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Mononeko: Concept Art

This page lists conceptual development for CHARACTER DESIGNS, ANIMATIONS, & GAME ASSETS I made (or have contributed to making) for this game. I was assigned as the concept art lead, though the final decisions lay with the studio director.

This being said, please note:

Mononeko did not have

ANY pre- production.

Approval of designs & implementation of them in-game do not follow the traditional pipeline. In making character & game art, artists had only this instruction to follow - to make sure the designs were:

Artists worked both on pre-production & execution at the same time. Despite this, I did my best to follow the theme and suggest as much lore as possible. I also made sure characters were visible & functional for their in-game purpose.

The work below details my process under this limitation; & guidance I gave the art team if our tasks aligned. You can see the final product, development sketches, & videos explaining the process.

Please click the buttons for quicker navigation. (Double-click works best!)

CHARACTER DESIGN

Full CV

ANIMATION THUMBS

GAME ASSETS

CHARACTER DESIGN

ONE-HIT-KNOCK-OUT ENEMIES: BASE DESIGNS

■ Process Video

■ What I had to work with:

At the beginning of development, I only had these to work with to create the OHKOE's — their intended trajectory in-game, & that they had to follow any of the following keywords: "Cute, Horror, Afterlife, Forest, Japan."

The sketches below can be counted as early iterations if the game had a pre production.

■ Early Development Exploration

■ Collaborative Exploration

■ Chosen Sketches to Final

MONONEKOS & TAM

■ Base Mononeko: InitiaL Peg

Initial Peg: "Tribal Cats with Skulls."

Initially, the Studio Director wanted this to have a 'tribal' aesthetic, & include Filipino elements. He later changed his mind and wanted the game to be Japanese, which I tried my best to reflect upon my created assets. (specifically Tam, for this section.)

The studio director later requested that I show less of the cat's body in the silhouette, so I added a poncho.

We picked silhouette G as the most satisfying silhouette, removing the legs at the bottom. I then used this silhouette for conceptualization for the Base Mononeko's design. We went with D with a few changes in the end.

■ TAM / Protagonist: InitiaL Peg

Initial Peg: "Ghost Geisha."

Tapping into the Japanese theme & the Mononekos being ghosts, the Studio Director's original idea was for the protagonist to be a "cute ghost geisha." These were some initial sketches with research.

Some elements of the Geisha's kimono were retained in Tam's final design.

Further development exploration. We chose the elements which stood out the most from the initial Geisha ghost sketches, & expanded on it to arrive at Tam's final design.

Once the final sketch was approved, we tested different color palettes & their visibility on screen. (With the background of the game.)