploring how map layout and function:

A concept of how I wanted buildings to be lit and rendered...

A concept of how the first section of our map might function more as a city:

But the team had trouble visualizing the whole map based on this sample, so I ended rendering an entire city!

Once we had some assets done in 3D, I threw together a (ugly, unlit) map prototype to help simplify the path shape, keep it still feeling city-like, yet also flexible enough that Game Design could plug and play without art having to reorganize our very dense, tight map.

We ultimately ended up following another game's design more, but them's the breaks sometimes!

In addition, I also helped concept landmarks (which acted like gates for our players) for our first region. Once my concept was modeled, I would go in and paint the UV map!

My concept on left, finished and painted model in middle, the UVs I painted on the left.

I also worked to help figure out different modes for the landmark to show player progression, though what we have now is very different.

We did a ton of landmarks, so eventually time became so crunched I would create Maya rough mock-up of the buildings with some notes, have 3D model it nicely, then I would go straight into painting the model based on what was in my head.

So many landmarks...

But this one is the best one!!!

GAMEBOARD PIECES

I also did work on pieces for this game. These took a lot of time, and a lot of teamwork. Pieces are proof that it takes a village to push a pixel!

I concepted ideas for our in-game boosts as well. These were a ton of fun to work on, and I was really excited to see them animated!

Tweezer One Piece Hit.

Taser Row Blaster.

LUMINOL RAINBOW!

CHARACTERS

I also did a bit of character concept very early on!

Of course the best work I did was this sketch for our villain character...

Hope you enjoyed this crime spree! Our next region is Paris, which is getting pushed out next week, so I'll have even more new stuff for you then!