Style Guides - TheOnlyFrank/Obituary_GAME GitHub Wiki
Texture Style Guide
Obituary employs low-resolution/ pixelated textures paired with the low-poly look of the game. Similar to many games on the PlayStation 1, character models will use 256x256px for their textures.
This keeps the low-resolution art style of the game, keeping it easy for the artists to create all the textures, while also providing an uneasy feeling for the player as their mind fills in the gaps of the low-resolution textures, leaving some parts to the imagination of the player.
Textures for the environment will be made of 32x32px tiles, collated together to make the main bulk of the environmental textures. Colour and feel breakdowns are expanded in the Environment Style Guide section.
Characters/Objects Models Style Guide
Obituary goes for a low-poly artstyle. As with the textures, the low poly models leave parts to the imagination of the player, while also saving time for the 3d artists.
Character models should be between 2000 - 4000 tris. This maintains just enough detail, while also keeping it low-resolution enough to fit within the games art-style.
Smaller objects, such as weapons and props should generally be between 500 - 1500 tris.
UI Style Guide
All elements of the UI are made on a 384x216px canvas, and once completed, upscaled to a 1920x1080px canvas to be implemented into the game. All of the UI elements are designed to look like they were taken from an 80s computer terminal, complete with buttons and scan lines on the screens.
The Inventory is designed to look like the interface of an old computer terminal. The inventory slots are made to look like buttons - when you hover over an item, the button looks like it has been pressed down. In the final stages of development, sound effects that sound like mechanical keyboard key presses will be implemented when going through each item slot (selecting, moving through), to further that feeling of using an old computer terminal.
There are 4 areas of the inventory that are meant to resemble screens, one in the middle to display items that you are currently hovering over, or that you have selected, one in the bottom left that displays which weapon you currently have equipped. In the middle bottom, there is a "screen" which displays text, depending on the item you have selected, or are hovering over - this text is meant to be the name of the item, and some flavour text. In the bottom right, is the display showing the health of the character.
The health display is on a 54x50px canvas and displays the health of the character through changing portraits; conveying the characters health by how they look, rather than through a numerical value. The player display gets more disheveled the less health they have, which conveys that feeling of danger clearer to the player, conveying a sense of urgency to heal them, or find a healing item. This is also conveyed to the player through the colours used in the background of the portraits, with green being good, and red being bad. The player has 3 stages of health.
The first stage is FINE, where the player character is normal, and has sustained little to no damage.
The second stage is CAUTION. The player has sustained some damage, and that is conveyed to the player through the player character bleeding from their nose and closed eye. Their hair is slightly scuffed.
The third and final stage is DANGER. The player character is in critical condition and won't be able to take much more damage before they die. This is conveyed to the player by the "hanging" or downwards pointing head. They have a black eye, both eyes are closed as if they can't bring themself to open it anymore, and they are profusely bleeding from their nose and forehead.
Inventory sprites are broken down into "Selection" sprites (sprites on the inventory bar/ select boxes), "Display" sprites (sprites that are on the display screen, when you select them) and "Equip" sprites (sprites that only display when you have that item equipped. This only applies to weapons).
- Selection sprites are done on a canvas of 32x32px, to fit onto the "buttons". which serve as the inventory slots.
- Display sprites are done on a 158x116px canvas, fitting onto the middle display screen. When making the display sprites, it is important to not stray too close to the corners, as a piece will be cut off when "displayed" on the screen.
- Equip sprites are done on a 54x50px canvas. As with the Display sprites, it is important to take caution of the corners.
Dialogue boxes follow the same philosophy as the inventory screen, where it is meant to look like another screen. The dialogue box is 174x60px, drawn on a 384x216px canvas, upscaled to 1920x1080px, to fit with the rest of the sprites in the game.
Environment Style Guide
The game is split into 3 separate sections:
- The Colony Ship
- The Outside
- The Research Base
Each section has their own distinct style and atmosphere, making them different in tone, and giving the player a new environment to play around in, rather being stuck in samey-looking halls for the whole game.
The Colony Ship
The Colony Ship is where the game starts, and where the player will spend the first chunk of their experience. This section is split further into 2 different styles. The first is the upper level. This is inspired by 80's sci-fi, specifically like films such as Alien, with an emphasis on "chunky tech". Lots of buttons and CRT screens. Other influences come from anime such as Evangelion and Cowboy Be-bop, and videos games such as Alien: Isolation and the System Shock remake. This upper level should have a futuristic and "clean" feeling, with the main colour palette being white, greys and blues. The upper level should give off an almost artificial and sterile feeling, not dissimilar to a hospital.
The under halls, or maintenance deck of the ship should have a different feeling. Inspired by the halls of the USG Ishimura from Dead Space and the engineering deck of the Nostromo from ALIEN, this deck should feel dark and dingy, as if something could be lurking around the corner. There should be exposed pipes, valves and wires, and the colours of this portion of the ship being greys. This should give off a different kind of horror/ fear that the upper level does. Reminiscent of the inside of a submarine, while still maintaining that 80's Retro Sci-fi feeling.
The Outside
This is the second section, however it is quite small, serving as a small breather into between where you just came from and where you are headed. In this section, the player steps out into the snowy wasteland of the planet and walks towards the research station. There are no enemies in this section, serving as a pause for the player to recollect themselves. The area is covered in snow and has trees along the edges. A thick fog/ blizzard covers the area around the player lowering their visibility.
The Research Base
The third and final section of the game is the abandoned research base. This sheds the 80's retro-futuristic style and goes for something much older. This section is meant to feel very old and untouched - something forgotten - compared to the futuristic feeling of the Colony Ship.
The environment should feel rusty, grimy and industrial, like it's falling apart - inspired by Silent Hill's otherworld and SIGNALIS' Nowhere. The technology, if any is present in this base (while maintaining that CRT look), should be distinct from that of the Colony Ship, looking less sleek - old, function over form. This should feel genuinely like a place that has been abandoned, and has been left to rot over several decades, or longer. The colour palette of this section should reflect that, and use a mix of browns and greys, with rusty oranges mixed in.