Things Happen in a Place

  Things that you can do when you're moving through terrain: Find a path across some rocks Cross some water Scramble up some elevation, finding ledges to rest on Mazey ruins (having to go in and out of them to end up at a spot) Build things that go across gaps: quick/logs, slow/bridge Build things that go up/down cliffs: quick/ladders, slow/stairs Descend into a pit/gorge (requires some prep) Reach/create safe spots in dangerous areas (ledge? ruins? make a door/block off a cave?) And probably basic stuff like gather resources, forage for snacks, fight nasties. How much time you spend indoors vs underground vs outside is a big question.

Seasons can deliver a lot of visual variety. I mean sure, you're quadrupling some of the scenery art. But honestly, it's easier than quadrupling the number of biomes. Plus it feels... bleh, the word "cozy" is so played out at this point, but something like that.

This was going to be a standard log cabin with a porch. Then we started talking about goblins and building underground, so I tried making it underground. I thought underground folk would build with iron and stone, but then it looked like a Standard Fantasy Dungeon™, so I tried giving it eighteenth/nineteenth century pioneer-house furniture instead (plus an extra fancy chair, because girlfriend needs a good place to read).  We may not go with underground housing at all, but it's a opportunity to practice dragging images out through my nostrils so that we have something to talk about.

  "He likes digging. What if we used him to... dig?" "Pickaxe isn't good enough for you? You've gotta offload your tunnel?" "I could train him." "DO IT I LOVE HIS LITTLE ARMS THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT." "Just saying, my pickaxe doesn't need training. Won't get a mind to run off and eat the furniture." "There was that one time with Blexen's shovel..." "That was different. And we don't use that kind of magic anymore."

 "Everygoblin struggles with something," Markbla sighs, her eyes hard. "Well, yeah." I can see the unsaid portion though, in the lines on her face. That it doesn't make it ok, what he's done. But. We need eachother. We need his strength and cunning. And after all we're goblins.  What more can be expected of us, by any god? They've all forsaken us, and we have to make do.  We have to keep going, in the dark corners of the world, if just to spite them. To fart in the faces of the high and mighty ones. To keep going, too, because we're terrified of the alternative, not death I mean, but annihilation, to be erased, eradicated, and forgotten. And to keep going, finally, because of a crazy elusive hope that we dare not breathe or think too clearly, that someday it might be better for our small ones. That there could be a redemption for any of us. This all passes unsaid, of course, and someday I'll come back and write it up more artfully, maybe play...

Could be a fun inspiration for a UI direction, especially if we're going with a post-medieval but pre-industrial tech level. I love those really old print fonts, and there's lots of room for illustrations and embellishments.

Ooooh but what if curtains were made of... moss? What if the walls were grown moss or plant-matter? Little bits of light coming through? Moss-tent?? Sure, keep designing your little fairy-village, Annie. But what if we were... mice? You're still on the mouse thing? We've been over the mouse thing. We could be lizards. Ugh. Lizards don't have enough visual variation. No hairstyles. We could wear little hats. Stop. WE COULD BE BECORNS ! ...But David Bird actually seems really cool and I would feel bad blatantly ripping off his stuff.

 How dangerous is this world, and what are the stakes? What happens when some smarmy player tells a group of colonists to start running as far as they can into some dangerous area? Should colonists be able to die? How rare/hard-to-do should that be? On one hand, you want to let people get attached to these colonists and not be afraid that the game is gonna yeet them because your combat skills weren't good enough. On the other hand, some of my favorite memories from games are times when you got into trouble and there was some danger: The medic in Rimworld staying up all night to heal as many people as he could. The X-Com rookie pulling out that super clutch shot in a scary fight. Also X-Com: blundering into a room full of sectopods and having the "How are we going to get out of this one?" moment. Wildermyth spouse sacrifices themself for their other spouse to win a boss fight. Nate and his brothers fending off a sea monster in Valheim, trying to figure out whether to fight...

In Wildermyth, I liked having a guiding question to help make decisions which would otherwise have been really squishy and hard to pin down: "Will this help us create memorable heroes?" Transformed limbs? Memorable heroes. Overland economy with money? Not so much. Weapon-name generator? Memorable heroes. Research tree? Not so much. I'm flailing around trying to figure out a guiding question for this next thing, at least for myself, and at least in preproduction. The closest I've got is, "How can I deepen my relationships with these townspeople?"   At the end of the game, I want to feel like I've got their backs, they've got mine, we've been through some shit, and hopefully I've had a chance to do right by them through the things I've made and done in the game. When I'm thinking about what sort of concept art to draw, I want to think about those moments where you're potentially bonding with an NPC. It's a starting point, anyway...

  We watched The Jungle Book the other night, and I love the backgrounds in it. They're soft, painty, and have a great sense of depth without becoming overly busy. 3D video games already do the thing where things far away look lower-poly & less detailed, but it'd be cool if you could harness that and turn it more into the effect you get in a painting. A, uh... top-down game might not be the place for that to shine though. Maybe you could still work in some lovely traditional-media feelings?... I love Tyrus Wong's pastel-textured concept art for Bambi—atmospheric, ethereal, dreamy, and I haven't seen that sort of thing in games. Probably because it doesn't play well with game engines at all. But I dunno, I certainly get inspired when I look at those, and there could be some elements that really align with a contemplative/calm tone, if that's what we end up going for. One more note: I'd love to push the "color compression" of different spaces wit...